I have some brickwork / concrete (greenhouse foundations) that I need to dig out of the ground and some concrete slabs / paths that need digging up to lay some turf down.

Will a Pick-axe be any good for smashing up the slabs, or will a sledgehammer be better?

I guess using both would be best.

I used a sledgehammer to initially break the concrete into liftable sections, and a mattock to lever the sections up so I could lift them. So, yes, I think both is best (for your back).

Don’t attempt to break up slabs with a pick axe. You will suffer some kind of mishap! Sledge hammer all the way then pick the smaller bits out. Always work from an “open edge” if possible.

Get an SDS drill with hammer function and a decent braker bit. Much easier. If you don’t want to do that use the hammer.

I find the best non power tool for this kind of work is a pinch bar as its a lot kinder on your back and has your eyes and face up and out of the way of flying debris, also allows you to be more accurate in directing the blows to break where you want. Just remember to wear specs, gloves and safety boots.

Whatever you use, make sure you’re wearing safety glasses and decent boots!

Easiest? JCB. Best realistic advice is already given, mattock or pickaxe to lever up and sledgehammer to break into manageable pieces.

Worth repeating do wear safety specs and be aware of the potential for bits to fly some distance if someone is likely to get arsey when they hear it tinging off their car.

If it gets too much go down to your local hire shop and get a breaker for the day, will make a massive difference.

pffft – this is stw – wheres the pic of some inappropriate outsized machinery? eh?

Anyway here’s one…

As above – start with the hand-tools and if its too thick/ taking too long, then a hired breaker is well worth it.

Really depends on how good it is tbh, and how good condition, if it’s under a greenhouse there’s a pretty high chance it was done by a diy’er or someone who really didn’t give a crap, when we did ours it broke up like toast with a gentle sledgehammering.

Set of Bombers?

As currently someone who is removing a wall that is made up of mainly mortar and old paving slabs. My tools of choice are a combination of a pinch bar, sledgehammer, crowbar, lump hammer, bolster and a lot of swearing.
Next job is to lift the ‘crazy’ paving patio.

I remember having to do this a few years ago. I started it with a sledgehammer, then had an epiphany

Basically…. forget sledgehammers and pickaxes. Get yourself off to the local plant hire place and get yourself a pneumatic jackhammer for the afternoon. A job that would be a labour intensive PITA suddenly becomes an utter joy. Big **** off Powertools are ace!!! 😀

You won’t need it for long. It’ll make short work of something that would have taken you all day. So then you get to go to pub as a reward for your cleverness

wot binbin sed.

You’ll waste half a day/maybe the weekend trying to break it with something inappropriate before getting pee’d off and heading down the road to hire a proper breaker and wondering why you didn’t do it in the first place.

Thermal lance.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV4r7OKkXmU[/video]

Broke my biggest sledgehammer trying to remove a concrete path…pretty unnerving when you are raising it as far as you can and its still bouncing off 🙂

Got a Hilti 110v breaker from HSS, heavy duty one that came on a trolley. Excellent, was even able to sit back and watch the wife do some.

I bought one of these: http://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb280drh-15-5kg-breaker-230v/67819

Pays for itself verses hiring if you would have to hire a tool twice.

NB you’re welcome to borrow it if you’re near Cambs….

Not mine, but had to remove one of these from my garden in an old house. Was certainly a breaker job, hardest day of work I have ever done. And that did not include carrying all the rubble bit by bit through the terraced house!

Excellent, was even able to sit back and watch the wife do some.

Indeed. Everyone wanted a go of it. It seems that it isn’t just daft, immature blokes who like smashing things up with big power tools 😀

Foundations you say?
Can’t you just infill over them and turf?
EDIT @ BINNERS [pedant] you say you got a pneumatic breaker but that picture is clearly an electrical one [\pedant]

Save your back and get a couple of Polish guys in to do it for you – they’ll have a professional grade breaker and do it in no time for £150/£200.

Wouldn’t concrete sublimate?

I’d vote for explosives by the way.

I’d vote for explosives by the way.

Damm right! 😀

I think Benny Benassi has a few suggestions that would guarantee satisfaction 😯

When I broke around the 40 tons worth of concrete around our place I hired a hydraulic breaker from TP for around £50 a week, a breaker bar still came in handy, and I actually wore out a wheelbarrow! The biggest cost involved, for me, was waste removal, my cheapest & easiest option was to pile it all up & then had a waste companies 13t grab truck come and take it away for them to recycle. Gnarr work.

image fail 🙁

Unless anyone can tell me how to resize an image on STW? doesn’t seem to work.

Did someone mention bombers?
This:

Plus this:

=

http://www.jewson.co.uk/tool-hire/breaking-demolition/electric-breakers/products/2776/demolition-hammer-16kg/

Deffo go for a big one. The 7kg hammers are hard work

If you need a breaker then don’t piss about with an electric one. Compressor every time ….

Get a breaker, don’t mess around with a small one either. That doesn’t necessarily mean air powered. This took just two strikes to go through the floor that otherwise laughed at the pick.

A pick is **** hard work. Hire a breaker or…

Take off and nuke the site from orbit is the only way.

If it’s not too much then a sledgehammer and goggles.

When I was younger I used to help my Uncle who was a builder. A job like this required one tool:

KANGO!

Note picture is not me nor my Uncle.

Someone to use a large bar to lift the edge while you twatt it with a big hammer works for me. If you have access to a railway track crowbar (6′ or 8′ version) then you can do it alone as the weight of the bar is enough to stress the concrete for breaking.

JCB Beaver FT(handheld)W.

Piece of pish

a child could do it.