I've got to take 12" inches off of a 10' run of concrete slab that's about 4" thick. I was thinking about using a small rotary hammer to either drill a bunch of holes and crack it off with a sledge, or use the hammer only mode with a chisel. Am I going to be asking too much of the tool? It's a Makita 1" D-Handle Rotary Hammer "Put Bull" model HR2455 that draws 7amps.
Thanks.
JP
I had to do this very job once. I went down to a rental place and got a two-stroke (engine) hand-held concrete wet saw. I scored where I wanted the break to be, and then used a sledge to break the slab at my score mark. I did cut down about an inch with the saw.
I then used my reciprocating saw with a bi-metal blade to cut the rebar even with the break. The score I made cracked so even that I did not have to refinish anything cosmetically other than mixing some brick mortar to cover the exposed ends of the rebar.
Worked for me.
... snip
Just out of curiosity, why didn't you use the concrete saw to cut the whole depth?
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
There are two reasons at least.....maybe more. It is so much work handling those large gas powered saws (back breaking work) so unless you have to, cutting part the way thru then finishing with a few quik blows of the hammer makes sense. The best reason though is: if you are using a diamond blade it is designed for very hard matierials but, if you use it on soft matierials it will disappear quickly. If you don't believe me go ahead and set that $250 blade down in a sandbox with it running. When you pull it back up you will have the metal blade but the diamond tool steel will be very worn(maybe gone). I learned this the hard way $$$. Always leave at least an inch of concrete to break off to save those blades. I admit I don't understand all this either, how can a blade cut rebar and hard concrete then fail in dirt and sand. but it does. I hope I havn't confused you more. :-) Lyndell
Good question Lyndell....I bet it has something to do with sanding action (no pun..really)....maybe compare it to bead or sand blasting a surface clean ?? Just guessing here...I'm no expert.
You answered the gentleman with aplumb...my exact reasons. I got charged for every bit of blade used...and yea, the guy reminded me that the blades were $250-$350 each...almost scared me away actually lol.
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