Wednesday, January 12, 2011

You've got to hand it to them.



Sean Adcock's section of the workshop wall being built in Ventura California during the Stone Foundation's 2011 Symposium required stone being built from the back. For a number of reasons Sean had opted for not using scaffolding (staging) so as his section of the retaining wall got higher, more of the stone material was brought down the slope and lifted up from the back of the wall (which was the lower side) and added to the front face. By leaning over and fitting each rock carefully, and every now and then going round to the front to have a look, the work progressed fairly efficiently .

As the wall continued to get higher, the stones were handed up to workers standing on the wall, who fitted not just the outside wall stones from above, but placed in all the hearting material too. The method seems to have worked and Sean's student wall was pretty well completed on time and everyone was pleased with the results.