How to Install a CHEAP Boulder Retaining wall with just a skid steer and scrap field stones 

God sent this guy here to help us build better walls... this dude is one part Egyptian and one part Roman

Another great video, more how-to is welcome! ;) I'm from Belgium studying industrial engineering with my own gardening company since 3 years as a 'student-entrepreneur' which is a special statute here which allows you to study and start something of your own at the same time. When it's exams time I love to watch your videos as a break and inspiration. Love it!

Stan - perfect walk through and learning about the variables behind a successful boulder retaining wall. It’s like you came out here and looked at my project! The only difference is my boulder wall has to absorb high springtime lake water and pounding waves: absorb the impact, control the flow of the water back out, and contain enough appropriate back fill and base, which you’ve taught in your other vids, to handle that. I’ll be watching this video a 100 times as I complete my project. You’re the man!

Exactly all the info I was looking for. Thanks for going into some depth on rock selection. Also very reassuring to see you build a wall out of stones that you had no control over.

Stan - I've been following you on RU-vid for a while now and commenting on your retaining wall videos. I don't know how else to send you this, but thought your viewers might also like this. I engineered and built a 125 foot boulder retaining wall specifically according to your videos. I'm very much a greenhorn and a DIY-er. I live on the lake and it's high water season right now and the wall has been enduring 3-4 foot swells of water beating against it and it's working like a charm. Your focus on drainage aggregate, slope, and handling surcharge are spot on...emphasis on drainage aggregate and handling surcharge. Your teaching is legit! Thank you so very much.

I love more natural construction techniques such as these. Please do more it turned out great!

What's refreshing about your videos is watching the entire process including the 'oh darn' moments... Not edited for slickness... You explain (and show) the mental process well...

I like how eloquent you are - Glad I came across this channel!

I just opened my own LLC at 35. Been doing this and related work for years and finally clicked that I make a really great leader and could make a ton more money by running it all my own. Won my first bid and it is a 2,000 sqft paver driveway on a steep pitch. Start sometime in late spring. I’m devouring your videos as refresher courses. Thanks Stan! I’m originally from Eden Prairie, worked at Final Grade and later Lake’s Erosion, living in the Southwest U.S. now, really glad to get inspiration from other Minnesotan’s.

do I like these kinds of videos? dude, you are THE primary way I learn new things and grow my business by adding additional services that I feel CONFIDENT providing. I want to shake your hand, buy you a beer, give you a hug. just, THANK YOU, so very much

Love the content. Landscaping apprentice here in New Zealand and I'm still yet to find someone who explains the theory and reason behind things as well as you do. Also interesting to see how things differ between our way of doing things and overseas.

The wall you created with boulders you had on hand is awesome Stan! Great tips! Thanks for sharing.

This was awesome. trying to do one in my front yard, i was just picking out random boulders - awesome explanation of good and bad boulders, i had them TOTALLY backwards ha. Was looking for 'cool' looking ones that now i realize wouldn't have fit together at all when in yard. Great great video, not filler it was all helfpul for new guy doing this. thx

More boulder videos please. Awesome job and great learning experience.

A great effort to educate and inform from an obvious wealth of knowledge, well done. Much appreciated!

These types of videos are the reason I'm subbed. Still waiting on a video about quoting jobs strictly with rental equipment and still making a profit

I love the natural look and learn some things from watching them keep doing them

Love your walls, keep making them. Really enjoy the how to.

Thank you so much!! We will be building one this weekend. Now I feel more confident!!

Great video as always, specially your use of building blocks to explain the concept

Starting a retaining wall job this weekend using my Kubota BX tractor with loader and pallet forks. Thanks for the info!

Great vid Stan I’m a young kid learning how to do this type of landscape work this helped a lot!

Great video I have been wanting to put in a retaining wall on the side of my house. On the cheap and this is perfect will cost me nothing a have a lot of rocks and boulders in my yard. Thank you.

This was a great video. I believe that I am much more informed on the how to part of the job. Keep these type of videos coming.

Another excellent video Stan. You know, one of the things I like the most about your content, other than the education I receive, is that you're actually a working man. You get your hands dirty like we do and it makes you super relatable. One could easily imagine a person of your celebrity status ONLY operating the camera and talking, but not only do you also operate the machinery, but you (un)stack wood and throw broken cinder blocks. Not an apprentice in sight, clearly you're there to break a sweat. #rolemodel

Absolutely love your Retaining wall and paver project videos!

you clarified a lot with that video. i have been just looking at rock wall around me trying to figure it out. your driveway video from a week or 2 ago helped out a lot as weel

Love this video and this type of video. Always looking for "how to" rock videos 👍👍👍

This was an awesome video cuz I'm gonna have to build a wall just like this on my log home. Thank you for this vid

Thank you I really appreciate videos like these I know I do not say it much but I really do appreciate them.

I LOVED the video! Stuff like this is why I subscribed to your channel.

