I have to demolish an old concrete floor slab, which is the floor of an old outhouse and outside toilet, to make way for building work. Not sure how thick it is yet - I guess 6 inches. What is the best way to do this ? Just hire one of those "breakers" the road workers use and bash it to bits ? Any advice about this. I am just realising how much work the demolition is before I can get started building anything ! Cheers, Simon.
Where are you? I've just bought a JCB Beaver hydraulic breaker and need somewhere to try it
AWEM
I had a lot of this to do recently. I tried getting an electric 'concrete breaker' first, but it just chipped bits of it. After a while I just went and hired a hydraulic one. Only cost me about £40 and it chomped through it in no time. Don't waste time and money with a silly one, go straight for the biggie. Worth it in the long run.
It may not be 6 inches, it may be 3 inches on top of hardcore. All depends on the mix, too. If it's really 6 inches of decent mix then hire a big breaker for the weekend. If not, you may get away with a £50 SDS and cheapie chisels, especially if it is only a couple of square metres.
I'm in Coventry. Simon.
floor of
anything !
Sadly too far - I'm in Kent !
AWEM
It's probably worth buying one of these and drilling a few holes to see what you're dealing with. Once you've got a hole, work away from it rather than going straight into the middle with nowhere for the concrete to break into.
John
I had to take up a section like this.
Turned out a concrete saw was the easiest - I sledged up what I could, then cut the slab into strips and levered them up.
Less noisy than a kango.
On Thu, 5 Jul 2007 10:49:01 +0100, "Andrew Mawson" mused:
Eh? I'd pop up from Kent to Coventry to play with power tools, it's not that far, just make sure you leave home in the early hours. ;)
Yes, right, but not while I'm in the middle of packing up the house & workshop for moving !
AWEM
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Andrew Mawson" saying something like:
He could bring the floor to you, surely?
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember sm_jamieson saying something like:
If it's accessible from the road or driveway, see about hiring a local JCB bod with breaker. I'm in a similar position, but have much much more of it and wouldn't entertain the idea of doing it myself. I hired a bod and breaker some years ago and was impressed at how much could be done in a short time.
Well when I get to my new place I have literally almost an acre of tatty concrete to break up, 2000 sq foot indoors and the rest various roadways crudely laid over a few decades. Full sized JCB 3CX is on the 'must buy' list !
AWEM
Thanks for the ideas folks. I'll try drilling it to see how strong it is and decide from there. Anyway, the concrete roof is first ! Cheers, Simon.
On Thu, 5 Jul 2007 13:30:46 +0100, "Andrew Mawson" mused:
Fair enough!
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Andrew Mawson" saying something like:
Yep, same here. About half an acre that used to be hard standing for loading bays and entrance/exit roadways. Preliminary breaking (the episode I referred to) to break ground for septic tanks, etc, revealed some of the covering to be nearly a foot thick as slab was laid on slab over the years.
I quite like it as it is, I can drive onto it and park anywhere, but at some point I need to lay more drains and create some sort of garden area.
various
revealed
All sounds rather familliar ! Theoretically my JCB Beaver will break a
12" slab, but I've only played breaking bricks so far What I really want to do is crush it all with a concrete crusher into 20mm to dust so I can re-use it as type one in various placesAWEM
Hire shop job this one :-)
Rick
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