Dry Stack Stone Retaining Walls

We have an abundance of natural native stone that can be used to fit in with our natural landscape. If we have an earthquake, a concrete retaining wall can crack or give way. Every retaining wall should be installed with drainage behind it, this is done by placing a drain pipe behind the retaining wall at the base of the wall, next place gravel and a drain cloth over the pipe.

Some of the things that you would want to consider are, what type of rock or stone would look best in that location?

Mortar is not always necessary, but it is especially useful if the wall will be used as garden seating or for other load-bearing tasks.

Mortar also helps when the stones aren’t perfectly flat. The above picture shows a properly prepared footing. Now those are some big footing stones!

When stones are placed length in, the side you see is the smallest side. And what if you change your mind about where you want the wallto be, as farmers often do?

Stone walls blend naturally into the landscape. This choice will make a big difference in the appearance of your final product. The stones are then skillfully stacked in such a manner that provides both stability and good drainage. This type of wall works well for boundary fences and lower traffic areas. Throughout the world, the art of building dry stone walls is slowly being recognized for its historical as well as its practical value. The wet stack wall uses mortar between the rocks or stones to add additional strength to the wall. For example, if the wall is 30 feet long, the width is 2 feet and the height is 4 inches (or 1/3 of a foot, or. 333 feet).

They’re a memorable centerpiece in an elegantly finished space. Grout was color-matched to the original groutwork. Mortared walls can be easier to build than dry-laid walls because the mortar holds the stones together, which creates a more forgiving tableau when placing stones.

Dry-laid stone walls are generally no higher than four feet, so the purpose of your wall will be a consideration, here. Landscape and garden walls may be built with a bed of crushed stone or gravel. These are stones that extend through the wall, connecting the two sides. The purpose is to prevent the sides from separating and are absolutely crucial to building a sound wall structure. Rebuilding the wall or portions of it will be labor intensive and may require all new material. This makes it easier to focus on facing the wall to create a very flat and consistent finish. They mark the transition from a nomadic and hunting-based lifestyle to a farming-based existence, so their relevance cannot be underestimated. Not all dry stone walls are as old as the clearance walls. Ireland’s “famine walls” have an extremely poignant history. Irish famine of the 1840s, the starving masses built enclosure walls for wealthy landowners, often working for just a few scraps of food a day.

Some might view such building schemes as a form of slavery; others might see it as something that kept the starving hordes alive until the famine ended.

Rounded rocks are almost impossible to build into a wall without using copious amounts of mortar. If you an uneven yard, a stone retaining wall can help prevent erosion and provides a nice place to plant. When you cut and fill, the wall is backed by undisturbed soil, which is more stable than fill. Or you might do a partial cut and fill, which is somewhere between the two. Mediterranean, including retaining walls used for terracing.

Michael Fearnhead from Cumbria in the UK showed Peter Varley the basics of drystone double wall building. Read more: …Not Acceptable – Dry Stack Stone Masonry

It’s one of the strongest and most natural looking retaining walls. So we have just saved about 30% of our cost for our retaining wall and it looks natural and beautiful too. The main reason for this is that they can flex and move with there natural surroundings. The next reason that a dry-stack stone retaining wall works well, is that even the strongest and best built retaining wall must let water pass through or around it or it will fail.

Flagstone Dry Stack Stone Wall

We build garden walls that need to hold our raised beds and plantings, with stone steps and walkways running through them. At times a buttress is needed to hold an outside curve. A set of stone steps that run up and through the dry-stack stone wall can also act as a strong buttress as well as provide access to the upper part of your property.

They’ll let the water pass through as well as slow down the speed of the water on its way downhill. You could use bricks, but they lookunattractive and unnatural in rural landscapes. Wouldn’t it be good if there were asimpler kind of wall you could make?

