I have to replace some low retaining walls. The wood is easy because its all rotted away, but I can't get the rebar that held them out. The ground is shale, and doesn't want to give them up.
Any magical solutions? I thought of an auto jack, but don't see how to grip the bars. Driving them in rather than reusing them is a solution, but driving them a foot into shale is a real chore!
Tie a prussik around the bars, hook the other end on the jack and pull them out.
Wrap a chain around the bar. Pull the chain up with a jack, or wrap the chain over an old steel wheel and tie it to a bumper or trailer hitch or come-along.
Bob
I'd try the pulling as others suggested (my suggestion would have been the same except they beat me to it) and if it works, good, but if it didn't or was particularly difficult, given the cost of rebar I'd just take the torch and cut 'em off...
If you have one or access, what I use as a puller for such things including fence posts, etc., is either bucket or the 3-pt depending on access or how much actual lift needed...
likewly rusted cut off with torch or sazall.........
pulling will bend it making reuse difficult
Cut them off. Why take them out?
If they don't come out with the jack, I will have at them with a sawzall. It will still leave a stub, but that won't be too hard to pound down.
Unfortunately my 18 year old son leaves for school tomorrow. I should have planned ahead.
I had my apple tree staked with 4 foot pieces of rebar, 3 feet of which was in the ground. When it was time to take them out, I bent the rebar and rotated it a lot and tugged at the same time. Wear gloves. Once you get the first inch, it gets easier. I wondered what was holding the bars in after I rotated them a lot.
Even if you only have 180^, I think this will work. I couldn't rotate fully become it hit the ground.
How many do you have. I only had two a year.
>
Ahh, this one is easy. I do this all the time. Simply take a long pipe wrench, attach about shin high to save your back. Lift (pull up) on the end of the handle as you make one turn around with the wrench. They simply pull out. I've pulled 5/8" bar, imbedded over 10 years, 6 feet into the earth with not even a strain. YOU DON'T NEED A JACK!!! Giving it a turn is the answer, and, of course having a good grip makes it easy. It should come up almost 6 inches to a foot per turn even in the toughest of clays.
Ivan Vegvary
If you are right, then bless you!
How about vice grips with a comealong from a 4x4 between 2 55-gallon drums?
Nick
i will add to that by saying buy some cutting wheels for your angle grinder. they make extermely thin wheels (available in specialty stores--not big box stores. maybe even an auto parts store) that are s used for stainless--cut rebar like butter.
A fencepost puller with chain on it, it should pop right out.
If I had a fencepost puller, I wouldn't be asking.
Rent one or buy it they are cheap,
We use rebar for staking our pavillions down when we go camping... the trick to pulling them out is to first tap them tangengential to the hole.... This makes the hole just a bit wider, which allows for some room to stop it gripping. Then you pull directly inline with the hole. Any "sideways" pulling will make it very difficult. We usually leave the rope on the stake to make it easier.
We pull 1" rebar pounded 3' (we call them "pennsic penetrators", after the name of the camping event) in the ground out by hand this way. Of course, the ground there is heavy clay, so your shale might make a difference.
Have you considered that there might be a concrete plug at the base of the rebar? good luck in any case!
Good idea. I've been using a 2 ton hoist for this kind of operation and ruin it where I had to do some major cutting and welding to put the hoist back in service. The pulling tensile strength of rebar or tree roots is unbelievably high.
Another idea: You could use a long pipe wrench and try to spin the rebar around. If the rebar spins freely then you know you could pull it out with a little effort. If it doesn't spin try to force it and break it below the ground.
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