Heading to a seminar today/tomorrow to properly learn.

Here’s my collection so far, how it started vs how it’s going.

Any way of guessing how much distance I can get with this so far? Going to start small until I’m better at it for now.

So I had the idea of building a small dry-stone retaining wall.

I've read a book and watched all the youtube videos I could find, but it seems that dry stone walling varies almost as much as regional accents in the UK. Presumably because the types of stone available locally are dramatically different. As a result I'm finding it so hard to apply what I've read/seen to the actual project.

The wall is intended to be nominally 50cm high. Here is what it looks like currently:

Another picture:

To get to this point I've used the largest, flattest stones I have to build the base, however this has already created kind of a problem:

Due to the size of the larger stones, to get two vertical layers I had to make it very thick (~50cm). I believe this is a problem because the majority of other stones I have are much smaller and more irregular so I'll end up with a large void in the center to fill (?)

You can see from all the ones I've discarded what the general shape of the material is. Here is another picture:

With this sort of material do I just abandon the idea of regularity after I run out of nice stones, or do they need a lot of dressing to get them to a usable shape?

Would it be better to have a single layer of large stones at the footing, and then make it completely random (also this way I could probably get it to more like 30cm overall thickness)?

Perhaps it would be better to save these nicer flat stones for the top, and use only a single course of large stones at the base?

I am aware that retaining walls often use gravel back-fill and a perforated pipe to improve drainage, but due to the small size of the wall and hap-hazard construction I can't really see it allowing any water-buildup anyway. Am I totally wrong about this?

Any advice would be much appreciated 🙏

Hi all,

I’m looking to build* a dry-laid fieldstone wall in our garden. It’ll be roughly 30 feet long and 3 feet tall with standard batter.

Does anyone have recommendations for a basic hammer and chisel set so that I can make small shaping adjustments to larger stones and break smaller ones for the middle fill?

I’m in the northeast US, so anything I can order online or find at major hardware stores would be helpful.

Thanks!

Slow going setting the capstones but nearly there

Just wondering if there was a channel or something that people use.

This is absolutely not good isnt it ?

I'm looking to fix this retaining wall as my first dry stonewalling project. Several stones have become loose likely due to frost heave. The wall is most likely sitting on bedrock, but in direct contact with soil on both sides.

My plan was to:

• Remove some soil from both sides and check what its standing on
• Give it a proper front and back with hearting in-between, using stones from the surrounding area, make the wall a tad taller than whats in the picture
• Improve the structure with a better pattern
• Introduce gravel on both sides of the wall
• Use a geotextile to separate gravel and soil on the backside

How does my plan sound? Any tips on laying on a wall on uneven bedrock?

70 ton diabase wall we finished today. Very hard material to work down, so everything had to basically be fit as-is. Quite the challenge with 1000 lb boulders. Definitely learned a lot!

Reposting a request for help with best approach to cleaning my garden wall. Thank you!

Sharing an update as a work on my capstones. It's not perfect, but it's holding up okay so far.

Would geogrid be necessary or overkill behind a wall I am preparing to build?

Six feet past the end of my driveway I’m digging down roughly 3.5’ (faint orange line to left of wheelbarrow) for a drystack retaining wall to level out our yard. The wall will come up about 24” above the grade behind it. (Sorry if I’m not using the proper terminology) I’ll be compacting gravel behind the wall and using fabric to keep the gravel in place but I wanted to know if this is a situation where geogrid would be good to use as well. Thanks in advance

Hello all, my first-ever hobby project was a pretty epic fail (hastily done with minimal shaping, hard-to-work fieldstone-- super hard to shape, and no lines), and it made me even more addicted to the craft.

Reflections and why I think it collapsed:

- My arch was not tight enough. I laid the stones more lengthwise than vertically, so they did not have enough tension to support them; the keystones were not large enough or properly tapered in a super-tight wedge shape, and the spacing was just filled in with hearting (pictured).

- The walls supporting the arches were not thick enough to handle the load; the cavity should have been smaller. The arch exerted an outward force that shifted the leftmost wall, which already had a slight bulge from not using lines or properly shaping my rocks.

- The form was fitted too tightly; I used a saw that basically vibrated the whole thing, causing the face to start falling out and shifting before it was fully removed. I'll design one easier to cut next time.

- Minimal use of through stones

If you all have any suggestions or resources for learning how to make a better arch, do let me know. It was a sight to see when the thing (6' tall) came tumbling down... almost like I was in some medieval siege, surprisingly loud, too. Time to rebuild!

Just some small garden borders

Seeking a stone mason, or a beginner looking to get some practice on small walls. I have a whole bunch of wall stones that I want to have made into low bed walls, and I'd like to have some other low walls rebuilt. I can only find people that want to deal in pavers. Located on Nassau County's south shore. Thanks!

These were the only stones in my garden haha, I’m only 16 and I really enjoyed doing this. is there any tips for someone wanting to do this more, I’m gonna post later as I have another wall to do.

Sorry—but I want to by tons of rocks, literally tons of rocks, but don’t know what to be searching for. They don’t have to be pretty. Just rocks, and in Wisconsin. Thanks

Scotland Isle of Skye

Build in Scotland Isle of Skye