Doing it right.
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The ancient craft of Dry Stone Walling is something that works in
accordance with the simple rules of structure and for the most part
needs no improving upon. Yet in today's world, speed of construction
seems to be everything, and a structure's static strength is seen to
be more desirable than any inherent flexibility. Proven techniques
are often brushed aside, and the misconceived idea that 'the newer
the
building method, the better it is' is continually being
perpetuated . It can be difficult to get all this across to modern
trades people, but then there are other times when we are pleasantly
surprised to discover a willingness in the construction industry to
back up and do things the way they used to be done.
A phone call to John Shaw-Rimmington was the start of one of these
surprises. A large construction firm, working on a hundred million
dollar plus high-tech building, contacted him about a problem they
were having with the dry stone walls, which were an important
feature in
the overall project. They had constructed several hundred feet of
walls (to "specification") nearly 4 foot thick in conjunction with a
line of concrete barricades, as an extensive protection system
surrounding a large state-of-the-art data centre north of Toronto
and yet even before the building project was completed these 'dry
stone walls' were beginning to fall apart! A visit to the location
revealed the problems and John presented them with his assessment of
what needed to be done. The walls needed to all be taken down and
rebuilt! In order to build them correctly it would require, amongst
other things, teaching their masonry crew how to do it.
There had been many mistakes in the design and the execution of the
walls. Although there were occasional through stones, the walls were
basically two parallel dry laid veneers filled with gravel. The
costly guillotined stone, all cut to the same proportions, were
stacked along the length of the wall. Landscape glue had been
prescribed to be used inside the walls to hold everything together!
Between
the stones there was no 'hearting', just clear run stone. The walls
were built without any batter either. Anything that could have been
done wrong, was. It was no wonder they were falling apart.
Workers using a powerful hydro-vac to remove gravel that was
dumped into
interior of walls as filler.
All of that said, we were impressed by the project leads. They
wanted it redone and were prepared to do it properly no matter what
that required. If it meant tearing it down, so be it. Now, how often
do you hear of that? A firm admitting they did it wrong, putting
their deadlines over, incurring additonal expenses all to make sure
what they were doing was done the way it should have been.
Personally I think it speaks volumes about a dedication to quality
and integrity. Something most of us may agree is lacking
today.
So John and I went to provide instruction to the original builders
on how to construct proper dry stone walls. As one might imagine,
there
was a bit of tension. Here we are with the masons and landscape crew
telling them why it was wrong and how to do it properly. A bit of
gentle head butting with lots of unspoken "why do we need to do it
this way" in their eyes occurred throughout the day. However, they
listened, learned and put that information into practice. More
material was required for the project to accommodate the fact that
we were now running the stones into the wall rather than along the
walls. The rebuilding progress was slow but as the days and weeks
progressed, the workers began to enjoy and grasp the craft; although
I would say not the artistry involved. I strongly believe that dry
stone walling as a craft involves a great deal of artistry besides
just construction know-how. Anyone can learn how to do something but
not everyone develops the flare to produce something truely
beautiful. At the end of the rebuild, the walls were structurally
sound and suitably impressive, but they did lack a certain creative
beauty. They had been built the way we instructed, but still there
was a sense that the landscape crew did not yet get past the stage
of simply
following instructions . Hopefully, that creative spark that makes
dry stone walling such a satisfying activity, will catch on with
them more and
more, and with those truly interested in learning dry stone walling
in
Canada.
The ‘modern’ high-tech dry stone wall!
- designed by a 'structural engineer'
- contracted out to a large reputable landscape company
- built by professional masons
- approved throughout the building stage by hired project inspectors
- using costly guillotined stone pre-stacked on pallets
- stones laid almost without exception, along line of wall
- held together using landscape glue
- no lean or 'batter' to the wall
- compacted limestone screenings instead of 3/4 gravel for drainage along base
- instead of carefully placed hearting stones, clear run limestone gravel is poured into the wall as a filler
Submitted by Matthew Ring and John Shaw-Rimmington