Dry Stone Walls – Principles of structurally sound construction (2018)
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Dry Stone Walls – Principles of structurally sound construction (2018)
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Re: Dry Stone Walls – Principles of structurally sound construction (2018)
#2I 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 great benefits.
1. You eye your intended location very well, thinking in 3D. 2. You pick your stone very carefully. 3. You learn something each time the stone doesn't fit.
Before too long this restrictive practice becomes an advantage not a hindrance, and has many conceptual parallels with other physical and mental tasks. It's a beautiful thing.
Re: Dry Stone Walls – Principles of structurally sound construction (2018)
#3Thought initially this was from the UK’s National Stone Centre in Wirksworth, Derbyshire [1]. It used to be a visitor attraction - not sure if that’s still the case
[1] http://www.nationalstonecentre.org.uk/
Re: Dry Stone Walls – Principles of structurally sound construction (2018)
#4I'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.
Re: Dry Stone Walls – Principles of structurally sound construction (2018)
#5One of the pictures is from Skara Brae on Orkney - which is over 5000 years old, but its not even the oldest site on Orkney which is Knap of Howar which is ~700 years older:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knap_of_Howar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skara_Brae
One of the ancient sites on Orkney did have some relatively recent problem with vandalism though:
Re: Dry Stone Walls – Principles of structurally sound construction (2018)
#6I'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 be shoved apart.
Re: Dry Stone Walls – Principles of structurally sound construction (2018)
#7I 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…
Laying a brick is like a chess move! Thank you!
Re: Dry Stone Walls – Principles of structurally sound construction (2018)
#8I 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.
Re: Dry Stone Walls – Principles of structurally sound construction (2018)
#9I'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…
Fully agree. If you want a cheap(er than concrete blocks) retaining wall that requires no special tools to assemble use tires. Unreinforced stone is great for getting all the stone out of the field you need to plow though.
Re: Dry Stone Walls – Principles of structurally sound construction (2018)
#10I'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+mallorca&newwindow=1...