Costing a dry stone wall.

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Willowchase

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Hi, would anyone out there be able to give me a rough estimate for constructing a dry stone wall. There is an existing stone wall which is now in bad condition and will have to be knocked and reconstructed. Therefore no stone is required. The wall is 100 feet long and 3 feet high.
 
Lot of variables involved which can effect price

Location of wall, is it in a built up area or high traffic area which will involve more costs including health and safety issues and possible local authority costs including insurance if work will extend onto a public road or footpath.
Original wall foundation will almost certainly need to be replaced, also is the wall in close proximity to services.
Is the (boundary) wall part of a property registered as a protected structure, in this case a local authority may take the view that planning permission may be required or at least insist in agreeing with you the standard of works required to rebuild the wall to a satisfactory standard.
Labour rates in stone masonry will depend on the stone used and the standard of finish required.

This is a worst case scenario, best option is to get a stone mason to visit site and give you a written quote to rebuild the wall.
 
Thanks for your reply Peter, but none of above apply. This is an old dry stone wall forming a farm field boundary (not on public road or near any services) and we have bought a site incorporating this stretch of wall. This wall is now in a state of disrepair and we wish to have it redone. The wall is composed of limestone rocks with no foundation as such. The work just entails removing all the existing stones and relaying them to form a tidy finish. Base of wall is approx 2 feet wide.
 
It depends where you live as well. Look for trained Dry stone masons to do the work. If you are in the US go to the Dry Stone Conservancy site to find a local certified dry stone mason to do your work. If in the UK go to Dry Stone Walling Association site and they have a link to certified and trained dry stone masons also. Plus they have have free PDF's you candownload that will show you how your wall should be built and what to expect from the masons. I can't give you a rough number because of all the unknowns and location, but this is what I do for a living. Trained masons will all have the same language, understand what they are looking at, and be able to properly rebuild your fence/wall. Apply all the rules and you have have structural wall that will last over a century. Skip one rule and you have a beautiful pile of stones that will be a liability in 5-10 years.
 
If you are in rural area there will definetly be some local people who will be able to do this work, im sure if you ask around you will get some recommendation by word of mouth. The chances are they wont be memebers of any association but they will do a good job. Farmers often have to rebuild repair stone walls due to animals/machines rubbing against them.
 
Have now received a qoutation from local mason who has quoted €1,200 for the job. Has advised it will take himself and labourer one week to complete.

This seems very expensive as all the stone is on site and it merely entails knocking the existing wall down and relaying the stones. There will be no foundation or ground/earthwork involved. Can't see how it would take two men 5 days to do this.

Any observations would be appreciated.
 
''merely entails knocking wall'' - but he will also have to put down a solid base of stone upto ground level as previous one is more than likely built on earth, clean existing stone of any soil which has built up over the years etc. then build the wall.

to be honest, sounds like a very reasonable price to me. at just over 30 square metres - it works out at 40 euro a square metre which isn't at all bad for a mason and a laborer.


Look at it this way, (2 workers X 5 days X 9 hours) is 90 man hours

if the two lads were on the minimum wage they would get 90 X 8.65 = 778.50

it's not one bit unreasonable that a skilled trademan is making 400 odd euro over the minimum wage for a job which he will be standing over.

hope that helps
 
Thanks for that reply O Murchu. I take your point re the rate. However the wall at present is laid on the ground and there will be no change to this. At present the wall bulges and leans in various places but miraculously all stones are still standing, i.e. none lying around on the ground, therefore no stones to clean as such. There is a very small quantity of ivy on part of the wall (about 2 metres of wall) which will have to be removed but that's all.

It's on this basis that I can't see the job extending over a whole week. If I thought for one moment that there was 90 man hours involved I would agree that the price is excellent
 
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