Putting Nature Where You Need it with Realistic Rock Landscapes

'Create what nature intended'—a slogan that pointedly describes the natural-looking artificial rockwork created by Beau Bradley of Rockscapes based in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. When this impressive home needed a large retaining wall to blend naturally with the landscaping, the builder called on Bradley's vision and technical skills. Having worked with the builder before, Bradley's skills at creating naturalistic environments were already well founded. "I did a wine cellar first with this builder," says Bradley, "and the clients loved it. So they asked me to do a project outside. They had a retaining wall with a slope problem by a pool." This 'slope problem' needed to be camouflaged with a 12' x 80' rock waterfall—the type of artistic challenge that Bradley thrives on.

Building the Rock Structure

Bradley's technique for creating rock structures begins with building casting molds at his shop. "We cast thin pieces of concrete pulled from molds off of real rock," he explains. These provide the foundation for creating natural-looking boulders. On this project, a retaining system had been installed, and Bradley started by setting the rebar structure and hanging the castings. "We have rebar reinforcement on 1' centers," he says, "then we hang the castings and line them up so they match the next one."

Castings are hung, first structure coat is applied. Light chases, irrigation for planters, electrical for speakers is visible.

Handcarving started on concrete in the seams between the gray and orange colored areas of the castings.

Bradley then shotcretes the castings, seaming them and connecting them. "We leave spots to fill the structure solid," he explains. "We do one structure coat, which is the solid filling, and then one texture coat." Once the texture coat is applied, Bradley handcarves where the castings connect. "This creates a grain, where we replicate what's on one casting and bring it to the other." Bradley uses a variety of tools to handcarve including trowels, knives, picks, and a hatchet. The tricky part, he says, is that "there's only a certain amount of time with concrete to achieve the look of a rock bluff. Concrete waits for no one."

Challenges

"What makes the rock look real are the plants and water. They make it come alive," says Bradley. As he handcarved the rock, one of the challenges was to work around planter pockets, irrigation lines, drains, and nightlighting tubes in the wall.

"The project was also difficult because of access," he says. "For everything we did, we had to go down a hill on the neighbor's side and back up a hill to get to the house. The house was so huge, it ran from property line to property line."

The residence is located on the 18^th hole of a golf course in the Mira Vista housing development in Texas.

Installing Three Tiers of Decking and Stairs

One of the most impressive parts of the project are its three levels. The upper level has a hot tub that spills over and recirculates to create the waterfall. Bradley handcarved a set of stairs down to the second level which includes a seating area and diving board into the pool. And the third level (which also incorporates concrete steps) forms the lower level seating and pool deck. Concrete steps were built into the structure on both sides of the rock wall.

Bradley also installed the pool decking. The upper deck was 30' x 60', the second level deck was 40' x 20', and the lower level pool deck included a 12' walk around. Bradley shotcrete and stamped the pool deck with a semi-uneven surface for realism.

Techniques for Making it Look Realistic

To make the rock look as realistic as possible, Bradley begins by interviewing the client and finding out what style of rock they are interested in, and how much detail and plants they want, etc. "We can create the look of granite, basalt, limestone, or sandstone," says Bradley. Currently, his most requested style is sandstone, but for this project the clients wanted cream limestone. "There's a lot of limestone in Texas," he says, "so that's what this project was meant to look like."

Bradley categorizes his rock structures into three types. Rock 1 is an outcropping that just shows the rock. Rock 2 shows more grain and movement that looks like the rock has been pushed up from the Earth. Rock 3 is the most realistic, says Bradley. "We get it to move, crack, shift and break," he says, "which is more believable."

Bradley also designs in prime numbers so that his structures look like natural environments. "I work in 3s, 5s, and 7s, like in landscaping," he explains. "To make the placement of boulders look more believable, we create three silhouettes at various sizes. Also, the placement of the plants and water bring it to life."

Coloring

"Color can make the difference between something looking millions or billions of years old," says Bradley. Through the use of acid stains, paints, and washes, Bradley applies and layers various products and colors. "We use acid stain for the base coat. Then we use different paints to create layering. The cream limestone is actually made up of the colors orange, brown, white, yellow, and beige. The black streaks are a wash and they show the signs of aging," he explains.

First coat of stain applied, beginning to color. Seams are still visible.

Close up of finished colored rock. Shows detail of staining and antiquing/aging process.

How he got his start

Bradley's unique background prepared him for his current success creating rockscapes. With some experience airbrushing and creating model railroads, Bradley got his first taste of creating realistic looking landscapes. In addition, he spent 20 years working as assistant superintendant at the Ft. Worth Zoo. "They were bringing in people from California to do the rockwork at the zoo. When I asked if I could carve a rock, they told me I had to be an artist," he laughs. "That's what made me want to do it even more." So Bradley went out on his own with Rockscapes and since then has installed rock environments at Sea World in San Antonio, Tex.,the Chandor Gardens in Weatherford, Tex., and zoos throughout Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. Rockscapes also installs rockwork in upper end residential locations in Dallas and Fort Worth Texas and many more locations.

Rockscapes
Dallas/Ft. Worth