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Dry Stone Walls – Principles of structurally sound construction (2018)

masonrymagazine.com

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Re: Dry Stone Walls – Principles of structurally sound construction (2018)

#11

Post by goda90 »

>There are examples of dry stonewalls and structures that date back 5000 years and are still standing today. Nearly anywhere in the world where stone of suitable sizes was plentiful, walls were built.

What I'd like to know is are there any patterns to where the second is true, but said walls haven't lasted thousands of years like the first sentence says? Are there places where ancient stone structures could have been built, but are no longer standing for reasons other than human interference? Perhaps they fail to survive more in earthquake prone areas, or when there is heavy vegetation that pushes roots through the rocks?

Re: Dry Stone Walls – Principles of structurally sound construction (2018)

#12

Post by 24gttghh »

jmkd wrote: post #2

I picked up a wonderful concept from a teenage summer spent dry stone walling in the Cotswolds. When you pick up a stone from the pile, it MUST be placed on the wall. You either have to make it fit your intended spot through rotation or another adjustment, or you have to find another place on the wall for it. It CANNOT be placed back on the pile. I'm sure these rules are not adhered to that widely but they had some g…

I always saw this type of advice in the lens of: "this thing is heavy. I only want to pick it up once otherwise I will exhaust myself fairly quickly." I learned that from laying sod on a golf course one summer...

Re: Dry Stone Walls – Principles of structurally sound construction (2018)

#13

Post by jnty »

jmkd wrote: post #2

I picked up a wonderful concept from a teenage summer spent dry stone walling in the Cotswolds. When you pick up a stone from the pile, it MUST be placed on the wall. You either have to make it fit your intended spot through rotation or another adjustment, or you have to find another place on the wall for it. It CANNOT be placed back on the pile. I'm sure these rules are not adhered to that widely but they had some g…

I see that rule as avoiding the search for perfection - otherwise you might spend hours picking up different stones and contemplating as if it were a jigsaw puzzle, when in actual fact there are 'solutions' everywhere.

Re: Dry Stone Walls – Principles of structurally sound construction (2018)

#14

Post by voxadam »

jnty wrote: post #13
jmkd wrote: post #2

I picked up a wonderful concept from a teenage summer spent dry stone walling in the Cotswolds. When you pick up a stone from the pile, it MUST be placed on the wall. You either have to make it fit your intended spot through rotation or another adjustment, or you have to find another place on the wall for it. It CANNOT be placed back on the pile. I'm sure these rules are not adhered to that widely but they had some g…

I see that rule as avoiding the search for perfection - otherwise you might spend hours picking up different stones and contemplating as if it were a jigsaw puzzle, when in actual fact there are 'solutions' everywhere.

"Perfect is the enemy of good."

Re: Dry Stone Walls – Principles of structurally sound construction (2018)

#15

Post by saalweachter »

goda90 wrote: post #11

>There are examples of dry stonewalls and structures that date back 5000 years and are still standing today. Nearly anywhere in the world where stone of suitable sizes was plentiful, walls were built. What I'd like to know is are there any patterns to where the second is true, but said walls haven't lasted thousands of years like the first sentence says? Are there places where ancient stone structures could have been…

I don't know about thousands of years off hand, but if you spend some time in New England you will see the truth to the poet's words:

  Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
  That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
  And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
  And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
Many, most, all of the dry stone walls once in pasture and now in forest used to be straight, neatly stacked walls, and are now linear heaps that only outline and no longer divide old paddocks.

Re: Dry Stone Walls – Principles of structurally sound construction (2018)

#16

Post by gideonparanoid »

pier25 wrote: post #10

I'm from Mallorca, a little Mediterranean island near Barcelona, and we have a great dry stone walls tradition there. The people that do it are called margers in the local language. They never really disappeared, and they finally formed a guild a couple of years ago. Here are some pictures if anyone is interested: https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&biw=1745&bih=906&t... https://www.google.com/search?q=margers+…

Some of these are beautiful. Spent a lot of time looking at them & the trees while riding up the south side of Coll de Sóller.

Re: Dry Stone Walls – Principles of structurally sound construction (2018)

#17

Post by oflannabhra »

In the Bluegrass region of Kentucky [0], there is a rich heritage of stone fences, which are associated with thoroughbred horse farms, but they exist throughout the area because of the abundance of limestone rock available. It is one of the highest concentrations of dry rock structures in the US [1].

There is a similar organization, the Dry Stone Conservancy [2], that runs a similar certification program and workshops, but more focused on the specific needs of the area, including conservancy.

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluegrass_region

[1] - https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_cultural_history/3/

[2] - https://www.drystone.org

Re: Dry Stone Walls – Principles of structurally sound construction (2018)

#18

Post by degenerate »

dsr_ wrote: post #8
jmkd wrote: post #2

I picked up a wonderful concept from a teenage summer spent dry stone walling in the Cotswolds. When you pick up a stone from the pile, it MUST be placed on the wall. You either have to make it fit your intended spot through rotation or another adjustment, or you have to find another place on the wall for it. It CANNOT be placed back on the pile. I'm sure these rules are not adhered to that widely but they had some g…

This is an excellent rule for cleaning up (a room, a house, an office...): touch any given thing once at most. In extreme cases, it doesn't work because you don't actually know where things are going to go, in which case a two-round approach is good: everything gets pulled out and sorted in round one, and things go to their destinations in round two.

That's how I clean - pull everything out, assess, and put it all away. It's very efficient if you have enough space, but it drives people nuts because they see it as causing more of a mess.

Re: Dry Stone Walls – Principles of structurally sound construction (2018)

#19

Post by beat »

a2tech wrote: post #6
beat wrote: post #4

I'm hoping to build one of these next year, along the 2' slope in my front yard that's annoying to mow and won't grow grass the same as the rest of the yard. It'd be cheaper and easier to do with manufactured blocks, but my spouse and I think a dry stone wall will look far better with our 100+ year old stucco/stone bungalow. And it'll be more engaging to build.

Just be careful if you're putting fill behind the wall--like all retaining walls these aren't really designed to 'hold back' anything. Their strength comes in compression, not lateral loads. At a bare minimum make sure you put a layer of crushed rock next to the wall, separating the dirt from the wall. This will mitigate water and decomposing plant material from resting against wall swelling and causing the wall to b…

Yep. My father was a landscaper, and I built a number of railroad tie retaining walls, so I get the load problems. It shouldn't be a problem, as the area already has a good gap.

Re: Dry Stone Walls – Principles of structurally sound construction (2018)

#20

Post by londons_explore »

goda90 wrote: post #11

>There are examples of dry stonewalls and structures that date back 5000 years and are still standing today. Nearly anywhere in the world where stone of suitable sizes was plentiful, walls were built. What I'd like to know is are there any patterns to where the second is true, but said walls haven't lasted thousands of years like the first sentence says? Are there places where ancient stone structures could have been…

I have seen plenty of collapsed dry stone walls.

Often the reason for the collapse isn't obvious - I suspect rather than a catastrophic event, it's more that the stones right on the top of the wall aren't held in by interlocking and friction as well as the other stones, so storms and animals can dislodge them. Plants growing in the top of the wall can knock stones off too.

If plant matter gets inside the wall, pools of water can form between stones, which then freezes and pushes stones apart and cracks them.

Do that for 2000 years, and the walls turn into a scattered line of stones in the ground 30 feet wide.

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