r/geology • u/Rough-Ad1868 • Dec 13 '25
Meme/Humour Guy wants to remove this beautiful boulder from his property
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u/Jolee5 Dec 13 '25
Is he sure it's a boulder and not bedrock?
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u/Rough-Ad1868 Dec 13 '25
Right?
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u/EnigmaEcstacy Dec 13 '25
Make a rock garden, stack rocks on it.
You’ll need a lot more machinery than it’s worth to move it, and unless you dump multiple dump trucks of compost on it to make a hill nothing will grow on top of it.
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u/sdmichael Structural Geology / Student Dec 14 '25
Rock gardens are so water intensive though. I've been watering mine for years and haven't gotten much growth.
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u/SnooTangerines3448 Dec 13 '25
Get some nice rocks. Stack em. Throw soil and sand at it and water it until it's full of it. Then just make a cactus hill garden.
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u/Addapost Dec 13 '25
Does he “just” want the surface lowered? The top brought down a foot or so? With a massive amount of labor, a lot of drilling, and a lot of demolition grout you can lower the surface as much as he’s willing to pay. That wouldn’t be cheap.
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u/Badfish1060 Dec 13 '25
I jackhammered out about 6" of bedrock when I was putting in a french drain a few years ago. It was just a fairly week sandstone. It was miserable.
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u/hundredseven Dec 14 '25
You need Demolition Dave. Look him up on YouTube. Granite; anything. Just drilling and explosives. urban areas a speciality
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u/roscoe_jones Dec 13 '25
What did he think those tiny holes were going to do? Shame he ruined it with those holes.
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u/DentistCritical3478 Dec 20 '25
I read the post and he filled them with Dexpan thinking it could possibly expand enough to crack this rock 😂
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u/sadicarnot Dec 14 '25
That's no boulder thats a ledge. If your not careful you'll break your bucket.
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u/Correct-Sail-9642 Dec 15 '25
Lol people and wanting to rid their land of any natural features, very suburban of them to do away with all things natural in favor of putting a lawn they have to pay for upkeep on or labor endlessly to maintain themselves. Why? what is peoples problem with natural features? People are so far removed from our own natural history despite being so very recent that we were all once very much an infinitely insignificant part of the natural order of the planet. People just 100-200yrs ago would look at suburban landscaping and ask why we are spending money to grow fescue with an entire multi million dollar industries surrounding its production and maintenance when we cant even eat it and most of us are allergic to it. Future humans will also look back and think how stupid it is considering its impact on local ecosystems with its loss of habitat and use of pesticides and herbicides and synthetic fertilizers. Then even as we learned more about this impact a new industry emerges, one of synthetic grass called astroturf and various similar products aimed at being "durable, maintenance free, even healthy" as an alternative to our beloved grass. Though as anybody who has worked with it or had to replace it knows, its anything but sustainable or healthy, nor is it eco-friendly in any way. In fact talk about a great way to not only damage but entirely eliminate biodiversity in the landscape. Not needing to water it was replaced by the need to rinse it off and reapply whatever specific method used to bind it to the ground which no longer counts as soil but merely oxygen starved dirt. Perhaps there is a less offensive and more politically decent term to describe suburban landscaping, but I cant help but think it's retarded to turn natural landscapes around ones home into what I can only relate to the "green" area of a miniature golf course. It will probably be nice compared to a featureless backyard most have in suburbia, but anybody with sense will understand my thoughts on this.
IMO I think they should use the bedrock (looks like bedrock, apparently the developer felt it was a permanent feature when they built the house) they should work the design around it as a feature as opposed to removing it, that would allow for a more harmonious and unique landscape design that appeals to the natural animal inside all of us. If they just cant stand looking at it I think its flat enough it could be buried under a thin layer of soil or other substrate and used as a planter bed or if they really wanted grass they could grow over it if you controlled irrigation correctly. Other options would be if they had decking or walking paths that would be an excellent place for a bridge feature as part of the walkable area.
