17 September 2021

Hitting The Bricks: Continuing Our Analysis Of Stonemasonry Techniques

In the tens of thousands of years since humanity first started shaping stones, the techniques we've used to do it have simultaneously evolved dramatically and hardly changed at all. We've already discussed a number of techniques for building walls, such as letting gravity hold everything together, and today, we're going to be looking at a couple more.

Don't Fix What Isn't Broken, But Don't Let It Stagnate Either
The traditional mortar stone wall can be incredible when used with natural stone blocks, but the cost is extremely high and it takes a significant amount of specialised equipment and materials to perform effectively. A veneer stone wall is much simpler to create, but it also employs fewer real stones, and might not be able to provide the right amount of gravitas that you require.

In the middle is a slipform stone wall, which again brings the best of both worlds together to provide an elegant solution that might better fit your needs. A selection of natural stones are used to create a wall, and then concrete is poured behind them, sealing them all together and creating a wall that has a strong, natural foundation. With this wall, you won't have to use a large amount of scaffolding or support bars, but the early stages of construction are likely to have a high cost due to the difficulty of working with natural stone, and you will still need to employ highly-skilled and properly-equipped experts, which isn't the cheapest solution to any problem.

Build The Wall First, And Then Make It Pretty
If you find a building that has a stoney exterior, but framed walls on the interior, then you'll have come across an example of a framed-one side building. The interior frame is built first, which makes the rest of the formwork much more accessible and much easier to complete. Stonemasons are then able to use a mix of stone, concrete, and steel to create a structurally sound wall that looks beautiful, and it can even be quicker to build than some other types of wall.

As with those other types of wall, though, there are some problems to consider. Due to the weight of the stones on the structure of the building, lateral deflections become a problem much sooner into the building's lifespan than normal, while the additional width added by the stones makes the available span length for engineers much shorter and may pose difficulties with the layout of your building.

Stonemasons Know What's Best For You
When you're trying to decide which wall you'd like to add to your property, you might want to consider reaching out to a team of dedicated stonemasons first. Here at the RJC Group, our team has years of experience working in stonemasonry across the city, and we're more than capable of helping you pick out a wall that will complement your property. For all stonemasonry in Sydney, contact our team on (02) 8322 1832.

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