Grounded Stonework is a landscape design and construction business as well as a mantra for the work itself. Dry stone masonry is among the most traditional, resourceful and enduring means of construction known to man. It is simple, honest and humble by nature, grounded in the physics of friction and gravity. If a structure - be it a wall, a patio, a sculpture - is built in accordance with these principles, it becomes a part of the landscape, harmonious in form and function. Throughout the world, ancient dry stone ruins bear testament to the inherent strength, beauty and resilience of their elemental integrity. As slowly and surely as stone is formed, so too will a well-laid dry stone structure withstand the passage of time.

Grounded Stonework offers a broad spectrum of structural dry stone services, ranging from minor repairs to extensive reconstructions to original design and build creations. Whether it’s a failing wall, an eroding bank, a rutted out yard and/or a matter of puddling water during rainstorms, we provide a holistic remedy to the exploits of nature intrinsic to mountain living. From erosion control to flood abatement, ease of access to comprehensive aesthetic makeovers, we build retaining walls, garden terraces, stairways, walkways, patios and stepping stone paths.

Why dry? Time will tell. 

The superiority of dry stonework to mortared stonework is inevitably and undeniably revealed in a matter of time. In a mortared work the strength lies not in gravity and friction, but rather in the mortar itself as the bonding agent holding the work together as a solid mass. Moreover, mortared works do not drain as all the joints are filled to provide cohesion and stability. Dry stoneworks, conversely, owe their strength and resilience to the interdependence of the stones and their ability to, over time and throughout the seasons, move and settle with the ground on which they lie. Because their joints are unblocked, they are naturally self-draining and thus do not restrict the flow of groundwater, releasing the accumulative hydrostatic pressure which is the eventual undoing of mortared works (walls in particular). Structural differences aside, dry stoneworks are more environmentally friendly in that they do not require water nor chemical bonds.

About the Mason:

Travis Keller grew up in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in a mountain town outside California’s idyllic Yosemite National Park. He found a natural love of stonework when he took a job with the National Park Service as a seasonal trail worker building dry stone trails in Yosemite’s wilderness. He was profoundly influenced by a handful of veteran stonemasons who’d plied their trade throughout Yosemite’s high country as trail crew leaders. The structural integrity of the stonework throughout Yosemite is tested year after year, season after season, both by the heavy foot and livestock traffic of the spring and summer, and again by the rain and snowfall of fall and winter. Building snaking walls up switchbacks, meandering stairways over passes and flatwork causeways along canyons and streams, he learned to analyze environmental factors and properly design and build enduring stone structures in high exposure environments. 

In the spring of 2015 he and his wife, Lennel, set their sights on Asheville, North Carolina. With the California drought setting in, they loaded their station wagon and hit the road. Before long Asheville came to feel like home. Travis has had the pleasure of collaborating with a handful of talented masons in the area and to work for a variety of kind and enthusiastic clients in and around Asheville. His work is inspired by his love for rocks and his commitment to the principles of sound and lasting dry stone masonry.