I have: 1 single & 1 double garage bases, a driveway, a patio and pathways that i want to remove, it seems quite a lot of contrete to shift. Any tips on the easiest method? Some of it butts up against the house (over the dampproof!) so i need to be careful in places.

Ta

Hire a kango hammer or even quicker would be the obvious

You’re also going to need some serious skippage (although not for the second option)

Dig out any grout, replace with dry rice and add water.
Or get a kango

With the skip hire, make sure either:

– The weight of the content is not a condition of hire, or

– You can afford a lot of skips.

I put a concrete pond, dozens of paving slabs and other concrete in a skip – they tried to double charge me because I got twice the weight for the size of skip. Went back that I had complied with their restrictions (not mixed load, not above the sides of the skip, no fires, no asbestos, no reinforcement) and weight wasn’t one of them. It went quiet.

Forget a kango, you would be there for weeks. Garage bases are too much even for a compressor and breaker.

Hire an excavator and driver with a breaker attachment. A good driver would have that lot out in a day and a day to load to skips.

If the concrete buts up against your house, then either with a stihl saw or floor saw, cut a channel as close as you can to seperate the main slab from the bit against the house.

Have a word with a local tipper company. If its just broken concrete coming out they will do you a good price to take it away as they will crush it and recycle it. However, you will need a bigger machine to load, something like a 5 tonner.

Skips will cost you a fortune as broken concrete bulks right up and takes up loads of space.

Look to pay a hire company around £20 / hr for the machine and driver and £50 for the breaker. 3t excavator should do it.

Actually that’s quite a lot of stuff to break and shift. This is the perfect opportunity to hire one of these for a couple of days

Get one with a breaker and a bucket so you can shift it into the skips afterwards.
Easy and fun 🙂

Forget a kango, you would be there for weeks. Garage bases are too much even for a compressor and breaker.

Hire an excavator and driver with a breaker attachment. A good driver would have that lot out in a day and a day to load to skips.

If the concrete buts up against your house, then either with a stihl saw or floor saw, cut a channel as close as you can to seperate the main slab from the bit against the house.

Have a word with a local tipper company. If its just broken concrete coming out they will do you a good price to take it away as they will crush it and recycle it. However, you will need a bigger machine to load, something like a 5 tonner.

Skips will cost you a fortune as broken concrete bulks right up and takes up loads of space.

Look to pay a hire company around £20 / hr for the machine and driver and £50 for the breaker. 3t excavator should do it.

sounds like wise words, i think it would be far quicker and more efficient this way & save a lot of backbreaking work

cheers

sharkbait – looks good but i think i’ll need a driver too, i wouldn’t trust myself!!!!!!!!!!

sharkbait – looks good but i think i’ll need a driver too, i wouldn’t trust myself!!!!!!!!!!

I’m sure if you put the word out on here you would have no shortage of willing volunteers 😉

When we did my back garden after moving in to midlifetowers we hired a JCB and 15 tonne truck with drivers, including disposal to dig out unwanted driveway and level off, took them a weekend and they took away 60 tons. Full size JCB doesn’t need a breaker if it can get at an edge, it will break itself as it lifts.

That does sound like a lot of concrete. Excavator with driver would be my choice. Look into grab & tip as an alternative to skips, it may be cheaper if you have a lot to shift & can pile it somewhere.

+1 for getting a muckaway truck. Skips will cost a fortune.

Have you thought of moving house?

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAGmDqH4c-8&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/video]

One of these.

Have you thought of moving house?

errrr we’ve just brought this one 😐

You can probably just use the old particulars and photos then. If you use the same estate agents that sold it to you they can probably have it back on the market by this afternoon.

You need a big hitter…

tell the local police the previous owners are missing and fred west laid the garage base ….. 😕

Definatley get a Man & Machine with a pecker on it in for that, well worth the money.

Also as mentioned DON’T get skips it’ll cost a fortune, I’ve used the grab wagon services before and it’s around £185 +vat for a 20 tonne load and they load themselves where as 8yrd skips which hold say 8-9 tonne of concrete, are around the £140 +vat each and you’ll be paying time to the machine driver to load them.

My 2p

hire a machine and i’ll man the beast and get it done barter stylee.

in other words feed me,etc.

If the access is good get the biggest machine you can in there, even if it means a little 1ton mini digger is needed to clear up afterwards…..
JCB will get a shed base/ garage base out without breaking sweat normally as has been said, just get under it and it`ll break its back as you lift it, or you take the path / shed base out and drop it on the garage base to get it started ;o)
Hydraulics are wonderful things ;o)
Grab lorry if you can get it in there, skip loading dumper and roll on 8yd skip if not, but Concrete will bulk approx 30-40%

The other option if you have the space/room, which can be very cost effective as you are paying for the machine, is to dig a hole and bury it then put the soil back on top…. put it a metre or so down and youd be surprised how little it changes the height of the garden once relaid over the top ;o)

You tend to pay a premium for grab wagons. If you get a 5ton 360 excavator, you would be able to load a 6 or 8 wheel wagon. Look to pay no more than £60-80 per 8 wheeler for disposal as any decent firm will crush it and recycle. Get a breaker with the machine, if the garage base has rebar or mesh in it then the slab will not break its back and you’ll have an expensive toy for the day. 360 machine’s are much more versatile too and can get to a lot of places a JCB wont. You can use their tracks to compact the ground once the conny it up.

What are you putting back in the place of what you’re wanting shifted? If you’re getting someone in to do it, would it not be easier to let them dig it out?
I work for our family roadwork/groundwork business and do the kind of work you’re wanting done. The likes of ourselves would get the job done in a fraction of the time and would be less likely to damage anything. Plus there’s nothing worse than going to a job that is supposed to have been made ready and there’s still stuff to move or take away.
If you do it yourself make sure you don’t break any drains or go through any services. Know where they all are before starting. Any concrete up against the building should just come away if you start at the opposite side of the paths, taking more care the closer you get.