PRECISION BLASTING, LLCHard Rock Blasting Services
Granite, basalt and quartzite broken into material a loader can actually pick up.
Hard rock is where machines stop being economical. A hydraulic hammer will work on fractured or weathered rock all day, but put it on competent granite and you are buying hours, chisel wear and machine fatigue while the pile barely grows.
We drill a designed pattern — depth, spacing and burden calculated for the rock and the site — load and stem each hole, then fire on a delay sequence. The rock breaks down rather than throwing, and it comes out sized for your loader.
Typical hard rock jobs
- Land clearing and boulder removal
- Site cuts and building pads
- House foundations, footings and basements
- Road construction, widenings and road cuts
- Driveways and access benches
- Swimming pools and septic pits
- Utility trenches through ledge
Rock we work in
Granite, basalt, quartzite and hard volcanic rock across Idaho and western Montana. Lemhi County and Kootenai County are both hard rock country, and we work in both every season.
Controlling the shot
Charge weight per delay is sized against the distance to the nearest structure, which is what lets us work on residential lots rather than only open ground. Where flyrock is a concern we cover the shot. Where vibration is the concern we reduce the charge and add delays.
- Federally Explosives Licensed (ATF)
- Fully insured
- Blasting experience since 2013
- Licensed across ID, MT, WA, OR, NV, UT and NM
- Free on-site assessment and quote
- Owner-operated — you talk to Dan, not a call center
Blast design, presplitting and fragmentation control
Two shots in the same granite can produce completely different results. The difference is blast design — the hole pattern, the burden and spacing, the charge weight in each hole, the stemming that keeps the energy in the ground, and the delay sequence that decides what moves and when.
Fragmentation is the number that matters to you. It is how big the broken pieces end up. Break it too coarse and you are paying an excavator to wrestle boulders it cannot lift, or paying again to re-shoot. Break it too fine and you have spent money on explosives you did not need and thrown rock further than you had to. The pattern is designed for the size you actually need to handle, whether that is haul-ready material for a driveway base or a pile your machine can load in one pass.
Presplitting for a clean face
When a job calls for it, we presplit. Pre-split blasting means drilling a tight line of holes along the face you want to keep, loading them light, and firing that line first. It creates a fracture plane before the main shot goes, so the production blast breaks up to that line and stops there.
That matters when you need a straight, stable rock face that is going to stay exposed — a cut along a driveway or access road, a wall behind a house pad, a bench above a building site. It leaves a cleaner edge, reduces overbreak into rock you wanted to leave alone, and cuts back-damage that could turn into loose rock later. It also drops vibration carried past the line, which helps when there is a structure on the far side.
Presplitting adds drilling, so it is not on every job. If your site indicates it, or you ask for it, we do it — and if it is not going to buy you anything, I will tell you that instead of selling it to you.
Questions about hard rock blasting
What size rock can you break?
There is effectively no upper limit on a properly designed shot. The question is not whether the rock can be broken but how the material needs to come out and what is nearby. We size the pattern to produce fragments your equipment can handle.
Will blasting damage my foundation or well?
Not when the shot is engineered. Ground vibration is controlled through charge weight per delay and distance, and kept within established safe limits. We assess every structure near the site before designing the shot.
How much rock can you break in a day?
It depends on drilling conditions and access, but a typical residential shot is drilled, loaded and fired inside one to two days. Larger commercial jobs are staged across multiple shots.
Related work
Low Explosive
A powerful alternative when full conventional blasting is not the right fit.
Learn more →Non-Explosive Solutions
Quiet, controlled rock and concrete breaking for vibration-sensitive sites.
Learn more →Trenching in Rocky Soils
For utility, pipeline and foundation work stopped by hard rock.
Learn more →Stream & Pond Obstructions
Log jams, beaver dams and rock obstructions approached with care.
Learn more →Too big to dig and too hard to break?
Text a few photos of the rock, boulder, trench or tree in your way. We will tell you what it takes to move it — free, and on site.