r/stonemasonry

How hard would it be to build a house this way with traditional stone work

How hard would it be to build a house this way with traditional stone work

I'm talking 24" stone walls no concrete just natural hydraulic lime mortor

u/-v-v-v- — 2 days ago
▲ 275 r/stonemasonry+3 crossposts

1,000 tons of ledge rock. Two walls.

A couple of large scale seat/retaining walls my coworker and I have been working on since before Thanksgiving, enjoy!

u/Necroticism — 3 days ago
▲ 4 r/stonemasonry+1 crossposts

Drain and subsoil solutions

I'm currently restoring an old cellar in Italy, house is about 200 years old and still structurally fine according to engineers even though there's not much of a foundation, stones laid directly on hard marl, grade is about in the middle of the stone part in this corner or about 150cm/5ft above floor.

During the rainy half of the year I get about a liter a day of water pooling down which isn't much of an issue, previous owners rendered everything with cement and made a cement mound to act like a drainage channel and it kind of worked besides the trapped water.

I'm restoring it to be a commercial cellar and can't have exposed soil or standing water, thinking about cutting the channel open to put a proper drain and covering the soil with some sort of breatheable render but I'm not getting any good suggestions from surveyors/builders so I'd be very grateful for any suggestions.

Not looking to put any modern or intensive solutions as the building currently is structurally sound and works for its intended use, just trying to divert the water, cover the subsoil and not cause any new problems.

Thanks in advance

▲ 2 r/stonemasonry+1 crossposts

Can you ID the foundation type for this late 1800s cottage where the stone appears to be only ornamental? Parged foundation or just Basement foundation?

u/Cottage-Time — 3 days ago
▲ 2 r/stonemasonry+1 crossposts

Should I seal this horizontal line in my stone veneer exterior ?

Looking for some second thoughts on how to handle this long horizontal gap running across the front exterior of my townhome. I see exposed wood and large gaps where I think insects are entering from.

This line is in between the ground floor and the middle floor of the home.

Should I seal this? If so, how? Masonry sealant?

Thanks

u/Money_Society_9819 — 4 days ago
▲ 5 r/stonemasonry+2 crossposts

Engineered (silica free) stone looks like etched wipe marks? Will not come off with warm soapy water, how to fix??

u/Upper_File5115 — 5 days ago
▲ 6 r/stonemasonry+1 crossposts

What tipe of mortar do I need to?

Can anybody tell me by looking at those photos what tipe of mortar I need to do some repointing of those bricks ? I know there are several different tipes. I am not sure if this mortar is just sand and cement or if there is lime in it. The house is an old terrace built probably between the 1920 and 1930 in Sheffield UK. Any advice is massively appreciated.

u/followthebundle — 6 days ago

Today's progress: Shop-fabricated borders laid down.

Cut and beveled these border pieces in the workshop, and spent the day laying them on a wet mortar bed. Nice and straight.

u/Different-Scratch-95 — 5 days ago

First attempts

Hey all, just wanted to show my first attempts at stone masonry. The fire pit is about 5’ in diameter, and the shed wall is a veneer of natural stone (most of which i had to split to be thin enough).

Feel free to give feedback as I was doing these projects to explore techniques and build skills for another project.

u/T_whom_much_s_given_ — 6 days ago

Brown marks after pressure washing

Before moving in we asked our contractor to pressure wash the stamped concrete around our pool, but the guy he sent also did the front and back stone walkways. I specifically asked them not to do that because I didn't want to have to replace all the polymeric sand between the stones. A lot of the sand was blown out, and any small cracked areas became bigger cracked areas, and pieces of stone were in the grass and mulch, making it hard to piece back together.

These brown makes were a side effect that I wasn't expecting, and they're right on the two steps in front of our front door. Is it unreasonable if I ask the contractor to pay to replace these stones?

u/goldenrule2112 — 6 days ago

Fixing my dad's letter carving

Hi r/stonemasonry and associated stone experts. I'm looking for some guidance on how to fix this stone slab which my dad used as part of one of his many letter carving projects. Unfortunately he passed away recently after a 5 year battle with Alzheimer's. I inherited this piece and it's one of my favourites pieces of his.

Does anyone know how I might go about fixing the two halves back together? And what the best products (I'm in the UK) would be for cleaning the front?

Thank you so much for any help you can give.

u/hellaurie — 5 days ago

It's just a rock.. it's also just been sitting here in old mates yard for 7 years

Ever see a Rock and think of all the things you'd do to it.. 😜 like this with a nice curve, about 4 MTRS long, around 250mm to 350mm by a pretty even 650mm give or take never actually measured it.

u/MacaroonBitter2105 — 8 days ago

Stone Fire Pit Questions

Do I need a metal lath for something so small?

I'm building a fire pit. I had some extra border stones and started building the core out of them. I plan to clad the exterior, top, and interior in stones.

I'll be using a refractory mortar for the interior details, and type s for the exterior.

(I've conducted refractory tests on a representative sample of the stones. This was done in environmental conditions that far exceed any natural conditions from wood fires/nature. These stones will not explode and will not spall.)

u/Kiddkos — 6 days ago
▲ 51 r/stonemasonry+1 crossposts

Love the top of this wall

Ever since a kid I've always thought these looked so bad ass

Good boy for vibes

We walk this neighborhood. I've done a lot of stone work in this neighborhood when I was a lad, so I have fond memories

Philadelphia PA

u/TinySpiderPeople — 8 days ago

How old is too old to apprentice?

45 year old in Minneapolis. Ive been working in middle management for a while now and was just laid off. I was miserable in that job though. have the opportunity to take some time and switch careers and i miss working outside and using my body. i have enough in savings that i could potentially do the 6 weeks pre apprenticeship but i would need to be making at least $40-50k pretty soon after that in order to afford life. im out of shape but still strong and could get there pretty quick. ive done hard as hell physical jobs before but, realistically at my age, 4 years of hard labor grunt work might take a toll. how common is it for people in middle age to start this kind of work?

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u/antiphonic — 7 days ago