In Winter, We Work: Talking Drystone Walls, Permeable Pavers, and Veneer with Brian Buzby
Brian working on a natural granite slab patio in New Castle, New Hampshire.
Meet Brian
We sat down with Brian Buzby, one of our longest-standing staff members to talk about hardscapes in the wintertime. Before we get down to the nitty gritty, let’s learn more about Brian and his role at Site Structures. Known by many by his last name only, Buzby is one of our longest-standing employees. He started with us back in 2007 as a construction laborer, becoming a hardscape crew leader by his third season. Brian has passed along his masonry knowledge to dozens of employees over the years and now manages many of the construction projects we build today, leading the crews to successful installs and leaving happy clients in their wake.
Oscar (1), poses for the camera from behind Clark (14), the original man — er, dog — of the Buzby household.
When asked about his favorite projects in the past, Brian explains that the challenging, intricate installations have often been the most interesting to him. When the task at hand is a complete landscape installation — a multifaceted combination of walls, steps, patios, and plantings — there are many moving parts that require a lot of thought and meticulous calculations to problem solve in order to create landscape elements that look great, function well, and most importantly, will last for years to come.
Off the job site, you can find Brian hanging with his two four-legged pals, Clark and Oscar. Oscar is new to the household and often tests his older brother Clark’s patience. Buzby hopes that Oscar’s charm will grow on 14-year-old Clark soon, as there have been quite a few scuffles in the kitchen since his debut into the household! Aside from making videos of his pets (and sometimes of jobs in action), Brian also likes to read and play the piano.
As much as we hate to do it, we have to pull away from the cute puppy pics to discuss the real business of the hour: hardscapes! More specifically, how and why we are able to work around the limiting factors of winter weather to build dry stone walls, permeable paving systems, and stone veneer work. Plus, a few bonus facts and benefits of some of these systems.
Let’s Talk Stone Walls
If you’ve lived in New England, or at least spent some time here, you’re probably quite familiar with stone walls. A ubiquitous sign of post-colonial land-use practices in the area, you can find dry stacked field stone walls in a great variety of spaces: running along property lines, surrounded by new growth forests, and/or delineating pastures. Some estimate that collective length of the old stone walls running hundreds of thousands of miles, with tens of millions of labor hours put into their construction in the 1700-1800s, and boy howdy is that a lot of man-hours!
Nowadays, many of the walls we build are held together with mortar or other binding agents to increase stability. As evidenced all around us here in the northeast United States, mortar isn’t necessary, but it could work well or even be necessary for your project. The best method of wall construction is dependent on the goals. Part of our job is to help you work towards the best solution for you and your landscape. We asked Buzby to explain the basics of dry stone walls. How they work, why we can build them in the winter, and what we do to build stable, resilient dry stacked walls that will last the test of time.
Dry vs. Wet Stone Walls
A dry stone wall (also known as dry-stacked) is simply a stone wall built without the use of any mortar or binding agent. There are two key contributors that lead to building a dry stone wall that will last for years. Quality of construction and gravity. Skill and craftsmanship are required to set an even gravel base and stack the stones correctly. The stones must be placed carefully so the weight leans towards the center of the wall. Gravity does the rest!
By contrast, a wet stone wall is constructed with mortar to bond the pieces together. Many prefer to build with mortar as the work goes quickly and it is easier to create a clean, finished look.
Ian S supervises the crew building this large, dry-stacked stone wall. (winter of 2020-21)
Challenges In Winter
Winter poses more challenges to the building process of wet stone walls than dry. Mortar starts as a mixture containing water. It stiffens as the water evaporates, strengthening the bond between the building units. There are ideal temperature ranges to be working within to maintain efficient building processes, our winter weather patterns here in New England routinely drop below the preferred temperatures. The cold slows the stiffening process, adding more time to construction as well as additional energy-consuming practices to keep the materials within the proper temperature ranges and moisture levels before. It’s certainly possible to work with mortar in the winter, but we prefer to limit the number of variables that could negatively affect the quality of the product.
When building dry stone walls, the main hurdle is frozen ground. If we are able to dig out and set the gravel base before the ground freezes, it’s smooth sailing from there. We at Site Structures Landscape put a 12” crushed stone base underneath the wall. The gaps that exist between the wall stone and the crushed stone base allow water to drain through and away from the wall to help handle the freeze and thaw of the soils beneath the wall.
Permeable Paver Systems
A permeable paver patio we installed in North Hampton this season.
What Is A Permeable Paver System?
Permeable paving systems are meant to allow water to fall through the joints between the pavers, pass down through the base materials to percolate out into the soil.
Permeable vs. Traditional Paver Systems
A permeable paver patio we installed in North Hampton this season (detail view)
The pavers in a traditional patio are set on layers of substrate that include fine-grain material. The base layer consists of a compacted gravel base and ending with a sand bed where the pavers are set close together, with tight joints. Once the pavers are set, sand is swept into the joints to prevent water from finding its way through between the pavers. Any water that falls onto these patios will run off the surface of the patio to drainage systems. If we tried to build this in the wintertime, the fine grains of aggregate (think sand) can trap moisture and make the base susceptible to frost heaves.
