Repairing a stone wall

[To20Chris]

This part of the wall has been bugging me for 2 yrs now - we're putting in a goat pen on this side of the wall, and I figured they would knock down the rest of it eventually if I didn't do something about it.

 

[To20Chris]

The wall was built as an inner and an outer wall, with rubble stones and dirt filling in the gap, and the top capped off. That stump probably didn't help, and the rest of the damage is freeze/thaw problems brought on by cracks in the mortar up top.

 

[To20Chris]

First I repointed the inside of the wall to hold it up (it's only bowed at little), then I tore the loose stuff off the outside. It's on the way back together here.

 

[To20Chris]

Getting there....

 

[To20Chris]

Done! I filled this section back up with stones and bags of dry concrete, then sprayed it with the hose.

 

[To20Chris]

Last one - top view. My mortar color isn't quite what I'd like it to be, but I didn't have time to match it. It will mellow with time some.

 

[kensfarm]

I was wondering if your wall was a foundation for a building in the past?

 

[edski]

Nice job.
I've a smaller wall that needs similar repair.
Bought a bag of mortar about 3 yrs ago, but that's as far as I"ve got. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
Thanks for the inspiration.

 

[To20Chris]

No, it's a farily standard (for this area) barnyard wall. Most old barns in this area had them, although many have been torn down, or just collapsed into a pile of rubble. Given that it is essentially hollow, which I didn't fully realize until I tore into it, I don't think it has the strrength to be a foundation. The walls in the local stone houses are not hollow, at least not the ones I've worked on. I have lots of other areas on it that need new mortar too, and I'll have to get to that soon.

I'm thinking it may have been gone over once in the past, perhaps in the 1950's when the house was worked on too, but I can't be sure.

 

[To20Chris]

Thanks - it's kind of enjoyable when you get going, and you can do it a bit at a time. You kind of have to really, as it gets touogh piling more heavy stones on top of the lower ones when they have not set up yet.