arches, vaults, domes -- designing and planning

["stephen.west" <stephen.west@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

To Greg, well I've done quite a lot of wall building in random stone in
Mid-Wales, very hard field stone or reclaimed dressed stone. I have built
dry stone walls for fields and also mortared joints for rebuilding etc.

The way I approached an arched window was to make a semi-circular former
out of plywood exactly the dimensions of the arch, prop it in the opening
and build round it, carefully choosing stones from my pile that were
wedge shaped.

You could lay out the former on the ground first and find the stones and
lay out the arch on the ground allowing 10mm for joints between stones.

If you are using freestone and cutting to fit then, yes, work out the
circumference of the inside of the arch and divide it into the number of
stones you want for your arch, (allowing for mortar joints again) - I
think I would lay it out on the ground first to try!

By the way I am an artist turned stone builder - i hope you get a reply
 from a professional mason too!

Good luck - stone is the best building material on earth - stephen west
(mid Wales)