But if you decide you don’t like them, you can just take themdown and build them up again somewhere else. Much like building a brick wall, you finish off a substantial partof each horizontal layer before moving up to the next one. Your footing stones should tie back as much as possible. Besides having the proper stone selection, there are two things that will make capping fun and easy. Dry-stacked stone can be used for retaining walls that are less than three feet high. Seat walls, walls, and counters for outdoor kitchens benefit from the structure and permanence of wet-laid masonry. For climates with extreme temperatures and a high freeze-thaw ratio, dry stone offers more flexibility and is less susceptible to damage from frost heave.

If damage does occur, dry stone is easier to repair, and rebuilt sections will blend well with old portions of the wall. Wet-laid masonry offers more permanence but can be more costly than dry-stack, due to the additional materials and labor required. The finished consistency should be somewhere between pancake batter and peanut butter — thin enough to spread easily but stiff enough to hold its shape.

Spread the mortar to roughly 3/8-inch thick with the mason’s trowel. You can also use the mortar to fill open spaces left as a result of uneven stone shapes and sizes. and they’re intended to be flexible and shift slightly with the earth’s movements. Open areas between large stones are filled with smaller stones. Determine the height, width and length of the wall. The volume of the wall is 30 x 2 x 3 = 180 cubic feet. Divide the total cubic foot volume of rock by 15 to determine the number of tons of rock to purchase. For example, if the wall length is 30 feet, the width is 2 feet and the height is 3 feet, the volume of gravel needed to construct this wall is 30 x 2 x 3 = 180 divided by 3 = 60 cubic feet.

The total amount of gravel needed for this wall is 80 cubic feet of gravel. Divide the total cubic foot volume of gravel by 15 to determine the number of tons of gravel to purchase. When this occurs the repairs are not easy. Lastly and most importantly, it is often less costly to build a dry stone wall. This additional prep work is necessary to try and prevent any movement. They require no additional drainage and the only material needed is the stone itself. The first lift is made of larger stones than the second lift. These are the top stones on the wall. In many walls however the stone is arranged into courses. They are sometimes referred to as ‘wallstones’. Using but one tool; the hammer, and much patience and strength, a skilled waller can lay yards of fence per day. It is cooled and powdered, and gypsum is added to control how fast it sets up. These walls are thought to be about 3, 500 years old. That caused a massive de-population of the countryside, with the poor folk heading toward urban areas, desperate for employment. Some walls are based on huge boulders, and some are made from numerous tiny pieces of flat shale, depending on what was available. Wales, and in a certain light they can look eerily like rows of tombstones. However, thanks to various types of funding available, some farmers are given assistance with the repair and rebuilding of dry stone walls.

Regretfully, there aren’t many ideal rocks available, so look for angular rocks with the most flat faces. To figure out how much stone you’ll need, multiply your wall’s height times the depth times the length. The base course is structurally the most important, while the final course, the capstone, is the most challenging. They can taper slightly toward the top, but you’ll want a wall that is at least two rocks wide in most places. Start by digging a trench about 4 inches deep and at least 2 feet wide. The first course must be very solid and tightly fit because the weight of the wall will rest on it. Randomly lay your largest rocks along the front edge of the trench. I find irregular rocks easier to work with than flat ones; with flat rocks you have to be more precise. Continue the first course until you reach the end of the wall. Some stones may be reclaimed from old stone walls or buildings. Incas were masters of this technique, in which blocks of stone are cut to fit together tightly without mortar.

The gravel footing could cause the wall to shift?

Reflect local character with local materials and better for the environment (need no transportation). Difficult to build if you don’t have a ready supply of stone nearby. Relatively wide, with a bigger land-take than a simple barbed-wire fence or brick wall, though not as wide as a hedge. A step-by-step, illustrated guide to walling. Wales are trying to ensure that dry stone walling skills continue into the future. If planting at the base of a tree, move soil away from the base of the tree to avoid smothering roots. Divide the total cubic foot volume of rock by 15 to determine the number of tons of rock to purchase. A dry stack rock wall uses gravel to fill gaps between the rocks in the wall. Use the standard formula of 15 cubic feet of gravel = 1 ton of gravel. For example, 80 cubic feet of gravel divided by 15 equals 5.333 tons. For example, 20 cubic feet of gravel divided by 15 equals 1.333 tons. Use the formula: 100 pounds of sand for each bag of mortar mix. Determine the height, width and length of the wall. The stone steps became the focal point of the terraced lawn. Some stones just look old naturally. Some stones having been laying in fields and exposed to the elements for a long time. Rocks that are relatively square and rectangular are easy to fit together, which means your wall may go together faster than if you used more irregularly shaped or round rocks.

