In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Hoped to hear from you on this topic, knowing your enthusiasm and experience. It is for an important retaining wall. I'm told it is very hard limestone around here and it doesn't fragment easily. I know on the repair we had done recently some new stone was ... found nearby ... apart from that collected on our land. Well, if we need to have a further repair done on the rest of this wall, we'll investigate what's needed locally further. I'm hoping it might just last, if we don't disturb it too much. The rest of our terrace walls, well it would take a lifetime to restore all of these ... bits and pieces get repaired ... after the wild boar have played with them!
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Nothing harder than the Matlock limestone, I used to have to work with sometimes; whereas here it falls away from the mountain, more rectangular and splittable than Picasso! Don't know who is going to do the work for you, but if you do some yourself, use a manageable lump hammer, and most importantly consider using the edge of it, not always the face, to help shape up your stone,
Hi Cassini! I think this is probably quite a tough (as well as a very good) question: are the walls free standing or are they retaining walls? The method of construction and up to a point the stones used, depend on this. Type of stone depends partly on what you've got and what finish you want. If the existing wall is limestone (I imagine it is - most dry stone walls are!) then obviously you'll want the same. As far as good material for strength is concerned, you need stone that has two relatively flat faces, one for the bed and one for the face; but not necessarily completely at right angles to each other, because you can use soil and small pieces of stone (inside the wall) to compensate and adjust for this. I think shape is more important than whether the stone is soft, or easily split, or broken. Remember; the strength of the wall derives from its angle and its mass and its gravity, rather than any inherent hardness or tensile strength in the stone; think English, rural construction methods (thick walls, soft lime mortar, sometimes just thatch and mud ) of the last 1,000 years. I always put a premium on longish pieces because they help you to tie in the wall ( to itself, or to the soil behind it ) and I avoid roundish stone, especially small roundish stone, like the plague! I'm really sorry but I can't help you on quarries/language/prices because, in thirty years, I've never sourced dry stone material in this way; perhaps Italian quarries will not be marketing stone in quite this way either (round here people smile and shake their heads and refer to me as muro secco!). If it's a retaining wall, then the most important thing that you can do is ensure that the base stones are set at an incline from the start. In this way, the pressure on the wall will actually help keep it in place rather than topple it over; that's assuming that the inner face keys nicely and intermittently, very emphatically (at some width and depth) into the soil behind it.
Well, if nothing else, I've touched on my enthusiasm for this topic. I suggest that you use your own judgement when faced with purchasing a pile of stone and I hope this might help just a little in making that judgement.