hire or buy breaker?

[Stephen]

Hello,

I am about to chisel up the concrete path and steps so that I can replace my lead water pipe with a plastic one.

Not having dug up a lot of concrete before and not knowing how deep they have poured it, I don't know how long it will take me. Is there a ball park figure for area cleared per day?

Should I hire a breaker or should I buy my own?

It seems to be about £50/day to hire and I guess the advantage is that I would get a good make, like Hilti.

But if it will take me more than three days, then it becomes cheaper to buy the Screwfix own brand:

Which despite being an own-brand, seems to have good reviews. Has anyone used it?

I've just looked at HSS hire and it seems subsequent days are cheaper, so the threshold may not be three days after all. However I would not know how long to hire it for and so might pay for unused days or not hire it for long enough.

I suppose an advantage of buying is that I could use it for one day and then it would not matter if it rained for four days, I could carry on again when it got dry, whereas with a hire, I would be paying for days I could not use it in the rain and would have to pay to hire it again when it was dry?

What would you do?

Thanks, Stephen.

[Bill Taylor]

Had the same problem 18 months ago. Bought the Titan breaker instead of hiring. It worked surprisingly well breaking up concrete 6-10" thick with a bit of reinforcment mesh in it. Took about a day and half to dig up an area about 4' x 12', but I'm a slow worker and the breaker is heavy (about 15kG in fact!) and I wasn't inclined to overdo it.

If the concrete's not very thick it can be quite easy to get up with hand tools - sledgehammer, lump hammer, cold chisels and pick but it depends on how good the concrete is.

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Stephen writes

Snip

Borrow a sledge hammer? Unless you are just needing a tidy slot. 3" would be deep for a path. If you can lever it up off the ground first, better still.

[Tim+]

Wouldn't it be less disruptive to get a new main "moled" in? Of course maybe not possible in your garden but the gas board moled a new main about

30ft to our house.

Tim

[Dave C]

How wide is your concrete, that you want to tunnel under. I have successfully used a cast iron pipe, connected to my house water supply In my case, I easily created an openin to run a pipe across a ~15 foot driveway. I then installed an "under concrete" pipe access, for lawn watering.

I merely dug below both sides of my driveway. To make the PVC pipe penetrate quicker, I put an "end compressed" a 6 inch leader cast iron pipe. That compressed pipe end provided a higher pressure leadier. I was able to go across my driveway in maybe an hour, and NO concrete to repair; a new PVC pipe in place.

[Andy Burns]

If you're not sure how deep it is, I'd go for the big guns, I had to run a cable partly into the garage, and hired one like this

and was glad I didn't have anything smaller, mind you the hire price was much lower ~10 years ago, see if they do a weekend special price.

[tabbypurr]

I never hire if I can help it. Buy a tool and you get to use it over & over .

But as has been said, if you can lever it up a mm, a sledge will then shatt er it. And if it's a short distance you might be able to diy mole it.

NT

[John Rumm]

If you hire a hydraulic one with a separate "power pack" (normally a genny style cage with a Honda engine in it) then they will go through thick stuff fairly rapidly. Just make sure you get a few steels, since you will need spares to dig out the ones you have got stuck!

Well the hire cost will typically fall after the first day - so its probably not worth buying on cost grounds alone. However if you want to have long term access to a breaker, then its worth buying.

Its looks pretty almost identical to mine - no doubt from the same chinese factory ;-) Mine came from Makro with a "Fairline" brand on it.

I don't need it often, but when it does come out, it does the job. Its got a decent wallop on it, not far of that which you get with the hydraulic ones. Its also not quite as heavy.

Hire shops don't always ask you to choose a duration up front. You hire. Use it till you are done, and then either take it back, or phone them to "off hire" it if they are collecting.

First time I needed one, I hired it. Second time I bought it.

[RJH]

I'd suggest a few pilot forays with an SDS or even a hammer drill, just to see how thick it is and whether it's reinforced (unlikely, I'd have thought)

As to how long, difficult to say. But if you're not used to shifting/lifting, give yourself plenty of time. I take about twice as long as professionals . . .

My thinking on these things is that you can always sell on ebay or similar - prices seem to hold up well (even with local collect), and likely you'll be able to sell with a sizeable guarantee. Well, that's my thinking - for some reason I tend not to get round to it ;-)

[tabbypurr]

a pattern that repeats itself over & over. The OP may want to learn from it.

NT

[newshound]

Me too. I've got a pallet truck bought for a single job, must get round to eBaying it. Some time.

I just had to break up a few square feet of concrete in order to drop a level slightly, managed to do it with a smaller SDS. There is a definite technique to doing this, it is hard to get started when the bit you are attacking is supported all round, but once you get in, "nibble" at the cut edge a couple of inches at a time. As others have said, levering is also your friend because concrete doesn't like being bent.

[tabbypurr]

It has a tonne of compressive strength and very low tensile strength. Hence lift & smack, even the tiniest lift, is so effective.

NT