ᐅ Light well – Does it require a foundation? What type of offset for the masonry?

So, my light well is currently just a hole in the ground...

The plan now is to set manageable, hand-cut stones and build them up in a stepped manner, like stair steps. Each row of stones will have a slight overhang from the one below.

My question is, how do I start at the bottom? Do I need a foundation? Should I dig out a larger area and then fill some back in later?

What else should I consider?

I hope you can help me with your experience and expertise.

Maybe someone also has pictures of their light well.

Regards

Pictures of your light well would be great.

Otherwise, I'm not quite sure what exactly you want to do. Are you planning to build the wall directly on the ground?

Here is a picture of the light well at our place...

Hey Bastian, this is roughly how I imagined it, just with different stones (limestone and slightly larger). Did you build the light well yourself, and is there a foundation underneath?

Regards

Yes, it was done by ourselves. With granite stones of this size (about 20 kg [44 lbs] per stone), it’s still manageable. We laid them directly on the compacted gravel used to fill the foundation group. As expected, it settled about 1-2 cm (0.4-0.8 inches) after winter, but since it’s natural stone anyway, it doesn’t bother us that not everything is perfectly aligned.