The Brew Cabin

Posted: **Tue May 31, 2011 4:01 pm**

Okay, so bare with me (cos this is a little mad) as I have no experience of Concrete or Concrete Stamping.....

I want some large boulders in my garden but cant afford the real thing, nor have the abilty to move them into position, BUT I have seen some videos on youtube that demonstate building large boulders using mortar over large piles of waste bricks. They dont really go into detail as its American and Australian companies advertising their services, but from what I can gather, the process is :

1) Make big pile of bricks and hardcore waste.
2) Cover the waste in Mortar and shape like a boulder.
3) Use trowels to create ridges and cracks and then crumpled up polythene or sponge to create texture of rock.
4) Throw on various shades or Colour Hardener and use brush to blend in.
5) I think you could then cover with Moss/Yoghurt mixture to encourange moss to grow and make it look 'aged'

Now obviously is may not look as good as a real boulder, but then it would only cost Â£100 to build several huge ones where as a real one is many more times that for only one. Plus, once moss and Lichen are growing on it, and surrounding plants soften the edges, I think it might look pretty convincing.

Im gonna make a small one the size of a beach-ball to test first, but before I go trying to source Colour-Hardener, I thought I would ask on here incase I am totally barking up the wrong tree.

Also, will the fake boulder need to be sealed after you have used colour hardener? I watched a few videos on Youtube on Concrete Stamping (trying to understand the process) and they started talking about release agents and sealants etc etc ?!

Quite confusing, but I am just trying to make my garden look nice on a budget!

Anyone got any experince of making faux boulders ?

Thanks guys.

Posted: **Tue May 31, 2011 4:09 pm**

here is a website incase anyone is curious

http://www.artificialrock.com.au/artificial_rock.htm

Posted: **Tue May 31, 2011 9:28 pm**

OMG
have you ever watched QVC kiddo
well you have found the on-line equivalent
there is not a snowball in hells chance of your plan looking anything other than a pile of hardcore smeared in cement
look on ebay ppl are always flogging rockery stone
good luck
LLL

Posted: **Tue May 31, 2011 9:47 pm**

We just flogged 2 massive boulders on ebay for a tenner. Pained me to let them go at that price but they had been sat in the yard for that long, they had to go. Cost the ebayer more in delivery than the cost of the boulders.

What sort of size boulders are you looking for and where abouts are you based? Location is the key, if you are close to a quarry them they will have old boulders which are not of good quality to sell as finished products and will let you have them for a very small outlay.

The only other issue you might face is moving them into your garden, but I'm sure you'll find some nut on ebay with a video of how to move boulders

Posted: **Tue May 31, 2011 9:58 pm**

Real Boulders aren't that expensive, we use them all the time. Most aggregate dealers and re-claim yards carry them, as Steve said, they end up hanging about for ages on most yards. We just bought a 3 tonne load for Â£175.00 cash. Some pretty good size pieces, how big do you want them. You can hire all terrain Pallet lifters from some of the bigger Hire shops, or the bigger skip loaders will carry 500kg easily and go through a gateway. Just ask the delivery driver to load them on with his crane.

Posted: **Tue May 31, 2011 10:58 pm**

ive had an inexpensive thought of moving the boulders around the back garden . cookie dressed in a kilt like one of those big blokes on britains strongest man

Posted: **Tue May 31, 2011 11:55 pm**

Like this redneck boulder moving

Posted: **Wed Jun 01, 2011 5:38 am**

Thats just our handbrake on our LDV pick up!!

Posted: **Wed Jun 01, 2011 9:19 am**

ilovesettsonmondays wrote:ive had an inexpensive thought of moving the boulders around the back garden . cookie dressed in a kilt like one of those big blokes on britains strongest man

i like that one

Posted: **Wed Jul 27, 2011 9:36 am**

Its done quite extensively in South Africa - see websites like Suncity etc which look fairly good, it's in the art of finishing, which you would only get by practice. also, they tend to start with a chicken mesh frame with concrete smeared over, or a fibreglass base, I have an inherited waterfall feature outside my office entrance which is passible in feature, tho would never pass for the real thing.

Posted: **Wed Jul 27, 2011 12:34 pm**

They can make concrete look good in America and Australia. Here it just looks terrible.

Posted: **Wed Jul 27, 2011 10:02 pm**

done loads of splash walls on sea defence work with rubber linings attatched to the shutters in the shape of boulders, looks effective. Half of euro disney is concrete made caves, boulders etc.

Posted: **Wed Jul 27, 2011 10:27 pm**

They did one in my local park for kids to climb on, wire frame etc then use a spraying thing to spray the concrete on etc looks good but there's a bit of latex etc in it as there's some give

The Brew Cabin

Fake boulders - Using concrete stamping techniques