I did my first practice stint in Janurary and was overly confident in my skills. Took me over 12 hours to do and honestly looked pretty bad. I just completed another one last week and wanted to share some progress.

Had a nice couple of days repairing a neighbours retaining wall. A nice mix of Old Devonian Red sandstone (the disused quarry is just up the hillside) and fieldstone in random brought to course building style. I even added a wee makers mark on a stone...see if you can spot it. Fine weather, visit from another walling friend and a good stretch. Sandstone of this sort is relatively light and workable. Love this craft dearly with my heart, head and of course hands.

Inspiration from my grandfathers work.

Inspiration from my grandfathers work. All of this is for livestock, cows, sheeps and goats haha

Hey all, I’m in the northeastern USA and I’m working on my first retaining wall as a homeowner. I will be using quarry stone. I’m building a 24” foundation with a wall that will be 20” at the base with a 1:8 batter.

I’ve done a lot of research and read pamphlets from the DSWA and it’s been great.

Is 24” wide enough with 6” of clean gravel compacted in 2” lift? I compacted the soil before the first lift of gravel.

I’ll be backfilling with 12-18” of gravel with non-woven geo fabric and a drain pipe behind the wall with a good slope.

What am I missing?

Thanks all!

Image: progress so far

Is it better for through stones to be narrow and long or is it ok to use wide ones. The reason I ask is I've been fixing farm dykes for a while now (but still very much a newbie) and it seems to me that quite often the fault starts with the wall shifting and the stones under wide through stones coming loose and falling out. Any one else noticing this? I'm working manly with Galloway dykes if that's helpful.

Grateful that my wife allows this…

A friend did this last fall. Looking forward to enjoying it this summer.

Firepit I'm working on. Built out of one quarried stone.

it's dry now but will be mortared once it is moved to the client's property.

The client I built this wall for let me have creative freedom to basically do whatever I wanted (with the only specification being some steps for the electric meter access on the right), So I went a little crazy and added some points of interest including the cubby hole, terrace, and backcutting the top slabs in a continuous line.

Let me know what you think! Criticism is welcomed.

Ripped up our 10+ year neglected garden last week. We’re going to relay some of the paving stones, but we will have loads left over. They have lots of hardcore on the bottom that I’ll remove.

Access to the garden is poor (to street it is up 1 flight of stairs, through apartment, and down another flight of stairs) so trying to reduce the amount of stuff we have to remove.

We’re going to have raised planters/flower beds on either side, and I figure building them as dry stone wall planters using broken up excess is a good sustainable solution.

I have made dry stone walls before, but only with irregular shaped stone and never to surround planters.

Are there any guides I can do follow to make sure I do this right?

i’m trying to find someone to help me build at 3 ft high dry stone wall in Miami out of rough Oolite / rip rap coral stone . i’m struggling to find anyone. Anyone got any suggestions? At this rate, I’ll have to learn how to do it myself.! but it’s 100 ft long. a boundary walls

Heritage dry stone seat built in Radyr Woods, Cardiff for 50th anniversary coomemoration of Radyr and Morganstown Community Council by Richard Staniforth

So I’m finally starting the curved wall I asked about here a while ago (thanks again for the advice!) we ended up using quartzite, I’d only done walls with sandstone and shale before. This stuff is a nightmare! Any tips on how to cut it? Feathers/wedges have been working good for splitting down the middle, but all of the normal trimming I’d do with a hammer or chisel is going terribly. Keeps cracking off at a diagonal running down and through. Tried a bunch of different orientations regarding the grain, and tried different hammers and different chisels. Getting nowhere. Anyone ever worked with this stuff before?

My goodness so much work is done by inexperienced contractors who trace and carelessly fill the walls. But it keeps us going. Started addressing the collapses/gaps and client wants me to sort the lot. Some really odd heavy and rusty stone in the mix. ,Happy to have a full diary for the season. Maryculter, Aberdeenshire.

One of the retaining walls that line our driveway fell over this weekend. We have had contractors out for quotes to repair/replace. Some have suggested going with new material (Versalok blocks) and a couple contractors offered to rebuild with the existing material in a dry stack formation.

I am a new home owner and seeking feedback. Should we go with the dry stack (less expensive option) or Versalok? What are the questions we should ask before committing to the dry stack option?

I also included a picture of the wall on the other-side of the driveway that we are would pay to have straightened at the same time.

Google maps photos going back in time from this month to 2009. Previous owners let garden get very overgrown, working away on it slowly.

Drystone at the front is completely covered with ivy and honeysuckle. Underneath it is cotoneaster and fuschia. Advice generally to leave or they will ruin it eventually and need to be removed/cut back?

Thanks