[Squizzy Taylor]

I haven't been around much latley so I thought I'd whack up a job we did out at a cheese factory last summer (when you guys where freezing). The owner was Italian and wanted some piers at the frontage of his new house. The house design was weird and gave me no clues. The owner was pretty much at the end of his budget. So we ended up trying to do a silk purse out of the sows ear.

The stone is quarry cut limestone. Many of the blocks are not square and vary in size 1/2" or more. Its popular and economical around here...but we like to try and do something different occaisionally...its meatball job for us.

[Squizzy Taylor]

Here is a bit more

[Squizzy Taylor]

and another

[Squizzy Taylor]

I hear the landscaping has been done at this site now so I should be getting back to see how it looks. We also did a small circular feature inside the driveway after these pics were taken. This only shows the left side of the drive...its the same on the right.

[Stonehenge]

Looks like good stuff, Squizzy. The limestone looks a bit different than the stuff they quarry near me - the pictured stone looks very porous. Do you know how much it weighs per unit volume?

Pic #2 - I can always appreciate the effort that goes into building something that requires perfect alignment, and executing that design.

What kinds of footings did you have to pour to build this project? Is it a deeper footing at the piers?

[Squizzy Taylor]

Originally posted by Stonehenge
Looks like good stuff, Squizzy. The limestone looks a bit different than the stuff they quarry near me - the pictured stone looks very porous. Do you know how much it weighs per unit volume?

Pic #2 - I can always appreciate the effort that goes into building something that requires perfect alignment, and executing that design.

What kinds of footings did you have to pour to build this project? Is it a deeper footing at the piers?

Jeff, these blocks at 500 x 350 x 240mm (19 1/2 x 14 x 9 1/2") are about 120lbs depending on how much moisture they carry and depending on the density. Thats the thing with our quarry cut stuff...it varies a lot. I was pleased with this stuff as it had a bit of colour and reasonably even density.....I wasn't pleased with the dimensional control though.

I appreciate your keen eye, thats the thing with piers...you can get 25 perfectly straight...but if the 26th is slightly out thats the one people will notice.

Poured concrete footing, 25/20 with trench mesh and 8" thick (deep)...and about 4" wider than the block both sides. Galvanised 1/2" starter bars up the middle of the piers. The footing is the same thickness (depth) at the piers only wider.

What we like to do with this stone (when the client is willing to pay) is "pillow" the blocks by round cornering the edges. This gives a very Tuscan look. If the dimension is good or we get factory diamond re-cut we can close up the mortar joins and that really improves the look.

[Stonehenge]

What do you use to pillow the blocks? Angle grinder? Some fancy diamond-bit router?

That stone looks like it'd be fun to work with - around here the water doesn't affect the weight of the stone, but it's likely because most of the limestone here is about 140-160 pounds per cubic foot, where that stone sounds like it's quite a bit less dense (I calculated about 80 pounds per cubic foot).

A lighter stone would make that work much more enjoyable.

Did you do anything special to maintain alignment of the piers? Laser, maybe?

Excellent work.

[Squizzy Taylor]

Originally posted by Stonehenge
What do you use to pillow the blocks? Angle grinder? Some fancy diamond-bit router?

That stone looks like it'd be fun to work with - around here the water doesn't affect the weight of the stone, but it's likely because most of the limestone here is about 140-160 pounds per cubic foot, where that stone sounds like it's quite a bit less dense (I calculated about 80 pounds per cubic foot).

A lighter stone would make that work much more enjoyable.

Did you do anything special to maintain alignment of the piers? Laser, maybe?

Excellent work.

A diamond face wheel on a 5" grinder for a rough chamfer followed by carborundum hand stones to smooth and round the edges. Its time consuming and labour intensive.

80 to 100 lbs/ft3 depending on wether there is any capstone (basically fossil) in the stone.

To align the piers we run a stringline, simply for the line, and use the laser for the height. One of the hardest things in this case is keeping the caps in alignment. We also use cheap adjustable clamps (sash type) for keeping the blocks in place while we are building.