Walls have many functions: containment, shelter, water management, habitat, resilience. A free standing wall has two sides, a retaining wall has one side, a haha is embedded into a slope so as not to be visible in the main vistas.
Ditch and dyke, turf and stone walls – intended to maximise the use of on property resources and reduce the cost of stone.
Earth wall faced with natural field stones Cornish Walls – wide stone-faced earth-filled walls often with a hedge planted on top. Used to separate stock from product plants and/or emergency dry-year fodder trees. Shelter is a key feature.Capping and Coping – The top of wall can be finished with many styles capping. These are large flat stones with a straight edge and thin vertical face like paving on top of the wall. Stones need to be heavy enough so that they are not easily dislodged.Traditional Drystack. River bank terracing with steps – digger assisted dry stack.River bank terracing with steps – digger assisted dry stack.Same stone – mortared vs dry.Same stone – mortared vs dry.Steps using Gibbston Schist square edged capping stones.Fountain in formal garden room setting – natural Gibbston Schist veneered onto concrete block structure. Unpointed, stone on stone stacked to simulate drystack.Wavy wall – structure allows the wall to be thin. Tightly fitted coping stones.Thin Flagstones pitched vertically to form a wall.Sheepyards – Dunstan Trail.Natural paving stones fitted vertically to form a wall.Renovation – restacked dry stack wall of field stones. The structure is relying on how well the stones are fitted so they transfer the weight through each other to the foundations.Replication of field stone wall – at through stone level.Mortar cored simulated dry-stack in field stones. With mortar the fitting load bearing stone to stone surfaces is less critical allow effort to concentrate on fitting at the face.Feature wall veneered against structure.Wide low curved wall doubling as seating. Alexandra Fruitlands stone. Concrete foundation and core.Retaining wall integrating large field stones.Large natural standing stone use as wall end stone. Nice juxtaposition between the built and natural environment.This is a historic building built from mud and field stones that has undergone a major reconstruction to building code. It has been dismantled, a steel and concrete block structure has been built, and the original cladding has been veneered inside and out, floor, roof, and wall. The moister membrane is behind the substrate wall and cavity (schist is not watertight). The ties pass through the cavity at anchor to the structure.The original stones were cut down at their back to veneer depth (200mm) and laid in cement mortar.Then pointed in Natural Hydrated Lime. This is the bagged look and originally was lime washed.Patearoa Station Historic Woolshed built from on farm sourced stone. Pointed in lime. Note traditional coursing where the wall is constructed in lifts related the height of the corner stones. The wall is double blocked with a mortar and rubble core.Authentic historic dry-stack wall using filed stones. Note the protruding through stones which are traditionally left un-trimmed to aid climbing the wall.
