In this article we discuss the easiest way of building a stone wall for your future country house with your own hands, the needed tools and the details of construction process.
The stone wall is able to give the landscape around it a very special attraction. Construction of several stone walls will create a full stone composition. Here are some simple tips on how to build a stone wall.
Pre-work
So, if you want to have a house made of stone you will soon face the question – how to build a stone wall?
You will need such tools as:
- a float
- a level,
- a plummet,
- an axe,
- a shovel,
- buckets.
First, you must determine the location of your future stone wall. And also it is important to think carefully about its shape and the level of its complexity. Then you need to hammer the pegs into the ground. Between them you need to pull a rope. Any wall must always be smooth, even if the landscape around is not. Using a level check your horizontality of your rope. Then you need to build a trench under the concrete blocks. The depth of the trench must be equal to the thickness of a single block. At the bottom of the trench put small gravel, pre-mixed silicate or lime. After that start laying concrete blocks.
Laying a stone wall
Laying of walls should be made from the center, because it is the easiest way of making a proper horizontal wall. Using a rubber align concrete blocks relative to each other. Make a full first roe of a wall, then the second one, etc. To make the dressing between the rows, it is necessary to separate concrete block into two parts with a chisel and hammer. In order to obtain a finer masonry, instead of the solution you nay use a glue of a ‘liquid nail’ type.
The stone game
A wall made of stone and built properly in a dry manner will stand for many years. Even if some of the stones fall out, they can be easily restored. The quality of laying stone walls in a dry manner depends on the ability to find really proper stones. Any wall must be based on solid and sustainable base. Its base should be a layer of very large and heavy stones.
A stone wall is indeed built of two separate walls – the largest stones are laid in the foundation to a height of about 2 feet above the ground. The space between the walls is necessary to fill back filling consisting of small stones – it is a core part of any stone wall, its ‘heart and soul’. Then you should put a row of long stones. Each of them must pass from one wall surface to another, binding the walls together. Then you have to put the second row of facade stones (with filling between them) and the second row of through stones.
Over the last row of facade stones it is necessary to lay the covering row, its stones should uphold the surface of the wall for about 2 inches – this will provide a link between vertex rows. The covering layer will not let rain get inside the walls and will serve as a solid basis for vertical stones of your wall ridge. Laying it means that the construction of the wall is completed.
Dealing with ‘a slope’
The main feature of stone walls built in a dry manner is the fact that every available surface of the foundation at the top of the wall is bent inwards. This is called ‘a slope’. That’s why the wall having a thickness at the foundation level of about 3 feet is tapered towards the top for about 1 foot and more. The inner surface of the retaining walls is just slightly tilted backwards, but the outer one has a rather significant slope.
The best material for the construction of a stone wall are:
- granite,
- certain types of limestone
- sandstone.
The main thing is that the stone should be stronger as possible and has as few pores as possible.
Stone types
Typically stones are not bought at one ton, but just a few tons at once (1 ton of stones is usually needed for construction of about 3 square foot of a wall, including a foundation part). It is better to buy a bit more, than a bit less, because the transportation of stones is extremely expensive.
It is necessary to sort rocks by size:
- the largest stones are for the base;
- the medium-sized stones which have at least one end of the rectangle are suitable for the front side;
- the long through stones and small stones are great for the filling.
You perhaps realize that ‘how to build a stone wall’ is not a children type of question. It needs very serious approach and rather good skills. If you are not well prepared you should better leave things dealing with how to build stone walls to professional builders.
