“They rebuilt the wall along our driveway with the stones that had fallen out of it. The new one has the same lean the old one had, which is what we wanted.”
Brooke H.Dry-laid wall rebuild
Stone walls and patios, Seacoast New Hampshire
Stone laid to last through a New Hampshire winter
Dry-laid walls, mortared piers, flagstone patios and stone steps, built by a crew of twelve in Portsmouth and the towns around it. Leave your name and cell, and we text you to set a site visit.
What we build
Six kinds of work, all in stone
Every job starts with a dug-out base and ends with a walkthrough. In between, the stone decides the shape.
Dry-laid walls
Fieldstone and granite stacked without mortar, with the weight carried by the stone and the drainage by the gaps.
Stone walls
Mortared walls and piers
Square piers, gate posts and house walls where the joint is part of the look and a footing is part of the build.
Stone walls
Retaining walls
Granite and fieldstone walls that hold a bank, with stone behind them to drain and a base below the frost.
Stone walls
Patios and terraces
Flagstone and cut stone on a compacted base, pitched so the water leaves.
Patios and walks
Walks, steps and stairs
Stone treads that stay level in March, set into the slope instead of on top of it.
Patios and walks
Wall repair and rebuilds
Leaning, bulging and tumbled walls taken down and put back stone by stone, with the base they should have had.
Wall repair
From the quarry to your yard
Stone we can name, from places we can point to
A wall is only as good as the stone in it. We pick it, sort it and haul it ourselves, so the stone on your job is the stone you saw.
In the ground
Granite split from New Hampshire and Maine ledge, and fieldstone cleared from fields and building lots near the Seacoast.
In our yard
Stone is sorted by size and by face. Corner stones, caps and through-stones for your wall are set aside before the rest.
At your house
Before you decide, we lay a few stones beside your house, so you see them in your own light.
On the truck
The stone for one job is loaded together, so the colors match from the first course to the cap.
Projects
Walls, patios and the steps between them
A few jobs from the Seacoast. Filter by what they are.
Showing 6 of 6
Sample photos.
Frost depth
What a winter does to a wall
Many of the leaning walls and heaved patios we are asked to look at were built on the surface. This is why we dig deeper than looks necessary.
- 01
Step 1: November: water gets in
Rain and the first melts soak the ground around and under the stone. Every gap and every soft spot fills.
- 02
Step 2: January: the ground freezes
Water gains about a tenth in volume as it turns to ice. Frost can reach four feet down in southern New Hampshire, and your town's building code names the depth it uses. It lifts whatever sits in it.
- 03
Step 3: March: the thaw
Ice melts from the top down, so the water has nowhere to go. The soil turns to mud, and what was lifted settles back crooked.
- 04
Step 4: April: what the wall tells you
A wall laid on topsoil leans, bulges or opens at the joints. A wall on compacted stone below the frost line, with drainage behind it, goes back where it was.
The firm
A stone yard and a crew of twelve
Hugo Naranjo runs the crew and lays the first and last stone on most walls. Katie Mulligan draws the scope and the stone list. Quentin Sturdivant runs the site, from the dig to the cleanup.
One crew from the dig to the last course
A written scope with the stone and the base listed
A walkthrough before the final payment
Hugo Naranjo
Founder and lead mason
From the yard
What clients say after the walkthrough
“Quentin showed us where the water would go before a stone was set. We hadn't thought about drainage at all.”
Dino R.Retaining wall
“The patio was dry the morning after a hard rain. They had explained the base, and why digging took so long.”
Karolina S.Flagstone patio
Sample reviews.
Service area
The Seacoast, both sides of the Piscataqua
Walls and patios in Portsmouth and the towns around it in New Hampshire, and across the river in southern Maine. The yard is on Lafayette Road, and the truck goes where the job is.
Rockingham County, NH
- Portsmouth
- New Castle
- Rye
- North Hampton
- Hampton
- Greenland
- Newington
- Stratham
- Exeter
Strafford County, NH
- Dover
- Madbury
York County, ME
- Kittery
- Eliot
- York
- South Berwick
We don't take jobs in Massachusetts, in Maine north of Wells, or west of Manchester.
Questions
Before the first visit
The answers most people want before they book.
What does a wall or patio cost?
It depends on the stone, how far it has to travel, how tall the wall is, how much base the ground needs and how easy the site is to reach. We don't post figures, because two yards are never alike. After the site visit you get a written scope that lists the stone and the base and gives one price for the whole job.
How soon can you start, and how long does a job take?
We build from April, once the ground has thawed, to the end of November. The schedule is set at the site visit, and your written scope gives the crew's start and finish windows. A garden wall takes days; a patio or a terraced slope takes weeks.
Are you licensed and insured?
New Hampshire has no state license for stone and landscape contractors, so the footer shows our state business registration and our general liability insurance instead. A certificate of insurance goes to you on request.
What happens at the site visit?
Hugo or Katie walk the site with you. They measure, probe for ledge, note where water runs and where the truck can get in, and talk through the stone you like. A written scope follows by email.
How do I pay?
A deposit when you accept the written scope, a payment when the stone and base material arrive, and the balance at the walkthrough. The amounts and dates are in the scope. It also says which payment methods we take.
Can you work in rain, snow or frozen ground?
We don't set stone on frozen ground or on a soaked base. Winter is for site visits, drawings and ordering stone, and spring starts are booked as the ground thaws.
Site visits
Tell us where the wall or patio goes
A name and a cell number is enough. We text back to set a day.