On Tue, 02 May 2006 12:32:41 GMT, RoyJ wrote:

Stone basement walls are typically 18" (or even more) thick. It has to
do with laying up the stone.

The early settlers in the Minnesota Iron range used to make basement
walls with hand mixed slip formed concrete. To save on expensive cement,
they filled the walls with local rock. As in mostly granite rocks 3" to
15" across. You could get a very solid rock wall with only about 25%
concrete mix. But drilling through this to put in utilities later was
something else!

Before my parents were married, my mother had purchased the central
Ontario house where my father was born (had belonged to his maternal
grandparents) as a vacation residence for her city family. When
planning marriage, Dad wanted to have the driven well pump in the
summer kitchen during warm weather and in the main house all winter.
This meant an offset of the 1-1/4" suction pipe through the three foot
stone and mortar foundation. Mother's university student, younger
brother was given the task of making the hole during his holiday
visit. A week latter, he managed to penetrate the wall and with
another half day of work, a man could crawl through. Poor guy didn't
get much fishing time on that summer holiday.
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada