breaking up concrete pad 6 inches thick -concete breaker required?.

Hi all I need to break up a section of concrete roughly 9 feet by 4 feet from the corner of the wash area in front of my garage to get the foundations for my house extension in. The concrete was laid in 1974 and is roughly 12X12 feet with a drain in the middle and diagonal expansion joints-it is approx 8 inches thick. Is this a job for a self powered concrete breaker?. Will cutting the slab with a Stihl saw help to make the concrete easier to get in the skip?. My brother in law is making dire predictions aboit the diamond blade hitting steel reinforcing. How deep should sawcuts be?.

Reply to
tom patton
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Some diamond blades will cut embedded steel reinfocements, some won't.

You will have a machine in to dig the foundations, so get it to lift this up, and the use the machine to give it a good wack, or you could cut it into 4, so each bit fits in the skip.

If you are digging foundations by hand, a mini digger costs you 60 quid a day, and will be much more fun .........

Rick

Reply to
Rick

A wife is much cheaper than a mini digger------------. We used a rotovator wheelbarrow spades and skip to remove 8 cubes of closely packed stony soil. There s no space for a machine as the longest foundation 9 metres by point six cubed is in line with my garage so a straight mechanical pull is not possible. Only 8 cubes to go-----------plus concrete. I intend to sack barrow the broken concrete into the skip bottom.

Reply to
tom patton

I'd say a big breaker is the best tool for the job. It will break the concrete into small pieces anyway if you do it right - ask at the tool hire shop.

Dave

Reply to
Magician

Can't see any reason why this would have any steel reinforcement. But breaking is going to be a better bet than cutting I would have thought.

David

Reply to
Lobster

I got a 3 tonne machine into my front room, and took out upto 1m of "stuff", my front room being 24x12 foot. A 750KG machine will fit into a toilet cubicle, and dig. Only once you have hired a machine will you realise that the 60 quid it costs is such a great way of saving money.

Rick

Reply to
Rick

Many slabs of this size will have reinforcement, usually in the form of mesh, rather than thick rebar. It is there to stop the surface cracking.

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

Get an electric concrete breaker from some hire shop (Jewson or whichever BM or a specialist). It will come with a couple of bits, you will be charged for re-sharpening on top of the total cost but will probably only need 1 bit. Just sit it on the concrete near an edge and start breaking. If you need to cut the rebar, a pair of bolt croppers or even a hammer and sharp chisel will do the job. Don't try to cut it into very big lumps, which are hard to handle.

Reply to
Chris Bacon

Also, confirm there are no services (drainage, gas, electricity) running under the pad, especially near the surface.

Scared myself a while back with a concrete breaker when I dicovered gas and electric side by side about 2" down.

I had naively assumed they would be much deeper.

HTH Dave R

Reply to
David W.E. Roberts

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