Now Certified in Dry Stone Walling, Level 1

I’m pleased to share than in my journey to learn the most sustainable ways of building in the Northeast, I have just attained a Level 1 certification in the Dry Stone Walling Association’s Craftsman Certification Scheme.

Over five days at Laurel Stoneworks in South Fork, Pennsylvania, our class of contractors skilled up to tackle the intensive, 7.5-hour long practical exam at the end of the week. Instructors Kim and Jerry Coggin, along with examiner Dean McLellan, guided us through a successful week, and we all passed our exams.

For those unfamiliar, dry stone walling is the craft of building stone walls, without mortar. By following a simple set of rules, you can build a stone wall that lasts for centuries, with very little maintenance. By properly placing the stones to maximize friction and distribute pressure, the tremendous weight of the wall is leveraged to hold every stone tightly in place. The lack of mortar means that the joints stay dry and free of “lubricating” particles, and that stresses can relieve without cracking the whole wall.

The beauty lies in the simplicity: while you can truck in stones from far away and liberally use power tools to shape them, you can also simply gather stones from the land and put them together by hand.

While we might be most familiar in the Northeast U.S. with dry stone walls historically used as livestock enclosures, they can be used for many other purposes. Retaining walls, foundations, decorative landscape features, steps, seating can all be made with dry stone. It’s also a favorite for building cob oven bases.

Well-crafted stone walls can be not just long-lasting, but also stunning artistic works.

While I may not be building anything quite as opulent soon, I’m inspired, and I hope you are too! I look forward to continuing to practice stone walling and incorporating into my work.

The Stone Trust provides education, outreach, and certification in dry stone walling. It administers testing for the globally-recognized certification scheme of the Dry Stone Walling Association of Great Britain. It has locations in VT, NH, PA, TN, NY, CO, and MN.