breaking 6 inch concrete pad need a concrete breaker-follow up

[tom patton]

Thanks for the many good tips. Hired a self powered concrete breaker found using the Stihl saw did not speed the job up but good for getting a straight edge. The first 4 square feet took two hours most of that trying to remove a very heavy breaker impaled right through the concrete-luckily it was not reinforced. Speeded up tremendously after learning to take little bites at a time and broke out 8 foot by 4 foot section in 6 hours with tea breaks. Concrete breaker hire was £42 for a day or £100 for a week.Just got it for the week as I have a 450mm inspection pit to insert in the pad and a drain to break out.

[bigcat]

sounds enough to make you want to use dynamite.

NT

[Rob Morley]

That's when you're glad you have a spare steel - just leave the stuck one in its hole and dig it out with the other one.

[tom patton]

I now realise why the guy using the concrete breaker is 6 foot 2 and has a large beer belly its thirsty work. I taped the garden hose to the breaker to trickle water on the pad worked a treat. I had a chisel and pointed breaking tools but suffered brain fade. These breakers are hard to start when cold if you are a weak 58 year old--I am told they are all hard to start- mine was an Atlas Copco. My son could start it no problem.

[John Rumm]

That sounds like a good enough excuse... make mine a large one!

Last one I hired with a separate hydraulic power plant was actually dead easy to start - it was a Honda engine though which are usually pretty good.

Well done on the demolition job anyway - bet it was satisfying when complete.

[tom patton]

Its certainly saved a small fortune the estimate for------

1 removing 8 cubes soil and tipping it. 2 setting reinforcing and supplying 1.5 cubes c35 concrete. 3 revisiting site and supplying blinding poly and 500mm solum. £3200 +VAT. My costs. 2 8 cube skips £180. hire of breaker 7 days £100 hire of rotavator £40 steel reinforcing £15 2 wheelbarrows-for concrete £40 1.5 cubes c>