Anyone ever build a stone wall?

yop

Lads,
Has anyone of you ever built a stone wall?

Any advice you could give, contemplating it myself but not sure where to start!!


Thanks

muffler

This may be better suited to the DIY forum

Moved

Glenman

Does this not cover Gardening & DIY? where is the other forum for DIY
Thanks

muffler

Glenman wrote:

Does this not cover Gardening & DIY? where is the other forum for DIY
Thanks

DIY = abbreviation of Gardening and DIY

Fingalian

Yeah I've built a few dry stone walls around the garden, try and stick with stone that is native to your area. I dump out all the stones on the ground near me so as I can pick ones that fit the bit I'd be working on. Few basic tools needed , rock hammer , lump hammer, cold chisels,crow bar, wheel barrow, gloves and goggles.This guy would be the 'expert' on Irish stone walls and his book is well worth buying/borrowing.

http://homepage.eircom.net/~mcafee/#irishs


You still working on your house?

mjffey

I also built some stone walls, but I didn't use all the tools mentioned above.
You can built without all of that. You just have to fit and try and puzzle, but it is a lot of fun.
You can build from wide to small. Wide at the bottom and then smaller to the top, but i didn't do that.

First dig out a trench at the width you want. Place flat stones at the bottom to make a good level beginning.
It's like building a cavity wall. You build two rows and fill in the middle with rubble and smaller stones.
To connect the two sides, you use longer stones that cover the cavity every approx. 1.5 meter. It depends on the lenght of your wall.

You could end up with something like this.....



Good luck

yop

Fingalian wrote:

Yeah I've built a few dry stone walls around the garden, try and stick with stone that is native to your area. I dump out all the stones on the ground near me so as I can pick ones that fit the bit I'd be working on. Few basic tools needed , rock hammer , lump hammer, cold chisels,crow bar, wheel barrow, gloves and goggles.This guy would be the 'expert' on Irish stone walls and his book is well worth buying/borrowing.

http://homepage.eircom.net/~mcafee/#irishs


You still working on your house?

Thanks for that lad, House is finished but outside is the next venture. Starting the deck in the next few weeks but then moving onto getting the wall and done.
do you think that I could replicate the stone on our house? Have a look at my blog in my sig and see what you think? This will be cladding a block wall.

I have tried many things before but nothin like this, don't want to make a donkeys ba11s of it!

CJhaughey

yop wrote:

Thanks for that lad, House is finished but outside is the next venture. Starting the deck in the next few weeks but then moving onto getting the wall and done.
do you think that I could replicate the stone on our house? Have a look at my blog in my sig and see what you think? This will be cladding a block wall.

I have tried many things before but nothin like this, don't want to make a donkeys ba11s of it!

Cladding a block wall is simplicity, as long as you have left ties sticking out of the wall to tie the stones to?
Just start at the bottom and try and fit them in the same plane vertically.
I use a stick to gauge how far out they protrude, try and get the gaps small and neat so that you don't have acres of mortar pointing between the stones.

yop

CJ have you cladded a wall with stone your self? Main tools are what the lads mention above I presume?

mjffey

Ahha. I thought you wanted to build an original stone wall. But you're going to build a fake one. Never did it. For me it has to be original stone built, a low painted wall in the colour of the house, or shrubs, but that's my taste.

Good luck anyway with your wall.

yop

Its real stone but it cladding a block wall, cheaper to do this way and easier for a novice!!!
Thanks, i will update the blog as I am going IFFFFFF I take on the job!!

mjffey

Come on... you can do it. I was a novice too and I'm a woman, so come on!;)

yop

mjffey wrote:

Come on... you can do it. I was a novice too and I'm a woman, so come on!;)

I can do it, but for 2 reasons I am considering not doing it, the quality of the stone masonary will be ruined if I don't match it with the wall & also I have spent 18 months solid doing our house and still have not got my enthusism back!!!