Introduction:
Stonewalls provide a beautiful accent to any yard, whether
you choose to use field stones or the more modern cut stone
from granite or concrete. From the early dawn of history,
stonewall building has provided for property or security
barriers around dwellings for either keeping unwanted people
or animals out of principle areas of residents or keeping
them in. In addition, stonewalls were constructed for simply
putting stones somewhere to make way for home construction
or to clear fields for crops.
Ireland is an example whereby
the landscape was once littered with stones from past ice
ages that inhibited civilization until they were removed.
Thus you see endless miles of stonewalls throughout Ireland.
Many regions of the United States such as New England were
also littered with stones left from the ice ages. Most were
removed to make way for homes and fields for crop growing.
The stones were used for stonewall building . Hikers in New
England often run into stonewalls in the most out of the way
locations in the mountains and national parks. Still today
the abundant field stones present the same problems as they
did in antiquity, what to do with them. In modern times they
are still used in construction; for retaining walls,
fireplaces, stonewalls on property lines and landscaping. There are as many ways to build stonewalls as there are
different types of stones to build them. Most common is the
dry construction technique whereby stones are stacked on top
of each other in such a way that only gravity holds them in
place. It is also common to use concrete in stonewall
construction. The concrete acts as a bonding agent to hold
the stones in place rather than relying on gravity alone.
Normally stonewalls are simply built on top of the ground.
This works well in areas where deep frost is not a problem.
Stonewalls built on top of the ground where there is deep
frost during winter requires a base under the wall to reduce
heaving. The base may be similar to a frost foundation as
used in building construction or simply a couple of feet of
smaller stones to provide water drainage from underneath the
wall.
Most stonewall building is by simply
stacking stones on top of each other in such a way that they
interlock providing structural integrity to the wall.
Construction may be in the form of a simple single wall or a
double wall where a filler (small stones, gravel or sand) is
used between the walls. In either case, the top of the wall
(cap) is particularly problematic as it is difficult to find
just the right combination of sizes or flat stones to have
the wall come out reasonably flat on top.
For a DIY home improvement project the construction or
reconstruction of a gravity stonewall (without use of
mortar), the following guidelines are offered. Keep in mind
this is very strenuous work and a back support of some kind
should be worn to prevent back injury.
