how to remove asphalt driveway

hey all

i've bought a property that was severed into two plots and the old driveway is now where i'd like to put a garden. somebody told me that asphalt is too rubbery to use a jack hammer on. what's the best way to take up an old asphalt driveway? are their saws i can rent to cut it into small pieces and then just shovel out the sections?

tks

Reply to
Nancy Drew
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you don't mention what you have on hand to remove the asphalt or your skill level? How large the area is what condition it is in etc.. You could rent a saw cut it into squares then take a skid steer rent a dumpster or dump truck or lots of trips in pickup truck to the dump. or just hire someone to break it up and haul it away. You will also need to dig down a ways to replace the compacted " dead" soil with nice top soil for the garden. You might want to just put in raised beds and keep the asphalt?

Wayne

Reply to
wayne

Can't use a jack hammer ?!?! What do you think road crews use?

That being said. Call a paving company. They know what they're doing and can recycle the materials. They'll probably use a bob cat to lift the old asphalt and haul it away.

NJBrad

Reply to
Brad Bruce

Doing it yourself is a lot of hard work. The pros with the right equipment can come in and take it out with ease. They will also have the equipment to remove the rock under it and fill the resulting depression with soil. There should be a base of at least 4 inches of rock below ground level under the asphalt.

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

it's about 150 sq feet. i have no tools, but there's a rental place down the street. there's a fence that divides the driveway and i've got about 1/3 of that on my lot. i can't take up the entire driveway so i'd like to just split off what comes onto my land. i'm hoping there are industrial saws available that are designed to cut into asphalt so i can get a good clean cut along the fence line. you're saying there are such saws?

i am considering building a raised garden on part of the asphalt, but there's a strip that runs along the side of the house where it would be too narrow to go that route, so i'm definitely committed to removing at least some of the driveway.

Reply to
Nancy Drew

You can use a jackhammer on it. I have done it.

Reply to
Putyourspamhere

Removing the asphalt with a rented jackhammer will be easy enough, although hard on the bod. What will be hard is removing the compacted gravel base that's underneath the asphalt. That's pick and shovel work, and it's even more grueling than a vibrating jackhammer. You might want to investigate local day labor for something as labor intensive as that. Or, bite the bullet and work smarter and not harder, and just spend the money for a bobcat to come in and rip everything out in a short period of time. It'll cost more, but it'll be worth it!

Reply to
Sunflower

In my area you can rent a 60 horsepower Bobcat with a toothed bucket for about 150/day, plus a round trip delivery of 150 or so. A compressor package with a hammer costs about 90, you're going to need a trailer hitch to pick it up. Cutting asphalt with a jackhammer is not easy. Most wiegh about 90 lbs, and one they penetrate the asphalt, they can get a bit stuck.

The bobcat won't be able to cut a clean line in the ashpalt if you are leaving part of it. Might need a cuttoff saw for that. Also rentable. Maybe the neighbor will pay for part of the equipment costs and you can remove the whole thing. Hauling and disposal costs can easily be the most expensive part of this whole game.

On a hot day you might just take a digging bar and pick and start prying chunks of asphalt off, it will probably break away pretty easily.

Will

Reply to
Will Niccolls

I used to work for the city. We removed a lot of asphalt using pneumatic jack hammers, pick axe, wheel barrels, dumpster, and a lot of muscle. A bobcat would make the job much easier.

Reply to
Phisherman

Many of the answers depend on the quality of the original install. Most residential asphalt is only 2" thick without much of a subsoil treatment, either gravel, road base, or lime stabilization.

Assume all this to be true. You can rent a walk behind pavement saw. Pop a chalk line down the property line. Get several fiber blades, you will probably only need one, but have spares. These saws are big and heavy, you will need at least 2 people to get it in and out of the truck. To hold down on the dust, you can hook a garden hose to the saw. It will slow fiber/asphalt cutting. Make as many cuts as you want to reduce the size of the demolition.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) snipped-for-privacy@7cox.net

Reply to
DanG

The concrete walk behind saws can also use an asphalt blade you can cut the stuff into squares like a checkerboard

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Any rental yard can help you out. you rent the cutter then pay for usage on the blade

Wayne

Reply to
wayne

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