Stone Wall

[mattice]

After months of complacency, ground works men are here and in 3 days they have cleared 19 loads of earth to lower our last remaining ground levels and make our drive... car door dent free.... We now have 3 days to decide what stone to use to face the 0.3 - 1.4m high 30m long block retaining wall. We're in the clay land of Worcestershire so would need to migrate to Herefordshire to find stone. We've ruled out reclaimed brick as we already have an eclectic mixture through various tragedies of the past.

Are there any experts out there? I'm struggling with terminology of the Herefordshire quarry world - cropped, dressed, sq meters, surely cubed no?

And then there's our preference for a dry stone effect (mortared behind) or pointed wall. We like dry stone but only have 450mm footings (inc blocks) to play with.

And then to complicate matters further, what colour pointing etc etc.

 

[essexbearhunter]

This link to the English Heritage Building Stone Atlas of Worcestershire should help. It has loads of photos of buildings that show the way that each stone was used and the name of each type of stone.

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&r...OrjDKfIDQR_T-RCDyHR9ffw&bvm=bv.99261572,d.d24

For correct terminology , a visit to a Stone Quarry website may help. This one is for Black Mountain Quarries. The first menu drops down to show other ways in which stone is supplied.
http://www.blackmountainquarries.co.uk/products/building-stone-and-walling/random-building-stone/

Your real problem is that you are going for a style associated with walls several feet thick but in a depth more suited to the more tightly controlled coursed or Ashlar stone. It can certainly be done but needs a lot of cropping.

"Random Stone" is the stone supplied as irregular lumps as it comes out of the ground/quarry. This is what the drystone waller would have had to work with. Large stones provide the stability and knit the wall together, with the smaller ones filling in the voids and taking out the movement. A wall made out of just small stones would not look right.
"Cropping" - as opposed to "Cutting / Sawing" is done using a guillotine that cracks the stone leaving a rough face. Some demolition yards may offer cropping as a facility BUT the same term is used when for stone that was originally cropped or squared-up so you will need to clarify that with the yard.

Because stone is so irregular (unlike brick), it has to be measured by weight or volume.
However, where a worked stone has a face to it, the buyer needs to know how much of that face he is getting and it is then given as a flat area.

I hope that this helps.

 

[DJH]

Just put up this random rubble stone retaining wall...



Quite pleased with it...now to build a wall with railings and small gate...

Doug

 

[mattice]

Fantastic, many thanks. Great article by English Heritage, I've learnt a bit more about where we live! We've picked up some samples so hope to make a decision soon, thanks for both links.

 

[mattice]

Nice wall Doug. Careful she doesn't get her head stuck in the mixer.

 

[DJH]

:lol: :lol:

 

[DJH]

My stock of stone... 8)



and some weathered stone for the rockery when I get round to it...



Doug

 

[mims&pip]

That's a very impressive pile, Doug :lol:

We had similar at our previous house - from a demolished outbuilding, although overall our ' boulders' were significantly larger - and, once we'd selected the best bits for distributing in the 'wild' area of our garden, we swapped the rest for a rather lovely French antique kitchen table at a local reclamation yard/antique centre

Although we probably didn't get the best deal - the retail price for the table was I think around £700 - we were happy as a team of guys came in to lift and shift the stone and we didn't have to worry about listing it on the likes of fleabay with all the issues that entails :roll:

Mims x

 

[mattice]

Our 10 tonne load will arrive next week after the quarry man finds someone to help him dig it out! Good prices if you phone around.... some interesting characters. I think we're going for a slightly smaller size though Doug... Photos to follow...

 

[DJH]

My neighbour's new house which has parts built with the same stone as my heap which came from demolished farm buildings...





The arch at the top was salvaged from an old cart access opening...





Doug