Cement slab, creative uses

In my yard is a cement slab about 6 by 8 feet, and 3-4 inches thick. It was the floor of a play house built decades ago and long since rotted away. The slab is pretty much useless now because a large tree beside it has lifted one side about 16 inches.

I considered dragging the slab somewhere else in the yard with hand winches and stone bars etc, but it is so heavy and large that moving it could take all summer. Just releasing it from the ground took a couple of hours.

Does anyone have creative ideas for using a slab like this? Build low benches on it for plants? Bury it in a rock pile? Break it into large pieces and move the pieces to make a patio somewhere?

Pologirl

Reply to
Pologirl
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Not any creative ideas for use but you can move it quite easily any where you desire by using 2 inch up PVC pipe underneath the slab as rollers since you have it released from the ground.

Reply to
rmorton

Dig a slot in the ground a couple feet deep, stand the slab up in it, paint it black, and put a speaker beside it playing the theme from 2001. See if the squirrels discover how to use tools.

-- aem sends...

Reply to
aemeijers

If it's not too ugly, you could jack it up on cribbing and make a big barbeque table out of it. Just make sure the columns you choose are wide enough to prevent tipping.

It'd be more work than I'd want, but you asked.

I'd just break it up and be rid of it, personally. Or I'd stack firewood on it.

Reply to
mike

I found a use for a smaller concrete slab - one that was used to set an AC condensing unit. I used it as a flat spot under a gate. Keeps the grass down.

But 6x8' ? I dunno. You could put it under a modest swing set. Maybe a mini-patio?

Reply to
HeyBub

I know how to move heavy objects on rollers, and I have sufficient winches and chains and even anchor points. Unfortunately, the route to where I'd most like to move the slab is obstructed by a garden wall and some trees. Getting over the wall requires taking apart some of the wall and building a rubble "ramp"; getting past the trees requires rotating the slab about 90 degrees. All doable, with effort. Also, I would need to round up several more pry bars and helpers. Hey ... I just remembered I know a boy scout troop leader!

Pologirl

Reply to
Pologirl

I like it! Black fridges are fashionable now ... would it be cool to install a water dispenser?

Pologirl

Reply to
Pologirl

You should stop smoking crack. It's bad for your health, muddles your decision making process and tends to promote troll-istic posting.

On the slim chance you are serious, consider that small slab has about

50 bucks of material in it. R
Reply to
RicodJour

Both good options. I hadn't thought of stacking firewood, but I could do that with it where it is. The slope of the slab ensures good drainage.

Pologirl

Reply to
Pologirl

My neighbor broke his slab into small pieces about 8" x16". He then built a retaining wall.

Looks good.

Gary

Reply to
G Mulcaster

What's your point?

Pologirl

Reply to
Pologirl

Spending a huge amount of effort for a small - very small - monetary savings is wasted effort. If it's not where you wanted it, you should have busted it up in place. Spending a couple hours to "release" the slab from the ground was wasted time. It's not a reinforced slab, you can't make it into a beam, table or anything of the sort. You don't need help in coming up with ways to recycle the pieces - you already know them; stepping stones, patio or poorly stackable blocks for a retaining wall. But for $50 and less of an effort you'd get the same amount of material exactly where you want it in exactly the configuration you need.

aemiejers had a creative use for it, so if you're looking for a novelty, well, you already have the answer.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

The solution to that equation depends on the relative costs and availability of materials and labor.

Pologirl

Reply to
Pologirl

My issue is why you were releasing a slab, asking about moving it, then in the same breath mentioning leaving it and putting benches on it. Deciding what you want to do before you invest effort is a wiser way to go. If it's already lifted by roots and only three or four inches thick, a 20 pound sledge hammer would make short work of breaking it up.

I don't know of an area where concrete is unavailable. There's a slab there now, so I assume that there is concrete available in your particular area. Standard ready mix trucks usually have a minimum charge, and a cubic yard of material - about twice as much as what you have in that slab you have - is somewhere around $100/CY depending on your location. Concrete ready mix companies frequently use dry ingredient trucks and mix the stuff at your site - you only pay for what you use, although there is also a minimum charge. If you want to do small amounts at a time check out an Odjob - it's a mixing bucket that makes it trivial, quick and clean to mix a 60 pound bag of concrete mix.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

you should know by now you can't tell these people anything. They ask the question already knowing the answer. They have gone to college and know everything. Like my teenage daughter, she's lived 18 years and knows 10 times more than I. Hmmmmm math doesn't work at all here. Oh well have stopped adding my 2 sense to this group. Back to Rec. Woodworking and My linux newsgroups where you get real questions from real people and don't feel like you're wasting your time.

Reply to
evodawg

I know of some. And many more where it is very expensive due to transportation costs. Places where people still build houses using sun dried mud. Places where even the water has to be hauled in. Anyhow, my time has value too and I would rather spend it moving the slab I already have than breaking it up, putting it on a truck, throwing it off the truck somewhere, building a new frame, and pouring another slab a short distance away. I hate mixing cement, and the current slab is unusually well made. It might even be reinforced.

Anyone know what to expect to find under a badly tilted slab? Tree buttress roots throughout, or mostly pockets of soft soil?

Pologirl

Reply to
Pologirl

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