Swiss Construction

 

In the Swiss Alps along trails, railways, and roads, there are these huge dry stone walls that were built to block and support the forces from an avalanche. The stones are massive and you can see all of the through-stones poking through both sides. The dry stone construction techniques are still the same, but just at a larger scale.

    

The picture above shows Master Craftsman Norman Haddow and Swiss waller Dieter Schneider standing next to the same wall for scale. I 'eye-balled' a quick estimate of quantity of stone per linear foot from the pic to see what kind of mass is there. I came up with ballpark 6 tons of solid stone construction per linear foot. That's a good chunk of mass that should help in protecting the the established infrastructure throughout the Alps.

When looking at the batter of this retaining wall above, it looks to have the same 'swooping' batter that is similar to the style in Japan. I'm sure the scaffold and hoisting setup would of been pretty intense to be working around, hanging on the side of a mountain.

Another place I'll have to visit.

The face of the stone

Any and every stone has a good 'face' that you want to show on the wall when you're building. Sometimes it takes a few flips and turns of the stone or a trim with a hammer to get it to show. But all stones have a good face. There are days on the wall when you look at your stone pile and your eye is drawn directly to the stone you need next. It's like it jumps out at you. I think the sculptor Emmanuel Augier wasn't having difficulties seeing the 'face' in the stones for this piece. This sculpture sits at the entrance to a public park in Levens, France. Something I'll have to go see next time I travel to France.

Dry Stone Bar

You don't always have to have a wall if you want some dry stone work on your property.  Something as simple as this dry stone bar that I built a couple of years ago for Quiet Nature, can really set off your landscape and become a real prominent feature. It was part of a whole back yard make over that included a natural swim lounge along with the dry stone bar. I used 3 different types of limestone and built in a couple niches for potted plants and such. It was a fun project to be apart of.

Mathew Simmonds

 

I just came across the work of Mathew Simmonds who is a stone carver and sculptor from the UK. He combines his background in art and cathedral restoration into these stunning pieces of work. I really like his way of using the natural shape of the stone to create openings for light. His use of light and shadow really creates a real sense of space. Take the time to look through his portfolio, some pretty amazing stuff in there.

Dewar's True Story

I'm not usually one for advertisements, but this one is pretty good...

Block Party

With winter set in and time between jobs, I'm at home a lot more which gives me a chance to have some fun family time. While building wooden block towers with my 2 year old daughter, I started thinking about ways to push the construction of the castles with the block selection that was on hand. During her afternoon nap, I couldn't resist in attempting an 'extreme' wood block corbel, over an 18" span. I know the ridiculousness of doing something like this, but the picture makes me laugh. My daughter definitely brings out the kid in me.

Kingston Rebuild

In October of 2008 I was on a drive and came accross an 80 year old limestone wall that was in really bad shape. It was imploding into itself with the foundations spreading from roots and the section that was along the road side had toppled over. Passer-by's were starting to poach some of the fallen material that had fallen into the ditch and I felt I could help the homeowner bring it back to its previous glory.

I went up to the house, knocked on the door and handed them a card. I explained what I did and gave them a rough estimate. A couple days later I got the call to come and fix the wall! It was my first solo project since starting my business and I felt pretty lucky to have a 50' free-standing wall to build with a square pillar.

I moved the the wall away from it's original wall line as it was going down into the ditch where the stone thieves were pretty relentless. I kept the original shape with the curve at about half way and added the vertical coping for strength.

Being an old wall in Kingston, the local Kingston Limestone was the stone that the wall was built with. I love the look of this stone and how nice it was to work with. The original wall was made up of left over stone from the blasting that was done on the property to build the old stone house.

When rebuilding old walls more material is usually needed for hearting and some face stones. Luckily being in Kingston where stone is literally popping out of the ground, I was able to go into the forest on the property and hand pick any of the added materials i needed.

This wall will always be my favorite wall that I've worked on. Even though my craftsmanship has improved 10 fold since then, I still like to see my beginnings as a waller. I cant help myself that every time I am in the Kingston area I take a drive out to see the wall and how its aged. A friend of mine sends me pics every year. The pics above were from this past summer of 2014.

What is a Dry Stone Waller??

Stop!

Stop if you're about to pour gravel into a dry stone wall. Gravel is a horrible idea for filling a dry stone wall. You may think you're saving time and money but your wall will look like this picture above within a few years. If you have had a contractor claiming they can build you a properly constructed dry stone wall, ask what they use for wall material. If they mention filling with gravel, run away and find your local professional dry stone specialist.

