Dry stone foundations

[Eric D. Hart]

Shannon wrote:

>I suspect they didn't bother with mortared stone foundations because they
>are fairly common, dry stone foundations allow you to get away from that
>nasty cement based stuff :-)  Cob Cottage Company's current foundations
>are typically rubble trench footing with a one foot above grade dry stone
>wall (sort of) except that they use a lime mortar to fill in the gaps
>between the stones to help keep out moisture and critters.  The lime
>mortar provides absolutely NO binding strength to the wall (at least not
>initially), so it essentially is just a dry stone foundation.

        Can anybody describe to me how a dry stone foundation works?  I was
looking at the Earthsweet Home WWW page (a non-profit in Vermont I believe)
and they were saying that this method has been used in New England for a
long time and is much more common in Europe.  Its kind of hard for me to
visualize how a foundation can take lateral loads when its not connected by
mortar.  Must be something else holding it together.



Eric D. Hart			
Community Eco-design Network	  
Minneapolis, MN  USA		
(612) 305-2899 
erichart at mtn.org			
http://www.tc.umn.edu/nlhome/m037/kurtdand/cen