Speaker A
You join us on a job we started months ago. It's been an absolute nightmare job, so I'm going to get you up to speed right now.
Rebuilding a 200-year-old stone wall using Google Street View for reference amid challenges like stolen railings and no water access.
Key Takeaways
- Google Street View can be a valuable tool for historical restoration projects.
- Restoring old stone walls requires patience, precise measurement, and matching original materials and techniques.
- Vandalism and lack of site resources like water can significantly complicate restoration work.
- Weather struck pointing is a traditional but often disliked pointing style that was matched for authenticity.
- Material shortages may require compromises in restoration visibility and placement.
Summary
- The video documents the restoration of a 200-year-old natural stone wall damaged by vandalism and neglect.
- Original coping stones and railings were stolen or smashed, requiring sourcing replacements from salvage yards.
- The team used Google Street View images from before the damage to accurately reconstruct the wall's original structure and coursing.
- Challenges included lack of water supply on site and working through debris accumulated over two years.
- The pointing technique used is weather struck pointing, matching the original style despite personal preferences.
- The wall measures 21 meters long with steps every five meters, requiring careful measurement and stone matching.
- The team mixed mortar with a 5:1:1 sand, lime, and cement ratio for laying stones.
- They faced material shortages due to damage and had to prioritize stone placement accordingly.
- The restoration process involved detailed stone cutting, leveling, and matching historic features.
- The project highlights the use of modern technology (Google Maps) to aid in traditional masonry restoration.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction to the Wall Restoration Project
- 00:24Damage and Theft of Coping Stones and Railings
- 01:17Measuring and Planning the Wall Reconstruction
- 02:28Using Google Street View for Historical Reference
- 04:07Pointing Techniques and Mortar Mixing
- 05:24Progress Update and Material Challenges
- 07:40Matching Stonework and Final Adjustments
- 11:15Summary and Next Steps in Restoration
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
Definitely going to need a stiff one, aren't we? This natural stone wall is probably about 200 years old.
Speaker A
Probably the same age as the property behind me. Now, the job originally was meant to have the original railings on.
Speaker A
However, they got ripped off. Someone smashed up all the coping stones and took the railings in. So, not only do we have to go to a reclaim yard and get new coping stones, we also have to get new
Speaker A
railings, which is very expensive. All we've been doing so far is working through the pile of rubbish that's been sat here for like the last two years, going through and finding all of the stone and cleaning it up.
Speaker A
I'm going to dig. Dig through the rubbish. [laughter] [clears throat] Once we find water and once we find power, we'll finally start rebuilding.
Speaker A
So, we've just measured the wall. It's 21 meters long. Just trying to figure out the original coping stone, so we're going to measure up this one, which is one of the originals.
Speaker A
There we go. Go to an old salvage yard and try and find some of [music] these again.
Speaker A
Whether or not we will be able to, I don't know. Um, there's no water on this job, no outside tap, and I can't get access to inside.
Speaker A
[snorts] Not been left to code. So, it's what it is. So, we'll be back here whenever to throw a mix on and build this up, but for now, for now, we're off. But yeah, overall, not a bad day.
Speaker A
That's where that's where we're leaving it. [laughter] Railings been stolen, all the expensive coping stones been smashed, no access to water. Finally, four months later, we have water and we have coping stones on the way after spending a lot of money. We've started
Speaker A
laying the original stone. This is it. It's not too bad to lay. Now, what we've had to do is go back in time using Google Maps to figure out all the steps on this job. Looks like it's steps every
Speaker A
five meters, steps down two, maybe three courses of stone, and then we have the coping stones on.
Speaker A
So, we're going to throw another mix on right now. 5 2 2. No, it's not 5 1 1, is it? 5 sand, 1 lime, 1 cement. And then we will do some proper laying and I'll show you how we're getting on. But,
Speaker A
I thought I'd get you all up to speed on this crap job. How's that compo looking? Was it all right?