If your existing wall that was constructed with gravel instead of using the proper construction techniques is bulging out like this, it needs to be repaired. If its a newer construction and it's already looking like this, it's not 'rustic', its a future costly disaster. 

One of the most common misconceptions with dry stone walling is that because there is the absence of mortar, you can just stack away with no rhyme or reason, backfill with gravel between the stones and call it a day. A dry stone wall, especially a dry stone retaining wall, is an arrangement of stone that creates a solid interlocking mass, that in theory should stand for a century. You achieve this by following building techniques that have been proven to be superior for thousands of years. Bringing in an old craft like dry stone walling into the modern landscape, there is a lot of educating involved. It's not part of our heritage here in Canada like it is in other parts of the world, where walls dominate the landscape. So it's new to a lot of people, and wallers like myself take the time to inform people on the importance of proper technique.

 

The above picture is one of the tallest walls I've had the pleasure of working on. The back retaining wall was almost 11' tall when finished. You can see the interior construction of the shorter 8' retaining wall. You can see that even though its a retaining wall, where you only see the front face of the wall, its still a double face construction (for any scale of wall). All of that stone, including the center rubble or 'hearting' material, is methodically hand placed keeping structure in mind. It is at the utmost importance when you are considering dry stone construction, to protect your investment and have a professional dry stone specialist build for you. Its our passion as craftsmen to build high quality structures to the best of our abilities and we could always use your support in our battle against the modern obsession with filling walls with gravel and glues. 

 

Kids Toy

Last winter I bought a penny whistle to help overcome the onset of Cabin Fever. I wanted to learn a traditional Irish penny whistle song and thought of the Irish Washerwoman. I've been 'practicing' on and off for the last year and I think I've got it up to speed!

When I bought the penny whistle, I went into it with low expectations on the capabilities of a 'kids toy'. I mostly bought it to play little kids melodies for my daughter. After sitting down and playing with it you find its a pretty versatile little pocket instrument. With my jazz background in trumpet I started to discover that you could play and improvise on some standards.

After a little research I found the video below with Les Lieber playing a jazz version of 'It Had To Be You'. Seeing this video again is enough to keep the whistle laying around for another year.

Dry Stone Seating

A dry stone seating area or bench is a great addition to any Landscape. I think if you're looking to have some dry stone work done on your property but budget may be a concern, think about a seating area or a bench. Design can accommodate budget and you'll still have a custom piece of decorative stone work on your property.

Above is a great piece of walling by Scottish waller Jason Hoffman. Jason has some great examples of dry stone seating on his website Stone Inspired. Be sure to look through the rest of his portfolio to see a great variety of work, using various types of stone and building styles.

Great Zimbabwe

Another one of my 'bucket list' destinations would be to visit the ruin city Great Zimbabwe. It was the capital of the kingdom of Zimbabwe during the late Iron age. The structures here are some of the oldest structures built in South Africa. Built using dry stone construction, some of the walls reach over 11 meters high. the city had at one point 18,000 occupants and was a large center for trade at the time.

 

The stone here is a granite which is really hard, and it's pretty amazing to see the effort that was made using basic tools to shape the blocks for the walls. The stonework here is beautifully coursed and is another great example on the argument between which is stronger, coursed stone work or random. In the picture above, you can see the chevron pattern at the top, which to me is a great example of how a small detail like that can elevate a coursed wall to another level of creative craftsmanship. There are some other great details throughout the ruins that are a fine example of the builders creative expression.

 

 The craftsmanship of the structures here is absolutely top notch.  Unfortunately the some of the structures have fallen into ruin and some where destroyed by 'Archaeologists' and 'Antiquarians'  excavating and taking any remaining gold and artifacts they could find over the last century. There were attempts in the 80's to reconstruct some of the damage, but they ended up doing more damage in the end. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage site so hopefully no one can go in and start tearing things apart anymore. 

You can see in the photo below the importance of mass when building to such a large scale. All of the stone, including the center 'hearting' materials were methodically placed with structure in mind. There would be no way this beautiful stone work would be still around if they were just dumping gravel. The whole gravel issue is going to have to be its own post at some point soon.

