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Hi and a Boulder splitting question

Stone Conversations : Archive 8 : Message 00576

From: Jeff Spencer <jeffespencer@zzzzzzzzz>
Date: Fri, 4 Mar 2005 15:38:02 -0800
Subject: Hi and a Boulder splitting question

Hi, I saw your list and thought someone here would know how to solve my
problem.

I have a boulder sitting where I need to put a house footing. An excavation
company I consulted told me a jack hammer won't work well on this boulder
due to its type and size. He suggests digging it up and leaving it in the
yard as "landscaping", but this introduces other problems for me. So I'm
planning to try to split the rock at the foundation depth using wedges and
feathers/shims then leave the lower portion for my house footing to rest on.

I've seen many examples on the net of using wedges and shims to split rocks
vertically, but none horizontally. Can a boulder like this be split with the
weight of half the boulder sitting on top of the crack I want to form? Will
the 8 sets of ½" wedges be enough to split a boulder of this size? Also,
should I put all the wedges in a single side? Or a ½ moon around the
perimeter of the rock, or encircle it completely (requiring more wedges).

I'm interested in any and all thoughts you have on this.

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