Thread: dry stone walling

I like this mans attitude, a stonemason. Bob


stonemason.mov - YouTube

I have been wanting to do some dry stone walling for a while, most likely as an entrance to a property, finding the right stone seems to be the hardest

We had a sleeper wall that was eaten / rotten and about to collapse. 1m high at the highest point, and 30m long. After putting it off for several years, mainly because I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with it - We finally did something about it. Always said it wouldn’t be timber.

It is now Granite dry wall, not as clean (more natural looking) as some due to the random rock shape. I was lucky to having a supply of free rock and a couple mates that were convinced we could move them. During the weather event of Aus day this year, there were several land slides on Mt Nebo/Glorious. Mate owns 40 acres up there and he was hit pretty bad, right near the house. After the massive clean up which took us several months there was a couple of huge piles of granite rocks left over, every thing from tennis ball size to several tons each.

Over the next 6 months, when ever I or him were going to each other house or close by we transported a ute or trailer load down the mountain, about 1.5t at a time, and piled it up at our place. 18 maybe 20 loads later & after I put new fence posts in, they helped me build it up and it went together quite quickly over 2 Saturdays. We used what ever we could load on the trailer with a winch, ramps, trolley, crowbar ect – the largest rocks on the bottom are over 300kg, moved in place by trolley, 3 blokes and a lot of grunting. Once we got a system working we actually got a bit cocky and moving bigger and bigger rocks. Using a bobcat would have been easier at our end but it would have destroyed the yard, and would not have been safe to use at his place. It helps if you have a mate who does power lifting, and it’s a hell of a way to burn some calories.

In a time where most ‘call a man’ this was a project that was done the way my granddad would have done it (maybe without a warne winch).

Anyways, I never worked with stone and I have to say it is very satisfying - it really turns heads now. No way could I have afforded to do it in stone if I needed to pay for the materials. I was quoted 28k by a contractor in 2010, ended up costing couple tanks of fuel, all of the years tip vouchers to dump the old timber and a heavy duty trolley which surprisingly is still going. Now I’m looking at the wall around the pool, plenty of rock left on those piles...

Originally Posted by Landy Smurf

I have been wanting to do some dry stone walling for a while, most likely as an entrance to a property, finding the right stone seems to be the hardest

Do you want me to post a few up to you?

Where I live is pretty much entirely rock, and there are many many miles of dry stone wall around here - most farmers that established the area built them to clean up the loose rock and to keep the stock in.

I remember when I drove through small towns in SA and seeing all those stone buildings, I was very jealous.
So yes feel free to send some up

I honestly misread this on 1st look.
Thought it was about this!!

Originally Posted by Saitch

I honestly misread this on 1st look.
Thought it was about this!!

No dry stones on the wailing wall, Bob

Isn't the main aim to never put a stone back down again. You've always got to find a spot for the stone you've just picked up. No wasted energy. That's about all I know on the subject.