DSWAGB Certification

In 2009 at a dry stone festival that was held in Grand Valley Ontario by the Dry Stone Walling Association of Canada, I tested for my level 2 (intermediate) certification through the Dry Stone Walling Association of Great Britain. I had to strip out and rebuild a section of free standing wall with a proper 'wall end' in a days work. All this while being watched and marked by 2 examiners. I passed that day, becoming the 4th Canadian to achieve this level of certification.

Pushing for certification is a personal thing to me. Being a goal orientated person, I have always wanted to push myself to achieve my Master Craftsman (level 4) cert through the DSWAGB ever since I heard it existed. I like the fact that it gives you something to strive for and also one of the most valuable parts is having your work assessed by 2 Masters who give you constructive feedback to help you improve as a craftsman.  

There are a few schemes out there in the world of dry stone walling that people have the option to go through. The DSWAGB's scheme is the most recognized scheme known world wide for good reason. It's been around the longest and has been the base for other schemes to work off of using DSWAGB masters to help get established. I'm currently working through both the DSWAGB's scheme as well as the DSC's scheme in Kentucky.

In 2013, I went through for my Advanced certification(level 3) and passed becoming the 3rd Canadian (second in Ontario) to reach this level with the DSWAGB. This test was a lot more intense than anything Ive done before in the craft. There are 2 parts to this test. Part A, an un-timed section that involes building 2 of 4 specific features with one feature being a mandatory curve section.

My Part A test wall

The second section (Part B) is a tear down and rebuild of 54 sqft of existing retaining wall in a day. The examiners found a section of retaining wall for me to do my test on near the DSWAC festival that year in Alton Ontario. It was an existing feildstone retaining wall built from stone off of the property 40 years prior to the festival. The Scottish homeowner has been working away for years building a good amount of retaining walls and features, using stone from in and around the property.  The home owner, an artist and wood turner, Barry young, was very kind to let me take down his work and have a hand in the walls on his property.

 

Before

The day before my test I went into the nearby forest and hand picked some added materials that I needed to make sure I built a strong wall with the proper mass to hold back the bank. Using fieldstone was a touch out of my element at the time as I didn't have a huge amount of experience in using it. But it was the local material and the philosophy that I follow is, 'it's not the stone but the skill of the waller'. A true dry stone craftsman should be able to build with whatever material is thrown their way, match the existing local style, and create a seamless repair.

On the day of the timed test, it poured rain about 90% of the time and the site became a pretty muddy place to work. Once I started stripping out the old wall, I had to deal with the unstable bank behind that kept collapsing in and leaving a good deal of soil that needed to be dug out from the foundation. I had to deal with roots and used a pry-bar to dislodge some boulders from the base that Canada had a good grip on. Once strip-out was finished and marked, I was off to start constructing the retaining wall in the time remaining.  It was a gruling day but I just put my head down and concentrated on the center of the wall, making it as strong as I could.

 After

 I succeeded in passing my cert and am proud of the work I put into this test. There are options to take this level of certification at testing sites, where there are prefabricated walls for you to strip out and rebuild, but I feel what I did that day really honored the test to it's fullest. I was put into a 'real world' walling scenario, using local stone that came straight out of the ground, matching the existing style and building a strong section of wall. This all in a days work while being under the pressure of being watched and marked by 2 examiners. 

:)

This upcoming year Im considering starting my features for my Masters cert and will keep anyone out there who is following posted.

Journeyman Timed Test

 

The Day after the competition in Kentucky, I took the timed portion of my Journeyman Certification through the Dry Stone Conservancy. The timed test for this level of certification is to take down and rebuild 10' x 4' of free standing dry stone wall in a day. There was a section of wall that wasn't used for the competition that was put my way for the timed test. This old section was pushed over by the tree that you can see behind. Because of the tree, I had to curve my wall out from the original wall line which extended my test wall to 13' long. Along with the curve I added a few lintels over the roots that were growing underneath, to allow for my wall to go over top but give the tree some space to grow. 

 

With the added changes to my test section and the extensive excavation around the roots, I was allowed a few hours the next day to finish by the examiners. I still was able to complete my wall section within 8 hours of actual construction. Again, like the competition, I had to match the existing local style and build to the highest standard of construction I could in the allotted time. All this while being watched and marked by 2 examiners. 

 Above is my wall at half way, which coincides with 'through height', which is when you place your 'through-stones' on the wall. The 'throughs or Tie stones' are an essential part of the structure of a dry stone wall.  Long stones are placed with maximum contact on both sides of the wall securing the structure. 

