Common cement and mortar types go M (hardest), S, N, O, K (softest). Type S is Special, it’s Sticky, for Stone - it has extra lime in it. They all cost pretty much the same, but it’s always cheaper to mix your own if you’re going to use any serious quantity.
Generally speaking you should only use type M with super hard, modern brick that’s rated for it. It will destroy old brick, soft brick, or soft stone by resisting expansion and refusing to flex.
If your fieldstone is extremely notably hard, and you prep the stones with adhesive, you might get away with type M… but I’d use type S unless I was setting clean granite ashlars. S for Stone is a rule that should rarely be broken.
Holy crap that is one hella interesting pic. A thousand words indeed.
S for stone it is, then. I am working with dolomite and limestone (calcium carbonate) because these are endemic to the Texas Hill Country. Every time I dig a hole for a tree, I’m pulling these out (along with karst, limestone that has a lot of chert inclusions, and hunks of pure chert—the last of those going straight to my friends who knap flint arrowheads).
We have a lot of clay out here, so I need flex. Thanks for steering me in the right direction.
I hear the Texas hills are pretty dry - make sure your masonry doesn’t dry out before it cures. Tarps and/or straw can help. One lunar cycle to full cure, although in my area I can stop worrying about moisture after a week. It’s a good idea to do a test wall section or two someplace unobtrusive before you do a wall you want people to look at ;).
And even with that disregard for environmental concerns the island projects in Dubai haven’t really held up over time. I’m reminded of something Jimi Hendrix once said about castles made of sand.
Do not follow this advice in my (mid-atlantic US) area! We’ve got deciduous vines capable of breaking telephone poles… they probably can’t survive as far north as you are, though.
From it, I read another mention of… hey try to guess!:
Vegetation covering the sides and roofs of office blocks not only breaks up a cityscape of concrete and glass, but performs the air cleaning and cooling functions of a forest. Sydney’s One Central Park and Milan’s Bosco Verticale are spectacular examples.
For the love of Jah it’s like our echo chamber just keeps enlarging amoeba-like until… what? it encompasses all witty repartee in the English language? until bOINGbOING starts calling this bbs “Comment is free” maybe?
