Granite

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The local granite people are opening a new quarry this September. It will be of interest to see the saw that made that cut. A wire saw of some sort. This is new technology, I have been visiting the local quarries that were in use in the late 1800's, viewing photos and such. A heavy type of work. The old photos show the derricks used to move the blocks on location, oxen with a gallamander or a flat bed railroad car then down hill to the ships in waiting.

The older houses sat on these granite blocks, I haven't see much for granite under barns. Tim

Tim,

Quite a picture.

As you saw on the tour last month, most (if not all) barns down here sit on granite. Puzzling that you don't see it where you are... what did they use instead?

Field stone, cheap and it had to come off the field anyway is my guess. I may look into using granite for replacement in repair work, times are changing. Tim

That certainly is an odd marking. I wonder what caused it. Wires are usually very smooth. My friends wire saw is almost done, we've been working on it for about four years now. He's going to cut marble, however.


Dave

Dave, the granite shifted and bound on the wire, maybe. I don't know what this saw looked like. They also had sheet metal balloons which are slipped into the kerf and pumped up to loosen the chunk or to act as a wedge to keep this from happening. I have a photo but I am on the quick reply. Tim

Here is the balloons. Tim
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Informative pics Tim. I'm going to learn how to post pics someday soon.
A friend of mine quarries granite or schist at the bottom end of his hillside in N Milford Ct. splits out pcs he can barely pick up w the Prentice loader on the log truck.
I'm in northern Westchester County, 1.5 miles from Ridgefield CT.
All barns I've worked on or seen have had dry fieldstone except for more recent rich man's gentleman farms which sometimes have cut stone foundations, dry or mortared. Recent = very late 19 century and 20 cent. And also bldgs moved in 20 cent onto new poured concrete fnd.
Fieldstone fnd. can be shallow and quite subject to freeze/thaw movement. I say the bldgs are "floating" on them - quite often steadily sinking, as well as grades build up over the years. We restored one barn in North Salem NY where grade at uphill end had risen 18" in approx 40 yrs, partially burying walls and blocking doors. Lack of maintenance for not being used any more. It was a stick framed gambrel roofed hay, horse and cow barn, We repaired and upgraded it by building a hybrid TF/LVL load bearing frame within that picked up the loads that had broken the orig light wt framing. Water damage contrbuted greatly to structural failure at the usual spots. We also dug and placed new masonry footings and piers at our new point loads.
"House built on a weak foundation will not stand, oh no!" Harry Belafonte
Can you swim in that quarry?
Steve

nice looking granite tim, you going to use some of the granite for up coming projects?
matt

One never knows what will be needed tomorrow, Matt. Just possible preparations. I am also trying to understand the whole building process, from the ground up. One of many steps. What did these builders go through? How did they stand these up on edge and keep them there? One more photo next post. Tim

Here is the remains of the parsonage foundation. The granite blocks are about 8"-9" wide and 30" tall, and at first seem a bit tipsy. They have a lime morter for the sills to sit on, most likely the sills were set on when the lime was wet. I need a closer look to see how they kept them up right. Tim [img]http://[IMG]http://i349.photobucket.com/albums/q393/timber500/100_1593.jpg[/img][/img]

Can you swim in that quarry? When I was teaching school in Stockbridge MA in 1981, several miles south of town there was a marble quarry that filled w COLD water that was a great, giant swimming pool. I took my "farm program" students there in my '79 Power Wagon into the woods on an abondoned rr bed, then hiked thru the woods and over a stream, past rusting quarry equip & small ga. RR tracks and huge blocks of cut marble. The sides of the quarry provided lots of ledges from cut blocks for sunning on or daring jumps into the water. Top promentory we (some of us) jumped from is 53' above the water. My students were "special needs, in trouble" kids - we built a barn, raised animals, logged some of the school's 600 acres and cut firewood for all the dorms' fireplaces, grow a garden, build a greenhouse, cook all our meals. I taught many of these teenagers to use a chainsaw, plus other building tools, and safely with no injuries. Our main job as staff was to teach them about life and to help them grow up. They taught me a lot too.
Some of your pics of your home & garden reminded me of the school and of my present home. Looks like you got a good life Tim.
Steve

One can swim in the quarries, plenty of water. There is a story of a fellow a few years back who cracked his head on a rock while diving. He was a troubled youth, he spent a number of minutes under water before they found him. It's said he came out of the water a different person. I never participated in the parties the quarries held but heard plenty of stories. Your story has a positive educational twist to it. I will see if I can get a photo of the larger quarry, with the Jonesboro Red granite. Tim

Interesting.

I have heard of the top course of nicely split, rectangular foundation granite called "tip-ups" Here in Waldoboro, Maine, we had a granite quarring boom in the 1880-1890s and some large barns of this period had huge granite blocks including "tip-ups". Usually barns around here do not have the tip-ups, but there are plenty of big stones, dry laid, and it is extremely rare to see the sill bedded in lime mortar. Almost all old houses here have the tip-ups.

I have heard that "the ground grows" and buildings sink. It is a fairly common problem for part of a barn to be "underground", and, of course, in need of repair. Some small ground barns and sheds seem to have been set on rocks laid as shallow as a plow could dig. Some of these foundations hold up for hundreds of years, as long as the ground is not saturated with water. Foundations being "heaved" inward or downhill by the expansion of frozen groundwater (frost heave) is a common problem.

Jim

I work with granite a fair amount and pick it up at a Concord quarry on occasion, the one you can see (look for the derricks) off on a rise to the east of the city from I93

They slab huge blocks into thinner pieces with a giant circ saw, maybe a 14' blade, it makes multiple shallow water cooled cuts, guessing it might be taking a 1/4" per pass, dropping down into the block hour upon hour, day in day out. Multiple automated saws in multiple sheds cutting with little or no human supervision.

Guessing again, that the pictured piece was cut in that fashion and somewhere in the process the saw broke down and left those mill marks ???

I see lots of granite in both house and barn foundations, and though this is only an observation, quarried granite becomes less frequent the father you get from the quarries. It disappears from barn except for maybe piers in manure bays, and is used only on the street side in house foundations. I believe this probably had to do with the expense of transport which must have been charged by the mile.

Quick edit - Mostly about direction and spelling.

I work with granite a fair amount and pick it up at a Concord quarry on occasion, the one you can see (look for the derricks) off on a rise to the west of the city from I-93

They slab huge blocks into thinner pieces with a giant circ saw, maybe a 14' blade, it makes multiple shallow water cooled cuts, guessing it might be taking a 1/4" per pass, dropping down into the block hour upon hour, day in day out. Multiple automated saws in multiple sheds cutting with little or no human supervision.

Guessing again, that the pictured piece was cut in that fashion and somewhere in the process the saw broke down and left those mill marks ???

I see lots of granite, in both house and barn foundations, and though this is only an observation, quarried granite becomes less frequent the farther you get from the quarries. It disappears from barns except for maybe piers in manure bays, and likewise becomes less common in house foundations and is used only on the street side. I believe this probably had to do with the expense of transport which must have been charged by the mile.

Will, a wire saw was used here, am still looking forward to seeing it. The operation here is but a sliver of a larger company from away.

The next photo is of a tip-up tipped down. No mortar just loose flat stone, granite, under the tip-up. They were laid neatly. It took no effort to lay the large stone down. Tim

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