Drystone Walling Basics - Part 1
From the Ground Up - Foundations
I thought it would be interesting and also helpful to write a wee series on the basics of dry stone walling as I learn them.
The craft has a slight mystery to it and people often feel intimidated to try it themselves, assuming it is incredibly complex. The basics are easy to grasp, the knack of building a strong and good looking wall, not so easy.
I think it’s helpful to start with some basic walling terminology
Face - An exposed side of the wall or exposed side of a stone.
Course - A layer of stones on a face of the wall.
Batter - The slope of the wall. Can be expressed as an angle or a ratio.
Hearting - Smaller pieces of stone placed internally to keep the outer stones ‘locked’ in place.
Jumper - A stone with a height that spans two or more courses of a wall.
Traced - A stone that extends further along the wall than it does into the wall.
Before I even get into the building of the wall, something worth mentioning immediately is PPE (Personal Protection Equipment).
There are lots of opinions on PPE in the world of drystone and many of these seem to stem from a place of toxic masculinity. I’m not sure how this is even up for debate, of course you should use PPE!
I always use eye protection when taking a hammer to stones, stone chips fly everywhere and can cause serious and long term damage to your eyes. When working on the foundation course, or any situation where my knees might touch the ground, I wear knee pads. This saves my knees from huge amounts of unnecessary wear and tear and also makes working conditions far more pleasant, especially on cold and rainy days. I also wear padded gloves every day, handling stones can tear up your hands quickly and I’m keen to avoid any injury. Finally, just the other day a waller from the US reminded me that water is one of the most important forms of PPE. Staying hydrated reduces chance of injury and also speeds up recovery time after a long day at the wall. Yes, it’s satisfying work but it’s hard work too. Make sure to do all you can to look after yourself.
When building, stones should be placed into the wall length ways, with more of the stone facing into the wall than along it. If this is not possible, the stone should extend a minimum of a third of the distance into the wall. A stone is classed as ‘traced’ if it extends further along the wall than it does into the wall.
You are aiming for as much contact between the stones as possible. Any area internally where there is not contact, you fill with 'hearting'. I believe this is more of a Scottish term and you may hear it described as 'packing' or ‘filling’ elsewhere.
Hearting is integral to a wall's structure and every piece should be placed by hand and with intent. The hearting's job is to 'lock' the outer stones in place and I'm realising quickly that walls can require a lot of hearting and we frequently run out. To the right you can see a bucket of smaller stones that were unusable in the building of the wall itself and so we will use them for hearting. Nothing goes to waste. I really enjoy placing these small stones, some of which you break with hammers depending on your needs. It’s very meditative, purposeful, and when hammers are involved, cathartic work.
Below is a picture of some foundations we built today and you can see the hearting in between the foundation stones. It’s good practice to build the hearting up to the height of the course you are working on before you move on to the next.
The foundations of a dry stone wall usually contain the largest stones in the build.
There are many different drystone building styles but the two basics (and what I have learned so far) are ‘coursed’ and ‘semi-coursed’. Coursed walls are where each stone on a particular course is the same height along the length of the wall. This gives a very neat final result. Then there are 'semi-coursed' walls, where stones like 'jumpers' can be placed to break up the lines of the wall. Jumpers are stones that, due to their height, extend from one course and into the next. Again, there may be other names for these stones. I’ve heard ‘risers’ before too.
Below you can see a ‘line’ above the wall. These are pieces of string, attached to bars or boards that can be set up as a guide to ensure straight horizontal lines as well as the correct batter. Although we chose to use a line and bars on the front face of the wall today, I am choosing to learn mostly without these guides so as to train my eye. In many walling competitions, including the Grand Prix, walls are built without lines and bars.
What we are building here will be semi-coursed. We prefer this look when building with irregular stone like Scottish field stone.
This wall will be twelve metres long and it’s important to ensure that the lines of the walls are straight and that the wall is the same width along its entire length. You can use bars and lines to do this or a simple tape measure. We have tried to make the foundation course as level as possible and so some stones are dug into the ground. I really like the look of this as it makes the wall appear as if it has been there for a long time and once built this wall will indeed stand for a very long time.
Next time, tips on placing your next course of stones.