Slipform stonewalls

[Stonehead]

Has anyone built a slipform stone wall or found a good website on how to build one?

I saw one being built some years ago and wouldn't mind having a go.

The idea is that you put down a concrete foundation, lay down your biggest boulders along the line of the wall, and then erect formwork to a height of about 4ft. You then put in more stones and metal reinforcing, before pouring in a fairly liquid concrete.

Leave it to cure, then slip the form work up and repeat. When the wall is the required height and the concrete is cured, removed the formwork and use mortar to finish off the joints.

The attractions for me are that it's less technically demanding than a drystone wall built with boulders. I looked into doing a drystone walling course, but after talking with wallers I learned that building a boulder wall is a specialised form of drystone walling and few wallers now know how to do it.

So, with a slipform stone wall, I'd get a wall that looked like existing mortared boulder walls around the croft but was stronger and somewhat easier to build.

Any advice or pointers appreciated - especially on the concrete mix and whether it could be replaced with limecrete. I also need to calculate the depth of the foundation and the width of the wall given that I'd be building a wall with four feet serving as a retaining wall and fwo feet extending above the soil on the high side (so six feet in total).

Thanks,

Stonehead

[Shirley]

David should be able to help with this Stonehead - will email you.

[The Chili Monster]

Try this site: http://www.motherearthnews.com/library/ ... lipforming