Drystone walling tutorial 

Thanks Thorpe

How do you mean? You make like 4 or 5 meters a day, like a staircase, topping off the first meter by the end of the day?

@@ratatoskr1069 I think they mean that instead of laying 20 meters of foundations (or whatever), you build 4-5 meters of finished wall.

@@Theorimlig Ah okay. thank you.

How stable will that be if it's not keyed together .. laterally

Thanks John for the feedback.

You can do it!

Hope it all goes well.

Hope it is going well.

Glad it helped

@@Mikebaldwin007 I'll let you know if it helped after my attempt 😊 Either way, great info.

Thanks for the comment. There is a video on building a curved wall with seat if you want to have a look at it, cheers Mike ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ImJZrpQjrbI.html

There are lots of different styles, if you get the chance the millenium wall at Cromford is worth a visit, it shows about 12 different styles.

Hi Ivan, I am merely a journeyman in terms of stonelaying but have laid many tons. I have been fascinated by the art/craft for as long as I can remember. High faced-up walls with no obvious repose (batter) and no obvious through/tie stones (or deadmen) generally have substantially wider footings, in ratio to their height, and staggered through courses every 3ft/meter. If you took a level to such a wall, however, there would still be a mild incline on either face. The wide footings act as a cantilever, as long as they are properly backfilled. The through courses are plumb to the face and so aren't obvious but they are there. Mortar can never replace gravity. Cheers.

Hi Don, normally you don't need coarse sand unless you are doing a turf top to the wall or planting Thrift near the sea. If it is the only thing you have though, it could be used, (normally you would break up a few stones if you didn't have many heartings).The key thing is to avoid water in the wall freezing and expanding by 10% pushing the stones out. Hope that helps, regards, Mike

You can use them as the heartings in the middle, for pins they could be break down, cheers Mike

@@Mikebaldwin007 Thanks a lot! ;)

Sorry about that

Hi Martin a tonne will usually do 1 metre squared but it depends on the stone and it is always worth having a bit more to keep the quality good. You should be bang on with 5 tonne.

Hi Cliff, it just gives a neat finish, especially for landscaping situations. You can use a coverband under the copings for extra weatherproofing. Some styles use a coverband under the coping.

I've been doing dry stone walling or Dyking as we say in Scotland for years started at 14 I always keep the tops level and use bands before tops but I suppose everyone has their own style of build. Anyway looks good though

Cheers Clifford, I need to get some olive oil for the tripod.