2.60 Contractor’s Intensive Workshop

Course Format:

Day 1 and Day 2: You and your classmates strip out and rebuild the wall over the course of two days—9 to 5 with a half-hour break for lunch. Each of you build about thirty-five square feet of wall, working both sides of your own section of wall. You learn and practice the proper techniques for sound and durable construction, as well as for efficient building. By the end of Tuesday, you and your classmates will have rebuilt the wall to a level of quality that exceeds passing marks for a Level 1 certification.

Day 3: Test your ability to apply the basic principles by building a passing wall within the seven hour time frame allowed for the DSWA Level 1 Waller Certification test. This is a Test Prep day where you practice the Level 1 Dry Stone Wall Certification Test. You take down and rebuild both faces of your test stint in the presence of instructors who answer your questions and provide support and advice to assure you successfully complete the wall on time. Day 3 allows you to experience the pace and workflow required to pass the test.

Day 4: You and your classmates rest after three days of walling, including the strenuous practice test. You focus on stone shaping, pricing and estimating, managing work crews, site prep, equipment, foundations, retaining walls and features–discussions of interest and relevance to professional dry stone walling.

Day 5: TEST DAY! You will put your newly acquired experience to the test in the presence of a DSWA Assessor. You will strip out and rebuild a twenty-seven square foot stint (fifty-four square feet including both faces, the equivalent of 5000 pounds of stone) to Level 1 Waller standards as described in the DSWA Craftsman Certification Scheme. Throughout the day, the assessor will evaluate your work. At the end of the test period, he or she will grade your completed stint and provide you with the marks you have earned. Once each of you has received your written marks, the assessor invites you to hear verbal feedback.
We expect you to be present during all five days.

As with all Stone Trust training, the variety of stone you work with depends on the geology of the training site where you have come to learn. In the Northeast and Upper Midwest, you are likely to encounter round fieldstone, granite, gneiss, and bluestone. In Pennsylvania and Tennessee, you are likely to be working with sandstone. At every Stone Trust training site, you will engage in hands-on experience with the basic rules of structural dry stone walling. You will go home with a basic understanding of how to apply these principles to any type of stone and project. What you learn applies directly to all types of dry stone walls, including retaining walls, seat walls, and steps/stairs.

Come learn from certified waller-teachers, most of whom earn their livelihoods as dry stone walling professionals. All Stone Trust instructors have achieved DSWA Level 2 Waller Certification, globally recognized as the professional standard. As Stone Trust-DSWA-certified instructors, all belong to a learning community that seeks to ensure that every one of you learns what you came for and that you enjoy the process. With a student : instructor ratio of 8 : 1, you can count on plenty of direct interaction with your teachers.