[Matt Kulp]

Has anyone ever had a large boulder core drilled? I have a water feature that we would like to install in the middle of a large pedestrian patio area. In theory, I would like to have a 3-4' boulder that would be 3' in diameter at the bottom and 2' in diameter at the top with a 1-2" hole passing from the bottom to the top to allow for water to pass through and fall down the sides of the boulder into a pool. The problem that I am having is finding a vendor to drill. All of the quarries that I have checked with can do a 2' drill length, which is used for breaking. However they said with there bit it causes the bottom of the stone to blow out and scar. Any ideas to accomplish this, or is it just a pipe dream?
A little background. The water feature will be sitting flat at patio height, and has no grade change behind it to hide any plumbing. Also, I want to contain the whole feature in a 5' round area to keep available space around it. Any ideas would be helpful.

Thanks

[sleepy]

Let em drill it and you cement up the hole around your pvc pipe in the bottom.
So do your base, line hole with pond liner, rough in the pvc plumbing, lay cement, place boulder over stub up, cement in pipe on inside of boulder to boulder, install pump, fill area around boulder with nice stones to hide it all. filler up and plug in pump to gfci circut.

[TrickyDick]

For the drilling you can try a stone cutter that does cemetary monuments. We had one of them drill a boulder a little smaller than that last year.

[PSUscaper]

Try a tool rental. Here at least, you can rent a core bit and the drill to go with it for a couple of hours, do it yourself, and call it a day.

It doesn't sound like that big of a project. You may be able to hammer drill a hole through the rock. I've done this, but only have a one inch bit. But....this is probably what the quarry is talking about...if you use a hammer drill, you will blow out the bottom, and worst, run the the risk of splitting the stone.

Go to the rental store first....they should be able to help you.

[4seasons]

my rental store carries hammerdrills that will hold 1"-11/2" bits
maybe you could check a rental store.

[Matt Kulp]

The problem with the hammer drill is that I am trying to bore a 4-5 foot hole, not 4-5".


Tricky,
Great Idea about the monument co.!!

[trees]

Also try a concrete cutting contractor. I used one of them a couple years ago for exactly the purpose you describe here and it turned out great.

[Matt Kulp]

Thanks Trees,
The concrete cutting contractor in our area can and will do the job. I appreciate the help.

[mark allen]

how 'bout a well driller?..... I had to have some 12 holes drilled a coupleof years back and all the augers would not fit.... called a well drilling company and they said it was a small job... usually 100's of feet... they did it with air blasting, kinda cool since the ground was frozen solid, usually they use water with it but their pumps/valves kept freezing, so finally just air,

Also the monument company is a good idea.
What about looking at local or regional quarries for boulders with holes already in from blasting?

[mdvaden]

I forgot to ask Northwest Stone and Boulder in White City, Oregon, what they use to cut the slits.

They have drilled rocks, but others have a slit that looks like a diamond circular saw blade was submerged into the surface.

[waterfall larry]

You really should consider gfrc manufactured rock. You can buy any size or shape you like. Since it is only 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick you can use a regular concrete cutting saw. Since it is light weight, 2 to 4 guys could probably set the rock in place by hand. You said something about cutting a 4 to 5 foot hole or slot so wouldn't that be a pretty big rock?

Another option would be to make your own hand carved rock . If you want some gfrc sources contact me.

Also since a manufactured rock is hollow, you can hide the pluming and pump inside the rock.

If you do your own hand carved manufactured rock, the shapes and directions are limited only by your imagination.

[Matt Kulp]

Thanks guys for all of the great advice. I ended up going with a Concrete cutting contractor. He was able to bore the hole that I needed, and the only one in the area that could handle this type of job. I will post some pics when we finish up.

Thanks