Permeable pavers are assembled with wider joints on a compacted base of crushed stone, and bed of 3/8-inch stone. The joints are then swept with slightly smaller 1/4-inch sized stone. The materials used in these systems are washed clean of fine sands and aggregates to allow water to drain through to the soils below. This in turn removes the danger of trapped moisture heaving the base material when we get a frost.
Environmental Impacts Of Impervious Surfaces + Stormwater Runoff
Excess water runoff can contribute to environmental hazards, damage to the ecosystem, and overload of our drainage infrastructure. Problems with water runoff become more evident when we get hard rains. Impervious surfaces like rooftops, traditional asphalt, and concrete are all built to direct stormwater onto the streets and other areas that lead to our drainage systems. These systems then collect the water from the surface, pollutants and all, and redirect it to local bodies of water.
Environmental Benefits Of Permeable Paving Systems
As the water that falls on permeable paving systems runs through to be infiltrated back into the ground, the load on our drainage systems is lessened and in turn, the amount of pollutants that are sent into our rivers, lakes, and oceans is reduced. The pollutants can then be trapped or stored within the soils and plants or broken down by certain bacteria or microbes.
Crews working on a large permeable paver driveway we insalled a few winters ago.
Bonus Benefits
The pavers also allow a homeowner or project manager to overcome restrictions on shoreline land use. Many municipalities in the Seacoast area have requirements that restrict the amount of impervious to pervious surface areas on a lot. For example, a building addition may increase the square footage of impermeable surface area, which may affect the allowable size of a new driveway or patio on the lot. Use of permeable paving systems for that new driveway and patio would allow for the customer to have their cake and eat it too. Or in this case, the addition to their home as well as a driveway and patio.
A permeable paver plaza we installed in Exeter, NH - note the size differences in the joints compared to traditional concrete paver surfaces.
Other perks: As described above, the freeze and thaw cycles aren’t as detrimental to permeable paver systems as with traditional paving systems, and to save the best for last, permeable pavers have the potential to thaw more quickly following winter storm events. Studies have shown porous asphalt can be cleared of snow and ice using just a quarter (or less!) of the de-icer used on standard asphalt. Porous asphalt is a different material than the concrete of the pavers that so will respond differently to environmental conditions, so we can’t say with certainty that permeable paver systems have the exact same effect without reviewing more trials done specifically with the use of permeable paver systems. This study from thse University of New Hampshire Stormwater Center delves into the performance of a paver installation concerning drainage and pollution over two years of storm events. Unfortunately, they were not able to track the use of de-icer for snow removal purposes as the safety of students and faculty crossing the space took precedent over the study. Reading these reports is promising, and we’re looking forward to more that will focus specifically on the performance of paver systems in various applications in the future.
So, to wrap up this chunk of the Winter Work Roundup, How about a hip-hip-hooray for helping out our local environments and ecosystems, and (at least sometimes) less snowmelt refreeze and slippery treks to the mailbox? Not to mention using less salt and/or ice melt! Bonus points for the environment and your quality of life, how ‘bout it!
Last, But Not Least In The Winter Work Roundup: Veneer Work
A recent project involving veneer work on an outdoor fireplace.
Veneer work is a stonewall façade that can be built onto many structures including the foundation of a house, a poured concrete retaining wall, an outdoor (or indoor) fireplace…the possibilities are bountiful! Veneer work does involve mortar, however due to the fact that we are working on a vertical space we are able to sustain an efficient operation by tenting around the space to maintain the right environment for the materials to cure. We love the tented work spaces because it’s one less area we have to worry about shoveling snow. Add it all up together and we’ve got some desirable winter work for crews!
How Do I Sign Up For Some Fabulous Winter Hardscape Work?
Give us a call* at (207) 438-9995 or visit our contact us page here on our website and ask for us to get in touch with you. Don’t forget to mention reading this blog!
See you next month!
This article was written by Leigh Lessard, Director of Landscape Maintenance with editing, research, and publishing help from Daisy Chinburg, Landscape Designer.
Special thanks to Ian Severino, who provided most of the photos used in this article, to Brian Buzby for taking the time out of his busy schedule to sit down with us to chat hardscapes, and to Ben Woods for being a quick-hitter encyclopedia source for our quick questions.
Helpful sources to learn about the science behind stormwater runoff and permeable pavers:
U.S. Geological Survey & University of New Hampshire Stormwater Center (addt’l info on porous asphalt here).
And, as always, for general inquiries all are welcome to drop us a line at (207) 438-9995 or email info@sitestructureslandscape.com.*
*If you are a current customer we ask that you please contact your regular project manager as our office staff is currently loaded with work and may not be able to get back to you as quickly as we’d all like! Thanks in advance :)