For example, the stone wall pictured here was built with a large variety of rocks. Pennsylvania bluestone steps were incorporated into this dry-laid stone wall. Would be good near hot tub.”, “like the wall, but not the ledges that stick out. This book provides thorough, step-by-step procedures for three projects using stones of various sizes from the smallest all the way up to boulders, with a focus on a safe work environment.

A gallery of wall images will inspire you to start stacking. I wont put the links to them, but as an example whats the ratio between 3/4″ stone to 10′ of face wall. Its a good book though w practical advice and lots of photos to give you advice. You should also take a look a the first and second how to projects. That way, you have a straight and plumb guide to work from while doing the stonework, and you don’t have to build or move slipforms along the inside of the wall.

This method works well when the rocks are squared and brick-like, but for rounded stones the novice would need forms to aid in the process.

Tilt-up stone masonry seemed like a logical choice – pouring stone walls flat on the ground and setting them in place with a crane. It requires an expereienced carpenter and mason, and it is really suited for mass-production, where the same forms are used again and again.

Some more pix or drawings would have added lots to my understanding. Incorrect on the right, resulting in many running joints. The outer edges of the stones should be aligned. These are the basic rules of walling. While some professional wallers prefer to work with bare hands, most people prefer to wear gloves. Different weights are available for different temperatures. I do use insulated leather gloves in the winter to keep my hands warm. Clad, etc.) as they only last about 1 day before wearing out. I use clothing made from lightweight light-colored fabrics. I stay surprisingly cool because my skin is shaded from the sun. Breathing stone dust, particularly the fine dust from running dry power saws should be avoided. Walking on loose stones all day is both dangerous and tiring. Make sure any stone you are putting your hand under is very secure. If you start to think that what you are doing is not that safe, it probably is not. Going deeper serves little purpose and uses up more stones. If you are working from palletized stone, it is still often worth opening all the pallets and sorting through the stone before beginning to build.

Determining how much stone you need for a new wall is always a challenge. Breaking stones is a skill in itself. How a stone is supported often effects how it breaks, as does the direction it in which it was struck. The best way to learn how to break a stone in the way you want is to practice. On projects in rural areas stone can often be gathered from other places on the property. Another good source for stone can be from local gravel and sand pits, which often screen out the rocks. I am often asked if a certain type or shape of stone is a good type of stone to work with. Our photo gallery is an excellent place to see different examples of the many types of stone that can be used for your projects. A long handled sledge hammer should weigh in the 6-10 pound range. Many professional wallers use a whole range of hammers ranging from 2 pounds to 16 pounds or more. Some hammers and chisels are available with carbide edges. Other tools that are good to have when building include a tape measure and level, which are most useful when laying out a new wall.

Professional wallers may also use diamond saws and grinders to cut or shape stones that would be difficult to shape with a hammer or chisel.

Thank you for taking the time to read about how to properly build dry stone walls!

Any suggestions you might be willing to offer would be greatly appreciated. Welsh clawdd, which is a stone-clad earth bank topped by turf, scrub, or trees and characterised by a strict inward-curved batter (the slope of the “hedge”).

Correcting any mistakes invariably means disassembling down to the level of the error. Highland blackhouse was constructed using the double wall dry stone method. If they are subjected to lateral earth pressure, they are retaining walls of the type gravity wall. Relatively large standing stones are also positioned on the edifice’s corners. Scotland, are used as road and mountain top markers.

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