Nice working. I'm very interesting your vedio. from🇰🇷

I also love it when you use your sense of humor to entertain you are a funny guy I laugh my ass off

Hi,Stan. I am currently building a retaining wall using manufactured retaining wall blocks. To do this wall I had to dismantle a fireplace that was built using large rocks and small boulders. My next project is going to be using those rocks and boulders to build a retaining wall that will (hopefully) level out one of the most difficult parts of my yard to mow. This video helps a lot. The only real problem is that the only tools/equipment I have to work with are a shovel, a digging bar, a stone chisel and a sledge hammer. Thanks. Take care.

I have a ton of Boulder walls to build, been watching all your videos!

This was great. I'm a visual learner so the toy blocks help a lot

Really like the videos like this. I always have clients wanting to use material they have on site.

That looks amazing! I really enjoyed learning from this video!

Lol, nothing wrong with "Shimer". Language is about communicating as clearly and concisely as possible. People create new words all the time, and use other words in new ways. As long as the usage is clear, and conveys the message simply and clearly it's all good! In this case, you are talking about the job of placing "shims", therefore, the person who does that is naturally the "Shimer". Great coms my man. By the way, absolutely love this video, it's actually one of your best. I work alone for the most part, doing only really small projects, I have a Bobcat S570 and a little 418 excavator. All the advice and info you gave us in this video is awesome and immediately applicable. So, yes, these sort of videos are actually the very best sort. And yes, I'm subscribed and have the bell checked.

Great video. Much better than equipment reviews all the time.

Very informative, learned a lot from this video....just in time my next home improvement task.

Like these videos. Gives in an insight on hows it done to hopefully be able to add it to my arsenal for potential jobs

Love your channel man I started with nothing also hard work and dedication always leads to success

Important to remember that dirt behind and between the rocks in places with winter the water that the dirt is holding might freeze and push the wall out. So not all places are an good idea to pack with soil and grow plants. But really good video with awsome explanations 👍

Great presentation brother

Thanks for the video. Yes more how to videos are great.

That is the way I do it for years. But a grapple makes it easier. Thanks good video

Stan that beak attachment you have would be great for those types of walls

Great video. Thanks!

These videos are amazing extremely knowledgeable man

I LOVE VIDEOS LIKE THIS! 😍 ❤️❤️❤️❤️ I love to know how things work. Even if I never do the thing It makes me smarter! You’ve got amazing skills and you communicate beautifully. Why isn’t shimmer a thing? The guy doing the shimming is a shimmer. Why not?

Great video 👍🏼

Good tips and nice back yard with a lake/pond!

Liked the use of toy blocks & showing us the differences in boulders & placement. Came in handy for ya. Also, got to really looking at your home office, & like the pics/decorations on the walls/shelves, along w/ the screen savers👍🏻 I’d also imagine that if your able to use other machinery to build a boulder retaining wall, you’d recommend that; instead of using a skid loader w/ forks, right? Thanks for the vid✌🏼

Love videos like this.

Once again lovely work. How would you go working with lifting slings on your tongs or make up a jib that slips on to the tongs. Aussie for forks. The Jib should have a 360 degree rotating hook. Only after you have transferred all your material to build said rock wall. Should have cut to some people dancing then shimmer or shim ,shimmy would have worked. Travel well. Aussie Jeff

Great video mate :-)

Yes, excellent help.

Great information.

Very educational. Nice job.

Another great video Keep them coming my friend

I learned a lot from this video

Love videos like this! Keep them coming!

this is fascinating, here we have a traditional way to build retaining walls and field boundaries that's been around since the beginning of human civilisation, it's called Cornish Hedging, it's amazing hearing you describe exactly the same techniques and concepts, we have both random and coursed patterns, largest stones at the bottom, gradually getting smaller with each course, skilled men can use stones less than 1lb in weight and build a hedge that is guaranteed to last a century.. then there's the few ancient ones that _do_ use stones this big... and those men had no skidsteers!

Chaining the boulders and suspending them from the forks can help tremendously to position the boulders properly. Safely doing this technique certainly requires experience and patients, remember rushing when doing this type of work is how people get injured or worse. Good luck out there!

Very enjoyable please keep the videos coming

That was awesome. Thanks man. You learnt me something. Lol.

Yes i like videos like this. So for base layer blocks you want rocks that are in diameter 1/2 to 1/3 the height of the wall so like 6ft wall 2 to 3 ft size bolders, or 9ft high wall 3 to 4.5 ft diameter bolder and ideally as rectangular or square as possible. You want the top surface of the bolder to be flat or sloping towards the soil slightly. Adjustable forks on your machine. And smaller rocks on top of the base layer and then smallest rocks on top and minimum size is about 1 ft cubed rocks so the weight does the job. got it thank you.

Keep these vids up I may never need to build a boulder Wall but if I am buying a home I now know if I am looking at a good wall or a bad wall and would take that into My offer on a house

You should make a video on the proper drainage behind the wall for walls built on a property line 😉

Great vid mate

Another great video. Thanks for sharing.

More boulder wall videos please! Can we put perforated drain pipe at the back of them like a normal retaining wall?

