Building with stone and earth: Part 1
Practical Action
earth. Re-tie the peg two footsteps further along the string from the central pole, and draw a
second circle on the ground. These concentric circles mark out your foundation layer of stones.
Keep the string attached to the central pole, for you will need it again when building the main
wall.
Now put in two poles where you want your door to be, as wide apart as you want to make your
doorway, exactly half-way between the inner and outer circles. Use straight poles, and make sure
they really are vertical, not at a slight angle.
For the foundation, choose the flattest stones you can find. Lay them around one of the lines,
with their ends touching each other. Move to the other line and do the same again. You will now
have two lines of stones laid in two concentric perfect circles.
There are two very important things to do at this stage. First, ensure that each of the stones that
you have laid sits firmly on the ground. Gaps will make the stones unstable, so put small, wedge-
shaped pieces of stone underneath where necessary. Secondly, fill the spaces between the stone
circles with waste (smaller pieces of stone). These can be collected, or you can smash larger
stones with your hammer. You will now have what looks like a flat stone path. The wall will be
built on top of this, so try to keep the stones roughly the same height as each other. If you have a
big stone that sticks up a bit, for example, take it out, dig a little hole in the ground, and then
put it back. It should now be the same height as the stone beside it.
Now test the wall: walk on all the stones you have laid. If you have placed them correctly, there
should be very little movement under your weight, if any. When you find a loose stone, place
more wedges around it until it no longer moves.
Building the wall
First, you will need to do a couple of
simple things so that you can make
the sides of your rondavel vertical and
keep the wall the same thickness all
the way up.
The wall that you are going to build is
a little less wide than the foundation
layer, enabling the weight of the wall
to be spread better over the
foundation. Take the string that is
tied to the central pole, remove the
peg, pull the string out tight towards
the edge of the foundation layer, and
tie a knot in it. Now this knot must
be a little bit inside the outer edge of
the foundation layer, by about the
width of three fingers. Every stone you
now lay will use this knot to place it
in the right position. The other thing
you need is a measuring stick. It must
be narrower than the foundation layer
by three fingers' width at each end.
This stick is exactly the same width as
the wall you are to build, so that the
foundation layer will stick out by
three fingers' width both on the inside
and outside.
Figure 4: The longest side of the stones run into the
wall.
Figure 5: Fill the middle of the wall with plenty of
small stones as well as mud.
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