Speaker A
Nice. Ah, still the wrong one. I need like a small 100 mil. That's the one.
Speaker A
Do you want to go grab the bucket of Flomax then for me, please, buddy?
Speaker A
Nice. Doing. We're using Google images from a few years ago to help us figure out what this wall used to look like. So, it was knocked down back in 2024.
Speaker A
So, we've had to use Google Street View on this road from way back when before the wall was knocked down and using pictures from this side of the road and this side of the road to figure out what all the coursings look like.
Speaker A
So, this side had four courses showing, 1 2 3 4, before it stepped down.
Speaker A
And it looked like we had a 100-mil on the top. So, that works really well. And then round this side we've got a 200-mil and a 170 to bring us up to the correct level to put the coping stone on.
Speaker A
The pointing method as well what we're using is like ribbon struck or weather struck.
Speaker A
You can see there's some of the original pointing here. It's not very pretty. What do you reckon to the pointing?
Speaker A
Shocking. Absolutely shocking. That's the original, this. I'd say much better. [laughter] No, we're just trying to match it in.
Speaker A
Matching in. That's what we're doing. Oh, dear. Um, that's it. I'll tell you what, if I dump this huge load into there. Yeah.
Speaker A
Oops. And on the top. Yeah, get one more bucket out. Hopefully that'll get rid of everything in the mixer.
Speaker A
It will. Oh, now that's a nice piece of stone. [laughter] Good morning. How are you?
Speaker A
Good, mate. How are you? Yeah, not too bad. How was your night? Well, thank you.
Speaker A
Good. No, it looks good. It looks okay. It's hard piece and nothing back together, but I think I think we're on the right track. So, pretty good day yesterday. We're able to get four courses on all over the job. So, now
Speaker A
today we've got our first hurdle, which is I don't think we have enough stone to actually finish the wall. What we're going to need is two courses of 160 mil to get this side finished, but I think we ended up skipping a little bit of it
Speaker A
or it all got damaged when the railings got stolen and the coping stones got smashed up.
Speaker A
So, it probably got put in the skip. Load this wall out. Fingers crossed we have enough. Anything remaining, we're going to try and put. Wow, that sounds knackered.
Speaker A
Anything remaining, we're going to try and put on this side of the wall because we only need one course, maybe one and a half courses on this side and it's only going to be seen by these residents, which sucks for them, but good for the
Speaker A
road. So, that's all we're going to work. Yeah, that's fine. That can go there.
Speaker A
That can go there. That one there. So, we just need two more base. Oh, that's nice. Bring it.
Speaker A
Mate. And then all of this detritus, that can go down there. What do you reckon?
Speaker A
I reckon so. I reckon so. Right, should we get this mixed out then? Unbelievable.
Speaker A
[sighs] That is some delightful flomphomag. I don't know how he does it day in day out.
Speaker A
It's just... So, that should be my dead man. I should just be able to put a line on that.
Speaker A
I'll just run into it, I think. Maybe we should refer to Google images again. What do you reckon?
Speaker A
Do you have any pictures? Don't think there's any harm, is there? No. Is that... And we put it here.
Speaker A
I don't think it's far off. Well, no. I think originally the step was, like you said yesterday, the disabled man's head.
Speaker A
[laughter] We bring it back a little. We've not got this. Yeah, we save stone, don't we? 1 2 3 4 5 stones we'll save.
Speaker A
[sighs] Jake. Aw, where are you, yes. How's he doing? Aw, he's doing amazing. How are you?
Speaker A
I'm good, man. I'm good. Really, really good. [laughter] All right, brother. I'll catch you in a minute.
Speaker A
All right, bro. Much love. Say, say bye, Jake. Say bye. Bye, Jake. [laughter] He's cutting insulation.
Speaker A
[laughter] He's cutting insulation while we're playing with stones. So, the pointing on this job is weather struck pointing. So, yesterday I said that this is the original pointing. It's obviously not. It's been repointed not so long ago with sand and cement. In all
Speaker A
fairness, looking back at the Google photos, actually looks like it was repointed very, very poorly back in 2018.
