Picture the hill behind your house as a set of level terraces, each one faced with natural stone. A dry stack stone wall turns that slope into flat ground for a patio and new plantings. Our masons stack each stone with no mortar in the joints, and the finished wall has the classic look of old stonework. From the patio, you look out over stone and green where the ground used to fall away.
We are Village Precision Pros, a family-owned crew of ten in Hot Springs Village. The Village is hill country, and we build dry stack walls on lake lots and hillside yards across Garland County.
Where a dry stack wall fits your lot
A sloped lot has a view, and much of its ground is hard to use for anything more than grass. The University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service says slopes steeper than 4 to 1 cause erosion problems. The same extension service lists terraces and retaining walls as the alternatives for those slopes. We build both, and a dry stack retaining wall can stand alone or step up the hill as a run of terraces.
A stacked stone wall can take more than one shape, and each shape fits a different spot on the lot. We build these four on hill lots around the Village.
- A low dry stack garden wall for a spot where the ground drops a little.
- A seat wall along the edge of a patio at the height of a bench.
- A run of terraced walls with slab steps for a steep slope.
- A mortared cut-limestone wall where the design calls for one.
Terraces suit the steeper ground, because one low wall only levels a short drop. A low garden wall or a seat wall suits a gentler slope near the house. Our page on retaining walls in Arkansas explains what to expect once the work starts.
The classic look of natural stone
Natural stone has a classic, high-end look beside your house. A dry stack wall shows the face of every stone, because nothing fills the joints between them. Your eye follows each course of stone along the slope, and the shadows in the joints give the wall depth.
A natural stone wall fits the hills and lake shores around Hot Springs, and it looks at home beside a stone house or a wood deck. We stack ashlar limestone in our walls. We also build with ledge stone and Ouachita sandstone, and you choose the stone that matches your house. We build every wall with expert craftsmanship from start to finish, and the open face of a dry stack wall puts that work on view.
Plantings on each terrace grow in around the stone over time, and the wall makes a clean line for the garden to follow. Our gallery of retaining walls and terraces has photos of the walls we built on hill lots like yours. Four of the photos show the range.
- Terraced ashlar walls with plantings on every terrace.
- Ledge-stone terraces with slab steps that climb the slope.
- A low garden wall in dry stack sandstone.
- A dry stack limestone wall with a cut cap along the top.
Terraces that turn a steep slope into level ground
On a steep slope, we build two or three lower walls and terrace the ground between them. Each terrace adds a flat strip of yard, and slab steps take you from one terrace to the next. The walls give new plantings and a patio a place to land, and the stone frames each terrace. Each wall in a terrace stays low, and a low wall keeps the stone in scale with your house.
Our Lakeside Terraces project in Hot Springs Village shows this on a steep lake lot. We built three terraces of dry stack Ouachita sandstone there. The terraces have boulder accents and a curved seat wall, and slab steps lead from that seat wall to a flagstone patio over the water.
A terraced yard changes how you use the whole lot. On your lot, the top terrace has room for a stone patio with a table and chairs, and the lower terraces take beds of shrubs and flowers. You reach each terrace on stone steps, and the slope becomes part of the garden.
Terraces on a lake lot step the yard down toward the water. The stone and the plantings on every terrace face the dock, and the whole slope looks finished from the lake.
Slab steps are wide, flat stones set into the slope between the walls. You get a sure footing on them from the patio down to the garden. For more ways to shape a sloped yard, look through our terraced backyard ideas and bring the ones you like to your free on-site visit.
Seat walls and garden walls in natural stone
A dry stack wall can do more than hold back a slope. Our masons set the dry stack ledge-stone seat walls that step down the hillside at Anthony Chapel in Garvan Woodland Gardens. A seat wall like those adds a built-in bench of natural stone to a patio or a terrace.
At home, a seat wall works well along the edge of a patio or at the top of a terrace. Your guests have a place to sit when the chairs fill up, and the wall marks where the patio ends and the garden begins. A curved seat wall can wrap around a patio, and a straight one can follow the top of a terrace. A stone seat wall high on the slope puts the whole garden below you, and on a lake lot you see the water past it.
A low garden wall frames a planting bed in natural stone, and it raises the bed a little above the grass. Along a path or a drive, the same wall makes a finished stone border for your yard.
Every one of these walls is part of our hardscape and stone masonry service. We build the stone patio for your new terrace as well. We design and install the whole hardscape, so one crew works on your slope from the plan to the last stone.
The shape of a dry stack wall
A dry stack wall looks simple from the patio, and its shape follows two rules from the ground up. A Fine Gardening guide says a dry stack wall should be at least 20 inches wide at the base. The same guide says the wall should lean back about 1 inch for each foot of height.
Concord Stoneworks, a New England masonry firm, says a dry stack wall is flexible and absorbs minor settling. We keep each wall low and terrace a taller slope, and we plan the layout with you at the free on-site visit.
Dry stack and mortared stone walls
A mortared cut-limestone wall gives you straight edges of cut stone, and it suits a house with formal lines. We build one wherever the design calls for it. A dry stack wall shows the natural face of each stone, and it suits a garden that follows the shape of the hill. The choice comes down to the look you want beside your house.
Both kinds of wall appear in our gallery. We build each kind on hill lots around Hot Springs.
Questions owners ask about a dry stack stone wall
What type of stone is best for a dry stack wall?
Ashlar limestone and Ouachita sandstone are two stones we stack in our walls. The best one for your wall matches your house and the ground around it. One gallery photo shows a limestone dry stack wall finished with a cut cap. Tell us which look you like, and we build your wall in that stone.
How tall can a dry stack stone wall be?
A Fine Gardening guide puts the limit at about 3 feet before an engineer designs the wall. When your slope needs more height, we terrace it with two or three lower walls. Each terrace then has room for a bed or a patio.
Does a dry stack wall need mortar or a drain pipe?
A dry stack wall has no mortar, and the open joints are part of how it handles water. Concord Stoneworks says a dry stack wall lets water drain through it. Our page on retaining wall materials goes further into drainage behind a stone wall.
Can a dry stack wall double as seating?
Yes, and it works as a stone bench when we build it to the right height. A Fine Gardening guide puts the ideal seat height at 18 to 22 inches. Our masons set the ledge-stone seat walls at Anthony Chapel, and we built the curved seat wall at Lakeside Terraces. We can build one along your patio, too.
Plan your dry stack wall with us
Village Precision Pros is licensed and insured, and we have completed more than 2,000 projects across Central Arkansas. Readers of the Hot Springs Village Voice voted us first place for Landscaping in the Readers’ Choice Awards in 2025 and 2026. We handle POA approval and permits as part of the job.
The first on-site visit and the estimate are free. When you call, tell us how steep the slope is and how you want to use the ground. We set a time to come out and look at the slope with you. Then we show you where a dry stack wall or a set of terraces would fit.
Our office at 5643 N Highway 7 in Hot Springs Village is open Monday to Friday from 7:30 to 4:30. Call us at (501) 340-0711, or ask for your visit through our contact page.