breaking up concrete/reusing for paving slabs

[Maximus37]

Hi,

I have a piece of ugly-looking old concrete in my front garden that I want to replace with paving slabs this Spring. The concrete is split in three places, and is about 6ft by 3ft wide, but it also goes around the drain.

I have never broken up concrete before, or laid paving slabs, and I'm worried about damaging the drain. I suppose the answer is not to hit the concrete anywhere near the drain. I'm hoping I can lever it up with a spade maybe...

Can I also use the broken up concrete as the hardcore for the paving slabs? Or is it just easier to buy the hardcore stuff from Wickes and lay it down? Thanks for any advice Max

[Colin Stamp]

I hired one of these yesterday and it immediately became my favourite tool.

more control than a sledge hammer. You'll still need to be bloody careful around the drain though...

The price on the website just seems to be a starting point for haggling, by the way. Mine came to 32 quid for a day including VAT, 110V transformer and sharpening.

Cheers,

Colin.

[WetClay]

This sounds like a job for a 9" angle grinder with a diamond disk. You could cut slots in the concrete near the drain to weaken it and make sure it breaks away with minimal force.

[ss]

In the past I have found that shoddy looking concrete is usually a shoddy job in as much it is never that thick, I helped a mate do an area

20 x 30 feet (ok I was younger then) but we got an entry point and a 4 x 4 post levered it up and shoved a brick under it so it wasnt resting solid, and thump with as heavy a hammer you can get, we got through the lot in 2 days.

[Chris J Dixon]

That's a good tool for the job.

When I came to break up a concrete patio, ready for laying something more attractive, it was soon apparent that the gully had been cast into it, with the top of the trap only a few millimetres below the concrete surface, so it was impossible to separate it without damage.

Once the gully was removed, I discovered the next pipe, also taking the soil pipe output, had clearly been cracked for quite a while. The stirrup pump came in handy to empty the excavation, whilst I experimented in 3D geometry with a selection of plastic components. I was very fortunate that I was at the start of a run.

Chris

[Brian Gaff]

Ear plugs and a pint for the neighbours.

Brian

[Colin Stamp]

Luckily, my job was inside the house. A large log-store thing by the lounge fireplace which, for some reason, had been built to motorway flyover spec out of concrete with *loads* of reinforcing steel. The sledge hammer wouldn't touch it, especially with the restricted swinging room, and my big chinese SDS drill was making painfully slow progress.

It wasn't *quite* as noisy as I was expecting...

Cheers,

Colin.