Speaker A
Personally, Jack and I do hate weather struck pointing on stone. Uh yes. Yeah, it's horrible, isn't it? It looks really bad. I think it's an insult to stone.
Speaker A
But, we are trying to match in to the original original weather struck pointing on my right-hand side and to my left. So, it's not great. I would have preferred to do what we did on the stone build, but obviously we've been asked to do this.
Speaker A
Oh my god. Wow. Unbelievable scenes, [music] Jack. Absolutely banging. [music] It's just on the top [music] of the stone though, isn't it?
Speaker A
Yeah, yeah. Get a cleaner cut. Oh, that's loads better. Get a cleaner cut. [music] Yeah.
Speaker A
So, the final piece of the puzzle, 200-year-old puzzle put back together with Google Maps, is underway, and it's this section here.
Speaker A
So, we've just taken a few measurements. We need a 200-mil stone on the bottom to get us pretty level with what we have, and then a 170 to bring us back with this coursing.
Speaker A
Then, we have this entirety to run in. And it's over there where we're going to have a real problem, but we'll have to come to that in a little bit. We're going to have to use up all the good
Speaker A
stone we do have, like I've said. If we run out, we run out. Fingers crossed we don't. We'll have to wait and see. But, for now, we all got to start pulling through.
Speaker A
You got to go with the ready. Yeah. So, pass me that level, please, and I should that should be level there now.
Speaker A
Thank you so much. See, I reckon that used to be a corner piece because it looks weathered.
Speaker A
It's not bad. It's surprisingly not bad at all. Yeah, drop it down. Drop your end.
Speaker A
I just nee
Speaker A
Big lift, big lift. Right. Yes. 3 2 1. Nice. Nice. Down she goes. Oh, mate. Lovely.
Speaker A
That is badass. Wow. It's very hard though, ain't it? Imagine it's getting there, ain't it?
Speaker A
This course is level with that course there yeah? And the course I've got here is also level with this course here.
Speaker A
Yeah. So, everything in between should just want to work, or it should anyway. That's So, that's with a bed joint, 190, 200, 200. And the And the only things we have left are like 160s 170s.
Speaker A
That's got to be really hard, isn't it? What do we do? What do we do, Jack? We ain't got enough halfway.
Speaker A
Definitely not got halfway. We've got like 200 left. I know. Where Where has our stones gone?
Speaker A
A [laughter] wreck. What we're doing, I'm just using a bit of dirty water to not only take any smears off the stonework from where I smudged it with my trowel or cement got on it when we've been loading out. I'm actually trying
Speaker A
to get all the mud what was originally on the stone from a couple of years ago back out onto the pointing and things like that, so it doesn't all look fresh.
Speaker A
Basically, I'm trying to weather the stones with some dirty water onto the pointing as well to make everything look like it's not been re-laid.
Speaker A
Whether it's working, I don't know until it's dry. But, I reckon I've done something positive.
Speaker A
Mr. Positivity and his sidekick. Exactly. Not quite how I wanted to finish this video. I really wanted to get the entire wall built today. However, like always, another little setback on this job.
Speaker A
We are 12 200 mil stones missing, which is very unfortunate. But, you know, to how what's 4 months ago, at least the job has moved significantly forward, which is very positive. Next time we turn up, the coping stones are going to
Speaker A
be here. They are going to be, hopefully, reclaimed and beautiful, and we'll have all of the stones as well to finish off the wall. So, thank you very much for watching this one.
Speaker A
[laughter] Oh dear. Thank you very much [laughter] for me. Thank you very much for watching this one, and we'll catch you next time when, hopefully, we finally wrap this wall up after 4 months.
Topics:stone wall restorationGoogle Street Viewhistoric masonryweather struck pointingcoping stonesreclaimed stonemasonry techniquesconstruction challengeslime mortarstone cutting
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