Above is my completed curved section of wall that I finished up early the next day. One of the new skills I acquired while in Kentucky was in laying the coping stones in the traditional style for the area. When I usually build vertical coping, I'm used to using single stones laid vertical with a clear, level horizontal line across the top. The local style has the stones leaning in one direction, the tops can be a little up and down, and you use 2 stones side by side like a 'double cope', crossing your joints, with a single 'through cope' every 2 feet. I'm happy to say I passed! I still have to finish one of my required untimed features, a blueprint reading section, and a job estimation quiz to finish my cert, but I'm happy to have the hard part out of the way.

 

My examiners standing with my test section. DSWAGB Master Craftsman Nick Aitken (on left) and DSWAGB/ DSC Master Craftsman Neil Rippingdale (on right)

Dry Stone Walling Competition

This past October I traveled down to Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky to visit and watch the 10th annual dry stone walling competition held by the Dry Stone Conservancy. At the last minute with a little convincing I jumped in to compete. I just found the photo above today of the competition and you can see me working away on the left. Finding this picture made me reflect on my time down there and I look forward to going back.

Competitive walling was a whole new ball game to me as there are little tricks here and there that can help you during the day. You start with a stint of a completed wall of about 7'. You then have to strip it down to the ground and build it back up in a day. All this while a judge is walking around assessing your craftsmanship.  Not only are you trying to build to the best standard you can, using as much of the original wall stone as possible and matching the existing local style. You have to keep up to the guys working on either side of you. The walls at Shaker Village are about 180 years old and made up of a very brittle lumpy limestone that doesn't respond well to a hammer. Coming from Ontario where we're used to ordering in fesh quarried materials that responds to whatever you tell it, I was a bit out of my element. I remembered working with a master craftsman from the UK a few years back, Stephen Harrison, and he told me that with stone like that in Kentucky, 'all you can do is wall it end in, end out and cross your joints'. So I put my head down, did exactly that and came in second place in the professional class! It was the first time a Canadian has competed in the international competition down there and I'm happy to have represented Canada internationally and have done as well as I did.

(My Finished stint)

Modern Twist on Traditional Craft

This is a dry stone feature that was built by Reid Snow from VRS Masonry and myself a couple of years back at Canada Blooms for Landscape Architect Ron Holbrook. Ron has a great aesthetic for meshing the use of the traditional craft of dry stone walling and modern landscape design. This was a great project to take part in and I think the finished product was pretty spectacular. I love how from the outside of the garden you were able to peer through the openings to see the secluded garden area that was cut off from the show with draping fabric. It sparked interest, luring people in to experience the effect of the whole garden space. The garden display won 'Best Overall Garden' that year and I'm happy to have had a hand in building it.

Secret Stone Towers Of The Himalayas

The stone towers of the Himalayas are probably some of or if not my favorite structures made from stone. A definite "bucket list" destination for me. No one really knows as to who built them, when they were built or for what reason, but at one point there were thousands of them. There are still hundreds left, some still in pretty good shape and others crumbling away into history. An amateur archaeologist, Frederique Darragon made her way around visiting these towers taking samples of wood to use for carbon dating. Now we know that some of them are over 1200 years old and the youngest being 500 years old.. The towers are located in the 'tribal corridor' between central Tibet and China and what is known about that area at that time was that it was a 'lawless' time with a lot of raids into the villages. So one can assume that a use of the towers at some point would be for defensive purposes. All and all they are stunning to look at and Im excited for the day I get to stand in awe at the site one in person. If you have 40 minutes to watch a documentary on stone stuff, Frederique documented her travels to the different towers. Its pretty great.

Secret Towers of the Himalayas

Helping Hand

Here's a quick little piece of 'guerrilla' walling I did along a local trail a couple weeks back. I saw that this tree had fallen during a recent windstorm and I thought I would try and aid it from falling away into the river. So I collected some stone from a nearby creek bed, some logs and some broken slabs of concrete that were laying about and built up a 'corbeled support'. Can you see where I incorporated the wood?

Welcome to my blog

Hi there! My Name is Sean and I stack stones for a living. I'm not a 'Mason' but a 'Dry Stone Waller'. The type of stone work I do is absent from binders like mortar or chemical adhesives. Just a pile of stone, a hammer, some patience and an idea. I feel pretty lucky that I'm able to do what I love as a career. I get to work on some interesting projects throughout the year and work abroad from time to time. I thought I would start documenting my life as a stacker and share pictures and links of my favorite stone stuff from around the world.