Love the video also love building with natural materials or natural looking love the videos very informative thanks 🔩😎🔧🌱🐒

great video

Looks amazing. Great video

Great site video love these site visit videos!

When using smaller stones can you mortar them together for a stronger effect? I see flood areas often have river rocks bound in cages, would mortar have a similar effect?

very helpful! Thanks!!

Excellent video. Thank you.

Very helpful! Thank you!

Thanks for the knowledge stan

Great video! So what about a large wall over 30 feet high and 300 feet long?

I will be building a stone wall soring 2024 in east Tenn. Thanks

I would have liked to see the final product, please. Thanks.

This is the video content I want.

"Dirt Monkey": Well executed work/walls shown in the video! So, yes, the video got a *_BIG_* 👍from this old viewer! FWIW, would like to see this type wall used as the inside wall of a small garden pond and/or ponds stepping down a fairly steep grade, w/ interconnecting waterfalls between the ponds as these step down said slope. Have _you_ constructed such? That you'd be willing to show? 🤔

Very cool and good video. Just one question for you and that’s about drainage. How do you manage the drainage on a rock wall?

Choker straps work nice.

In my opinion it's easier to use a strap to lift the bolder with the machine and lower it into place . It speeds up the process alot when you can rotate the stone to the right face and drop it in place

Well done!

Could have used this info 12 years ago. My contractor built a retaining wall using native rock. It stayed together ok, but its not pretty like your boulder wall. Stone masons who recently looked it over thought it was too irregular and would have to be dismantled and rebuilt. I have tried your idea about planting vines to fill in the gaps, but its an ongoing battle with deer damage.

Perfect vid there ya shimmer haha

No cement, no sand just big stone, that is what we need💪

Wow! No fabric to hold the fill in and cement block shims I think I’ve seen it all now what a hack job wall

I'm building a Boulder dry stack retaining wall to raise and level my front yard. I did the same thing at my last house, but this one will be about 6 or 7 ' tall (down to one course on the other end. ) I am fortunate that consistent thickness sandstone slabs up to 9 feet long are all over my area along the street on the vacant lots. They've been there for 50 years.. My base course is 2 to 3k lb slabs about 14-16" thick. I bought a BIG Hilti hammerdrill to pin the courses together w #6 rebar, to prevent movement . Water Will run down to the wall. There will be a lot of force pushing against this wall. Top course will be 4" thick. I put forks on my backhoe, So much easier to scoop up the slabs rather than chasing them all over creation trying to get them in the bucket ! Need a thumb for the hoe. Staging boulders now. Next is carefully grade 10 foot level stairstep sections ( The hard part ) IDK if I should start at the top of my slope, where it will be a single 9 foot wide, 6" thick slab ,or the bottom? I guess for the sake of properly breaking joints I better start at the downhill end. Been 20 years since I've done this. Planning on establishing blackberries in the joints.

Thanks for the info... 👏😎

This guy literally never stopped playing with his building blocks. He keeps them in his office as an adult ..... grow up, dude. No, don't, you're the kind of seasoned, humble gangsta O.G. that respect above all others, a true kung-fu artist of your life's work. You understand your duty and master it by your awareness. my assertiveness is owed to those of you who I seek as a prospect to you, to aprintace in your ways. I take all I can get from the ol time alley cats like yourself and hope to add something wonderful that you'd be proud of to the legacies yall leave behind. One day, I hope a smart young person sees the path made for him and looks to me for knowledge in the arts in which we commonly find passion in .. bye remaining teachable and egoless one can become a passionatly inducted master in his ways. To be taken under the wing of an eagle is the best place to be if you want to learn to fly . To lean to much weight on thy own understanding is a sure way to fall from the sky . Those who learn to fly never stop watching the eagles' ways, they never stop improving thier form, they waste no time in gaze with an unfocused eye , he that learn to fly dont fly to high for they can see it takes more than thy to tame feather . If you met a young flyer who knew he could fly much higher they would tell you about thier flying desire rather then distance and statistics for your edmire. When knowledge is past on its behalf, its best kept a secret from those who do not truly inquire and desire understanding to make for an honest path , for in life many people who do not fly pretend they can and thier ego breeds corruption and deception and the leading of the youth astray wasting the very thing that creates a beautiful world .. witch is passion and discovery and sharing yourself with the good people for genuine reasons . Most people who believe they are great are self proclaimed and truly missing the point of this life.... the guy in this video was not just playing around he is completely doing what he can the best he can and loving every minute of it. He has his 🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆

I learned this when i did sea wall construction. Only difference is the fabric and the ¾ clear were also used. The super thick fabric laid down first the agg over the top to hold it down in the water the boulders laid upon it ...then the agg brought up to the height of the 1 st row then the fabric is wrapped around and over the aggregate pulled back more aggregate as a base on top of the fabric then another row of boulders...until you have proper height basically the same way you build retaining walls ... supposedly this method has longevity over other options

Dude im in the freaking middle of trying to do a boulder retaining wall, its like you made this just for me