Simple stone wall.

[pushcat]

This is a shot of a simple coursed stone wall. It is local Tennessee sandstone and each stone had to be squared up and faced by hand. I have a number of photos from my portfolio that I will be scanning into my computer soon. When that chore is finished, Ill be sure to post some more photos.

[Robban_C]

Nice work!
We have some nice stone walls around here, some of them are very old. I´ll se if I can get the time to get some pics.

How do you do under the walls to get stability?
Here in Sweden the ground freezes every winter which makes the ground move up and down slightly in case it contains to much water. That means that "stiff" walls have to get a good drainage underneath. A wall made of natural stones that are not "glued" with concrete usually doesn´t need that unless the ground is very soft or has rain water flowing to the wall.

[Holger]

That is a beautiful wall!
We have made a wall with a fence upon it.
We used beton 80 centimeters below the surface. Then it was built up with sandstones and covered with the same stones as the house to fit perfectly.

But I LOVE your wall, it is so nice!

[Nick Drew]

Hi Holger,

Nice house you have there!!

Have you been doing some of the building work??

Nick

[Holger]

Nah! I have done everything in the garden and som "adjustments" after the building was finalized in 2004/2005.

We had a VERY good Polish guy doing the hard job building the house.
He lives and workes in germany since 25 years.
A really cool man!
No alcoholes on the site. When they finished theire work in the evening you could eat from the floor, they cleaned up EVERYTHING.
His wife helped us with some cleaning a day before we moved in.
He made a huge plan (2x DIN A3 size) for everything, also works which he did not do. We hit his calculation plus two weeks! Just amazing how experienced he is.
Also, he had some VERY good ideas and suggested changes during the building of the house.

We did not buy it "ready to use". We planned individually and contracted the craftsmen separately and by ourself.
It was great fun, but my daughter was born in October 2004, so it was a hard time for my wife - selecting the colors, stones and wood for the floors, a kitchen and much more - feeding the baby in parallel.

But we are very satisfied with the result. Of course I sometimes think "Uh, that would have been better like this or like that.". But overall it is good, and the children enjoy the garden.

[Nick Drew]

Ahh I see!!

Yes the Poles are very hard working arent they!!

We are currently inundated with Polish here in England, I am somewhat "on the fence" about this issue. Firstly yes they are doing a great job and also doing a lot of the work that English people do not want to do, but on the other hand they are prepared to work for "Silly money" (Low wages) which is pricing a lot of experienced English guys out of work which cannot be good for our country IMO

Anyway I am pleased to see what a great quality job he has done for you

Nick

[Holger]

This guy does not take low wages - they are rather normal for this area, we saved much money on the individual planning and the handselected craftsmen.

We where just impressed by his attitude.
I still am in close contact to him.
If there is anything to do (hard work) I contact him in the first place.

Yes, I have to say, he delivers first class quality.

He also makes this half-timbered type of houses (right now he is re-building an old one here in the area), and in his spare time he learned to become an evaluator for old houses.

[Nick Drew]

It is always good to find Super Skilled Craftsman they are a dying breed I think.

Yes I agree the Poles have a fantastic work ethic....Definetly the right attitude

It was great to see the "fruits of his labour" thanks for sharing Holger!!

We have been given a field by my partners parents to build a new property on and we could do with someone like your Polish builder....Perhaps he would like a working holiday in England

But first we have the nightmare of getting planning permission

Nick

[Holger]

Hahaha, yes, the permissions are great!
Here in Germany we had to send the same material to several offices.
Some hundred pages.
Dont think they share it internally! Noooooooo! Far too easy for the "customer".

Good luck with your project!

/H

[pushcat]

Hi Robban:
To answer your question about how I stabilize stone walls, in Tennessee our winters are quite mild and we dont have to worry about freezing and thawing cycles as you would in Sweden.
On this wall I poured a reinforced concrete footing (foundation) which was 18 inches deep ( about 45.72 centimeters) by 24 inches wide ( about 56.96 centimeters) because the soil in this area is primarily clay which expands and contracts according to the amount of moisture in the soil. In many areas in Tennessee the bedrock (limestone) is just a few inches below the surface and when I encounter bedrock at that depth, I drill holes about 12 inches deep (28.48
centimeters) and set reinforcing rods in the holes. I then build directly on the bed rock. The rods are there to prevent the wall from drifting. Drainage is always important and I have a number of things that I do to solve drainage problems. I hope this answers your question.