Covering concrete retaining wall in faux stone

[Dewey_Finn]

@Sasquatch

The quickest and cheapest way would probably just use stucco mix. Color it some rock tint, put a thick layer on the face of the concrete, and use a tool to dig/draw in outlines like random rock shapes. You could add surface texture and stuff by hand with a trowel, and either recolor or use actual mortar to fill in the outlines later if you wanted it to look even more realistic.

Several decades ago, a regular advertiser on the New York City TV stations was a company called Garden State Brickface, and that’s what they seemed to be offering; stucco applied to an outside wall and then shaped to look like brick or stone or whatever. I don’t know if they’re still around or if there are other companies that do that sort of thing.