# Rock This Place!



## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

Maybe you've read my article (Garden Railways Magazine, February 2013, Page 66) on how I make cement rocks to cover my sprinklers.


I use the same technique for similar projects. I've had to increase the size of one of my 4" x 4" x 4" electrial boxes to 6" x 6" x 4" to accomodate a larger 24 vac transformer for the Chameleon Caverns Hot Springs area's ultrasonic misters. The old transformer was not as it was rated and burned up (literally) last year.


The old electrical box would fit under a bird house, but not the new box. And I didn't want to put a building in this space because it would look out of place.


As in the article, I made the form from wire cloth and masking tape is used to contain the cement.


The next step will be the surface. I'll probably now pull the tape off, where can, so that the top layer will bind directly to the bottom layer and not leave the weak spot from the embedded tape. (The fresh cement will NOT penetrate the tape, but will lay on it.) But if I go right over the tape, that will work too as it has in the past.


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

I decided to pull the tape off. It came off clean and easy except in a few spots where the cement had gotten into fold or the tape lifted. But as shown in the pics, it came off pretty clean.


This also demonstrates the importance of removing the tape when doing a larger rock that will be lifted fairly often, such as this one. The areas were the mesh is most obvious (toward the bottom) are the areas where the mist did not penetrate well because too little was applied to an area that had too much cement (i.e., the layer was too thick). So the surface layer gets wet and hardens, but the underlying layer remains relatively dry and powery. Also you can see thin/vacant spots near the top that can't be seen from the inside with the tape in place because it has just a thin coating lying on the tape that looks the same as the rest of the inside.
These can now be addressed by using extra material in these areas when working the top.


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

This 4" x 4" x 4" box, previously covered by a modified bird house, will be replaced with a 6" x 6" x 4" box that the old structure won't fit over. Now you see it.


Now you don't. "Rattle cans" will take of the color.


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

Looks good, I might make a small one to cover up some stuff.


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## jimtyp (Jan 2, 2008)

Great How-to!!! I've been needing something like this. Was thinking of buying the fake rocks, but they are expensive.


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

New larger box is in and color is added. The color will mute down a bit with weather. Note this is a color "transition" rock.


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## James1 (Sep 17, 2013)

WOW your work is really unbelievable, because that top looks same like a rock. you really rock it Lolxx. what you used to making that cover? I don't recognize that its a rock. Thanks for sharing


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## Gary Woolard (Jan 2, 2008)

Okay, I gotta' ask, why the link to above-ground pools? I went & looked, thinking maybe there was some fake-rock landscaping? But the site is just what the link implies, as near as I could discover.

So why...? 


HI Gary, the post has now been deleted by me - non railroad advertising.

Yours Peter Bunce (moderator)


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## fyrekop (Sep 20, 2011)

I used your method to make a rock that encloses a water faucet and it has stood up well to the monsoons, winter freezes, and summer sun. Any hints, guidance, this-is-how-to .... about painting it to look similar to what you have done and blend it into the natural rocks in the garden? 
Alan W.


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

ALL of my rock, whether it be real or cement, is simply spray painted with rattle cans. For the volcanic red rock, I just use red primer, though tans/greys/blacks my be used as undercoatings/splotchy areas on the very first application. All subsequent applications are a light overspray with the red. Just spray it "patchy" and blend it to the real color. Weather does the rest.

Be careful to shield your plants when you spray as the overspray can kill them or "brown the edge" of your ground cover. 

The area shown in the picture is actually changed a bit now. The real "yellow" rock has been moved elsewhere and more red blending has been applied to the cement rock as well as the proximate volcanic rock for a more natural look.


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## CliffyJ (Apr 29, 2009)

Nice job! Was a very helpful article too (in GR).


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