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  • From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
  • To: Homestead <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Homestead] Stone Walls
  • Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 13:39:38 -0500

I sashayed around Rob's question about slip-forming stone walls because I wanted to think about it. He asked, "What is a good thickness/ratio of concrete to stones . . . ." and I did not address that directly.

So out on the mower, where I do some of my best thinking, I thought about it. The answer is use enough concrete to fill all spaces between adjacent stones. Strive to avoid voids. With small stones--say, less than softball size--I would use small aggregate; rather than concrete gravel in the concrete mix I would use pea gravel. My normal mix is one part cement, two parts sand and three parts aggregate. As for wall thickness, it depends on tall it is, how much lateral pressure there is likely to ever be, what one likes esthetically, and whether one wishes to sit upon it or set objects atop it.

Leave weep holes at the bottom, where water can run out and relieve hydrostatic pressure behind the wall.

I found an example of what I consider poor workmanship on slip-formed stone walls at Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home and school in Scottsdale. As always, he was short of funds and that, or use of architectural students as masons may be why there are great voids next to stones where any mason would have put concrete or mortar. The stones are large, with the largest flat face showing, not the strongest design. But those walls have now stood for over sixty years. Of course Scottsdale does not experience freezing conditions except in the shopping malls.




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