We used to have a property in Washington County NY near the Vermont border
that had a dry laid masonry dam retaining a mill pond for the water powered
mill that was no longer there.  The race had drawn off the base of the dam
and the sluice had not been used for so long that the pond was silted up and
more of a bucket of muck than a pond.  Nevertheless, the dam was holding
even though the stones were heaved forward about 3 feet out of plumb.  It
was backed by an earth dam which I believe did that acutal heavy lifting.
There were clearly no signs of any original mortar and water that ran over
the overflow would find its way between the earth dam and stone wall to exit
all along its face.  It was beautiful, mossy and always cool in the summer.
We swam in the old stone lined race below it and sat in the waterfalls.  In
the winter icy would form all over the face in wonderful cascades. I always
wondered about the continued viabilty of the structure that had been built
in the 1840's and still used as a mill 100 years later. We spoke with
someone about it who said that if it collapsed we would be liable for
damages down streak if we knew that the dam was faulty and had not properly
maintained it so we never had it surveyed. Eventually we sold the place.

Mark
----- Original Message -----
From: Donald B. White <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2001 11:15 AM
Subject: One dam thing after another


Message text written by "Hey, this list is not about Nadine - it's about
RALPH!"
>I am working on a rehab of a dam with a rubble masonry downstream face
damaged in Hurricane Floyd. According to inspection reports, there has not
been mortar noted in the joints for over 20 years; it was decribed as
"ungouted." I suggested that it might have been dry laid in the first
place,
but one of the engineers insists that it must have had mortar, which has
spalled off because of water penetraton. So we are in the process of
deciding
mortar color, consistency, joint profile etc. But...... could a downstream
masonry face of a dam have been laid up without mortar?

Mary<

Are you STILL working on that dam' project? Ever find out where the stone
came from?

Don