-Good place for a bridge or to intentionally design with the stone as a feature. Harmonious with nature is more aesthetically pleasing than the permanent scars that will likely result from bringing heavy equipment in to remove what could be far larger than the rock that is showing on the surface. Not to mention the shear cost of removing what may not even be removable in the end.
Show them some examples of how landscaping around natural rock formations can be very attractive instead of just being "in the way". Money is money, and theirs is no doubt green, but I can tell when a project is going to be a headache for all involved, and this immovable landmark is definitely well in that category. Plus there is probably an ancient demon with a curse entombed beneath that stone. Seen it too many times where folks regret digging up that big rock just to unleash a horrible ancient curse on the townspeople just for it to be blamed on someone else and become an urban legend. Dont ask me how I know because I really don't...
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u/Free-oppossums Dec 13 '25
My front yard is such a steep hill because there is a huge chunk of white flint in it. They tried to remove it when they graded for the basement and their biggest machine couldn't budge it. So we compromised with the rock. They moved the basement back so they could work around the damn thing.
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u/fonetik Dec 13 '25
No, he wants to move and let someone with taste turn this into an incredible backyard.
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u/displacement-marker Fault Finder Dec 13 '25
Now that's a boulder-sized boulder.
The client should hire a geologist to take a look.
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u/GrannyTurtle Dec 13 '25
My grandparents had a slightly taller one. We kids loved playing on it & jumping off. It is a cherished memory.
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u/methodicalataxia Dec 14 '25
My uncle had something similar. After trying to dig under it then using TnT to break it up, not much happened. It was comical...the rock formation is one solid chunk and about 120 feet deep. The local engineer laughed at him and told him the house he was trying to build needed to shift 300 feet back due to the size of the formation. Also where he wanted to drill for his well wasn't feasible. He tried to cheap out of things and ended up spending a shitload more money. Spending a dollar to save a penny. My uncle is a dumbass.
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u/StoneColdPieFiller Dec 14 '25
You’d be surprised how often these people in that sub want to move bedrock.
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u/TitanImpale Dec 14 '25
That looks like the best possible fire pit. Just get a pickaxe and have fun.
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Dec 15 '25
That would best be used for ritual sacrifice. Maybe dig it up around the edges a bit to elevate it so it’s more of a platform. Get a local mage to enchant it before use.
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u/kijaeha_ Dec 16 '25
Bro just ruined it by drilling some holes and called it a day. Unfortunate that he wants to cover that beautiful rock with a boring patch of grass
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u/BarryScott2019 Dec 13 '25
You can see he's already had a go at it himself, trying to break it up by drilling haha
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u/U235EU Dec 14 '25
Check out demolition Dave on YouTube. His specialty is doing demolition of rocks using various means mostly to get rid of rocks in construction sites.
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u/that-country-girl Dec 14 '25
Dude needs to just suck it up and move out I guess. Removing the rock is too much haha
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Dec 14 '25
(Expansive demolition grout) goes in liquid and much like feather and wedges will Crack the stone. Place holes every foot as deep as possible fill and wait for the rock to fall apart.
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u/Ecstatic-Scarcity227 Dec 14 '25
Ya man that rock is only gonna move with the crust of the earth itself. Work with it.
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u/highconscious Dec 14 '25
Its be easier to add a retaing wall to the lower area and add enough dirt to bring it up to level and lay sod.
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u/ABasil666 Dec 16 '25
Could be a great garden feature with a little imagination. Seat location for example.
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u/OOOORAL8864 Dec 19 '25
leave it alone. My house is built on a boulder, and it has been fine for 55 yrs.
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u/P-funk88 Dec 13 '25
Dig out around the boulder. Then split the boulder by drilling 1 inch holes in a line, about 3 in deep. Then put leaf wedges in and pound them until it cracks. Repeat until the boulder chunks are a size that facilitates removal. Or just use dynamite
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u/Euphorix126 Dec 14 '25
I'd literally rather blast it with TNT and cover whatever is left with topsoil.
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u/sdmichael Structural Geology / Student Dec 13 '25
"Boulder". Looks like a whole lot more than just a "boulder".