Crap Drystone walling

[MattyF]

well i thought it looked ok,although i have no clue about dry stone walls! whats wrong with it??

[Dean Lofthouse]

I really should have taken photos of the walls up the lane, this one is totally out of place, if you are going to rebuild a drystone wall build it the same as the surrounding walls.

 

It would be "ok" for a garden wall matty, but it has what we call "jumpers" in, the big stone stood on end, all jumpers do is speed the building process up for lazy wallers and introduce weak points and straight joints.

 

Aside from that when you see the wall in the flesh the courses are all over the place, so much so they look rediculous, to be fair it doesn't look as bad in a picture,

 

Tommer will notice it because I know Tommers standards of workmanship

[muldonach]

well i thought it looked ok,although i have no clue about dry stone walls! whats wrong with it??

 

A general rule in laying stones is "two cover one and one covers two!" Vertical running joints as so frequently used here are inherent weaknesses.

 

It is also normal to build up the end cheeks and use a line between them to level out the courses. Although it is good practice to stagger the stone size so as to avoid horizontal running joints it is not normal to take it to this extent

 

It would be interesting to see an end view to see if any batter at all has been used

 

 

Regards

mac

[renewablejohn]

My dry stone wall tutor insisted that you walked along the top of the finished wall to prove the standard of workmanship. In this case they have cheated by concreting the headers.

[skyhuck]

My dry stone wall tutor insisted that you walked along the top of the finished wall to prove the standard of workmanship. In this case they have cheated by concreting the headers.

 

In fairness, being road side, they may well have done that too stop the toppers being nicked.

[csservices]

On first look I thought it looked ok to, but I can see it now lol, they concrete the copers on round here too as its not unusual for them to go walk about if thier left loose

[tommer9]

TBH the concreting in of the pitchers is the least of the problems with that wall. The fact that the stones run up and down all over the place.....they should all be level- not running with the ground, not running uphill etc etc. IIRC the stone is an igneous stone, making it granular. This sort of stone (like most) is eminently workable with the right handtools (which TBH there is no excuse for not having if one is charging for stonework) so the shape of the stone cannot be an excuse.

 

Dean mentioned Jumpers. If there are no jumpers in the surrounding stonewalls, then there oughtnt be in this wall, although down here jumpers are an essential part of the wall, to eliminate long horizontal joints. Vertical joints are to be avoided, the rules on jumpers being that you should only have two stones to a jumper. Given the size of the jumpers in this wall, compared to the height of the other stones, that would be fairly difficult.

 

Dean- is the large jumper in the middle of the first shot a stone on edge?? That IS criminal. If i am building stone walls, a jumper would go into the wall as far or further than it is high.

[Dean Lofthouse]

Dean- is the large jumper in the middle of the first shot a stone on edge?? That IS criminal. If i am building stone walls, a jumper would go into the wall as far or further than it is high.

 

It is mate, it's a "through" that is about 4" on bed.

[Jonny69]

Any chance of a pic of a really good wall to highlight the differences please?

 

I have no idea what most of the words in the posts above mean.

[tommer9]

It is mate, it's a "through" that is about 4" on bed.

 

Thats just soooo wrong:thumbdown: