Building Friesenwall - construction and instructions for the stone wall

• Materials and utensils
• preparation
• Building Friesenwall: Instructions
• Costs with a specialist

The Friesenwall. It seems like it came out of a fairy tale and presents itself in an appealing way in the garden. This wall is an alternative to the classic stone wall, which completely dispenses with mortar and therefore belongs to the dry stone walls. This makes them so popular and it can also be easily planted, which ensures a natural character.

You have decided to build a frieze wall in your garden "> Materials and utensils

Before you can build the wall, you must first have the necessary materials and utensils, including tools available. The following list provides information:

• stones
• earth
• Wall sand with a grain size of up to 2 mm
• Rüttelplatte or handstampers
• wall cord
• Woods for attaching the string
• shovel
• ruler
• wheelbarrow
• Gardening gloves
• flatter
• Garden hose with spray head
• planter
• Optional: suitable plants; best rock garden plants with little space

You see, heavy equipment is actually not needed for the Friesenwall, except for the vibrating plate for compacting the sand layer on which the wall is being built. A vibrating plate you can borrow for about 40 euros a day at a hardware store or specialist. Alternatively, offer hand rammers, which can be rented for about six euros a day. If you decide to buy a hand rammer, you will have to reckon on costing between 30 and 50 euros. More important as the device for compacting, of course, are the stones. Make sure that you have a good mix of small and large stones with a diameter of 20 to 50 cm. The wall builds up on the big stones and is followed by the small stones. The following stones are suitable:

• Porphyry: angular shape, costs about 50 euros per tonne
• Granite: different shapes, costs per ton between 55 and 100 euros
• Dolomite: different versions, costs per ton between 65 and 120 euros
• Basalt: different versions, costs per ton between 65 and 120 euros
• Foundlings of different stones: depending on their size, the costs per ton are between 300 and 600 euros
• Gravel scree: costs about 50 euros per ton

Foundlings are the original stones that are used for the Friesenwall and allow the classic character of the stone wall. However, boulders are usually much more expensive if you do not get them from a friendly farmer. Alternatively, boulders may be offered as a gift on classifieds in your area, leaving only the cost of transportation open.

The amount of stone you can not calculate directly, because the stones are not piled up like a brick wall or filled in gabions in the cages. Experience has shown that one ton of stone is needed for two square meters. More important is the right amount of sand or gravel for the "foundation". This is calculated as follows:

• Length of the wall in cm x height of the foundation in cm x width of the foundation in cm = amount of sand in m³

In a Friesenwall with a length of 10 m (= 1, 000 cm), a foundation width of 100 cm and foundation height of 20 cm you come to a sand requirement of 2, 000, 000 cc, which corresponds to 2 m³. Sand is offered in kilograms or tons and to calculate this you need to know the density of the material. Classical wall sand weighs about 1, 500 to 1, 600 kg per m³, which would correspond to a material requirement of about 3, 000 to 3, 200 kg, ie 3 to 3.2 tonnes. Finally, only the compression must be added:

• preliminary sand demand in tx compression of 6% = final sand requirement in t

If the approx. 3 t now charged with 6%, you come to a material requirement of 3.18 t. A ton of sand costs between 15 and 20 euros, the delivery costs not included. For the sand bed of a ten-meter Friesenwalls with 20 centimeters deep and one meter wide you would spend between 48 and 65 euros. You do not have to buy earth beforehand, because the excavation for the sand bed is used again for the stone wall. However, it is worth getting extra sacks of soil or, if possible, for the time being to use earth from your own garden and to buy extra soil for the hole in the garden after the completion of the wall.

Tip: instead of earth, you can use turf to fill in the gaps in the wall, as it adheres to the wall over time and looks natural. If you choose turf, you should be careful to choose a slow-growing variety and you will also need a large serrated knife to help cut the turf into the required stripes.

preparation

Of course, before setting up the stone wall, it is important to have the sand bed, which is, so to speak, the foundation for the Friesenwall. Friesenwälle need no foundation, only the sand bed is necessary so that the stones do not sink. If you book a vibrating plate for this purpose, you should take care not to use them over the daily rest periods or overnight. When creating the sandbed, proceed as follows:

• pick up a hole in the width of 20 to 50 cm
• If you want to build a stone wall under 125 cm, a depth of 20 cm is sufficient
• 80 cm are the typical height of a Friesenwall
• the width is between 80 and 100 cm
• wider tile walls do not really work and are unstable
• the length of the excavation corresponds to the length of the desired wall
• Now fill the pit completely with sand
• then compact with the vibrating plate or hand tamper
• always fill in some sand until all the sand is compacted

If you want to create the Friesenwall on a rainy day, you only have to stretch a tarp over the hole at a height below which you can still move. But this is only possible if your wall is not on a slope, otherwise all the water flows into the sand bed.

Building Friesenwall: Instructions

After you have prepared the sand bed, you can immediately start building the Friesenwall. You do not have to wait after compaction because the sand remains in place due to the effect of force. When building the stone wall proceed as follows:

Step 1: Begin by arranging the stones according to size. This is important, because as described above, because the heaviest and largest stones form the basis for the rest of the Wall.

Step 2: Now take the stones and place them on the edge of the sand bed with the pointed side in the ground. Select adjacent stones so that they can be positioned as close as possible. Tap them with a pounding hammer and move until the entire outline of the excavation has been closed with stones.

Step 3: Now fill the excavation directly in the middle of the sand bed. Friesenwälle are inside filled only with soil and therefore the structure is so simple. Distribute the excavation well so that the stones can rest on it.

Step 4: Stretch a string along both sides of the wall along the entire length. Align these at an angle of 15 ° above the basic stone layer. This marker acts as an escape for the Friesenwall, because this must not be straight, otherwise the stability suffers underneath and the water can not drain.

Step 5: Now stack the rest of the stones on the other stones and refill with soil, so that the boulders do not fall inward. This requires some practice and a lot of time, but only requires a little patience and a little trial and error until the right stones are found. The soil should be condensed and refilled by hand over and over again.

Step 6: If you choose turf for filling the gaps, it must be placed on the boulders after each layer, as this is no longer possible after building the wall. The overlying chunks fix the lawn by itself. Repeat this process until the entire wall stands.

Step 7: Then fill the holes between all the stones sufficiently with earth. This is important so that the wall can have good stability. The earth in intervals compact with the handle of the hammer. Make sure that no earth trickles out. Wet the soil with water from the hose so it is not too dry. Proceed with this until all intermediate spaces are completely closed.

Step 8: Finally, you can put the plants in the columns directly on the wall. Use the planter to carefully plant the plants with their roots in the ground.

Step 9: Finally, the plants are watered and you have to keep the soil in the wall more humid over the first few weeks, so that the plants do not enter. This is especially important in sunny locations.

Costs with a specialist

If you do not want to set up the Friesenwall yourself, you can contact a specialist company. He then takes care of the construction, but there are quite high costs for you, especially if the fence is longer. The materials are not even more expensive than the DIY version. For this example we assume a frieze wall in the classical height of 80 cm. Here the cost per meter for earth, sand, stones and plants would be between 49 and 93 euros. There are also the following costs:

• Craftsman: 36 to 50 euros per m
• Planting: 5 to 10 euros per m
• Transport: 19 to 30 euros per m

That's an extra 60 to 90 euros just for the company, bringing the price per meter to 183. Since a meter Friesenwall does not really bring much, of course, the costs increase accordingly. So you would have to pay for ten meters up to 1, 830 euros. Note that you can often pick up the material for very small Friesenwällen, which of course greatly reduces transport costs. However, the longer the Friesenwall is, the higher the transport costs.