A Guide to Dry Stone Walling | Andy Radford

book: A Guide to Dry Stone Walling | Andy Radford

books:

A Guide to Dry Sto...

	A Guide to Dry Stone Walling Andy Radford Crowood Press, 2001 - 128 pages average customer review:based on 1 review view larger image
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Dry stone walling is one of the oldest country crafts. These structures form one of the most striking features of the rural landscape, whether meandering through a field or gracing a home. In this hands-on guide, landscaper Andy Radford explores the history of dry stone walls and explains how and why they were originally built. He also offers step-by-step instruction, enhanced with explanatory photos and diagrams, showing you how to build or repair a wall, whether a hillside boundary or a garden feature. The book?s contents include finding suitable stone; tools of the trade; basic walling techniques; building or repairing a curved wall; walling on slopes; and gapping, retaining walls, and variations. Andy Radford has been building dry stone walls for nearly two decades; he is a consultant, designer, and contractor and runs his own landscaping business in Wales.

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Practical Advice

I give Andy Radford's book five stars, because now that I'm actually finished with months of off and on reading and I'm now down to actually building my stone walls, its his book (among half a dozen others), that I'm using for help.

Mr. Radford's experience is entirely from Great Britain where he lives. This could have been a big problem, since he works in a different climate with different geology. There is a bit of history over there about stone walls, so perhaps this is why the author ably communicated universal techniques that span regional differencs in aesthetics and stone.

Actually, the value I continue to get out of the book, despite the differences in geography and culture, probably result from Mr. Radford's experience as a teacher. His book (text, photos, step by step, and categorization by type of wall) follows a logical sequence specifically designed for the beginner.

The only thing I smiled about was the front cover photo - of a wall that very much looks like it was a beginner's first effort! Like they say, don't just a book by its cover. Inside is everything you need to know about the fundamentals of dry stacking a nice stone wall in a variety of situations.

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