removing concrete

[mako]

Hi. I need to get rid of my drivaway which is concrete, about 75mm thick with reo, about 45 square metres of stamped (to look like cobblestones) . I was thinking of hiring an electric jack hammer, then cutt through reo and shovel/wheelburrow into a skip. any other suggestions? what size skip would i need and how much are they roughly?cheers

[Dan_574]

it will take you a while and will be a killer on the body, get a few quotes from blokes with excavators or bobcats, they take it all away and will save heaps of time.

[Sir Stinkalot]

Go the bob cat.

Even if you manage to break it up with the jack hammer it is a huge job to get rid of it with a spade.

I used the jackhammer to remove the concrete path around our house. After you get the hang of it it can be quite quick. The problems occured when trying to get the broken up concrete to the skip .... very hard work with the wheel barrow. After a while I got the bob cat in to remove the rubble. He laughed at me as he normally picks up huge slabs and it can be done quickly ..... pickup up my rubble was much slower.

Problem with the skip is also the maximum weight it can handle.

The bob cat will truck away the waste for you and save you alot of effort and time.

[mako]

I wisely decided to get a guy in with a machine and truck. But i still need to cut a few straight edges because i am keeping parts of it. Can i get a cutting disc for my big angle grinder that will cut 3 inch concrete with reo? How much are they? cheers guys

[bitingmidge]

Get a concrete cutting mob in to do the cut.

Then, don't muck around with a bobcat, bet an excavator with a rock-breaker attachment. The excavator will load all the stuff onto a truck quick as look at you.

If you want to save money by doing lots of manual stuff yourself, clean up afterwards by hand.

If you analyse the "extra" cost of all this:

1) Specialist concrete cutter will cost about twice what it would cost you for blades on your big angle grinder and will have the job done neatly and quickly.

2) The rock-breaker will get it into manageable bits in less hourly time than his travel time to get to the job.

3) The truck won't cost much compared to the tip fees anyway.

I've just been watching a DIY neighbour work for three weekends with a mini loader, then hire a stump grinder all for about twice the cost of getting a proper machine and bloke to do it in a morning! :eek:

If budget is the constraint, and you are prepared to work hard, you could make a shallow cut where you need it, then break up the slab with a 12 lb sledge hammer. Very satisfying work, and you could probably go slow enough to send it away in your wheelie bin one week at a time.

Cheers,

P