Any Easy Way to Take Out a Patch of Concrete?
Question:The last contractor working on my house apparently had a bunch of concrete left over, so dug a hole on the side of my house and poured it in. It must be at least 12 inches deep, and is about 2 and a half feet wide and two feet from the house. This was 17 years ago. I want to put pavers in there. I have a hammer drill. Any suggestions?
Answers:
Yep, jackhammer or sledge hammer if you like to make large muscles. That is tough. I am sorry that your contractor was such a slob. Almost as bad as illegal dumping. It is going to take a good dry day so the stuff is brittle. If is it wet, it seems to be harder to crack. let the soil around it dry out before you attempt. If it makes you feel any better, every time I dig I get junk from old contractor's work around my house too. Yesterday was buried bricks. I also love child labor. If any are around that are old enough and strong enough - I would barder and save your back. Good luck!
Jackhammer? Remember there is also a fee to actually dump the concrete or get it taken away from your property. They do make pavers that "float" over concrete.
well if you have a hammer drill get a good masonary bit and drill holes about every 6 to 8 inches apart then get some feather and wedges and pound them in this will split it so it will be easier to handle
That might be a little much for a hammer drill to break up. You might be better off renting an electric jackhammer to take care of it. You could probably take care of the concrete in an hour or two. The alternative is to dig around it and go at it with an eight or ten pound sledge. Good luck with that!
Is the concrete maybe deep enough that you could just break off enough to put the pavers in or maybe you could raise the grade of the pavers to avoid it.
The Best way to do this without a jackhammer is:
If you have dug down pretty far then you should be able to drill a hole in the side of it. I would go to a point tht is about 1/4 along the top surface and drill pretty far into its side. Then dril holes along the flat surface about this same point. Look at the two pieces separated by these holes - one must be dramatically larger than the other but the smaller cannot be too close to the end or the vibrations will be absorbed and not transferred to the other side.
place a board under the larger piece pretty close to the end - this will maximize the vibration effects.
When you strike it you will go close to the end of the smaller piece and strike it here for a while and pretty hard - prepare for kickback though.
Once you know something happened you can go to the center where those holes are and strike it here. Repeat this over and over, it will crack at those holes because of the energy in the vibrations transferring to the larger piece - and it will vibrate vigorously causing cracks and separation at the weakest point.
If you cannot drill through the side, then just do the top. But get a really long masonary bit along that same point on the top surface, centrally located drill about four close together that go really deep into the block.
As you begin now to go outward to both sides do not drill as deep, but still go pretty deep just not as far. You want the vibrations in this case to be concentrated to the weakest point which will be those four deepest holes. This is about the area where the initial cracks will appear.
An electric jack hammer is easy to operate as long as you work in from the edges.
Be careful not to drive the bit to far in because they have a tendency to wedge.
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