Big jobs and small jobs…
Dry stone walling projects come in all shapes and sizes. The following two are a good illustration of this point.
The Big
With a big budget, four wallers, a garden designer, three landscapers, a labourer and a mini-digger: this was a big job. Taking an existing garden with a steep drive, crumbling stone walls and established plants and shrubs, we had our work cut out. Initial discussions between the clients, the designer and Stone Inspired led to an agreed design of 16 stairs in a long, sweeping curve bisecting three terraces/raised beds plus a terraced area on the other side of the drive.
Once we started building, large amounts of material were removed from the garden: two skips of shrubs; 12 tonnes of existing stone was dismantled and sold; tonnes of soil were moved to create the terraces.
Then the building began…weeks of it!
Stone-wise we had nearly 30 tonnes delivered in 1/2 tonne bags. Then there were the 50m² of slabs, the 10 tonnes of sand and the numerous bags of cement, new soil and compost.
A big job indeed!
The small
Then there are the smal jobs that take a relatively short space of time to build but totally transform the clients gardens.
The playarea that we built at the Olivebank Children’s Centre in Musselburgh only took 6 tonnes of stone, 1 tonne of sand, 4 bags of cement, 1 tonne of bark chips, 28m² of turf and two large plastic pipes by two of us in only 8 man days. But the effect on the garden has been dramatic and the staff and especially the kids who attend the Centre are so excited with the finished job.
Sometimes the little jobs can be as dramatic as the big ones!