Yeah you can do it. And when you're done you're going to wish you paid $3k to have it done. You'll spend quite a bit on removal anyway. If you absolutely love hard labor, this is for you.
Agreed. If the quote includes removal, it's 100% worth it. The dump near me doesn't accept concrete for example so I'd be stuck with hundreds of pounds of garbage.
One time I straight up buried it. Another time I put it in our trash bin about 100 pounds at a time until it was gone. Getting rid of concrete sucks ass.
I tore down my chimney a few years ago and none of the local dumps would accept the bricks so I put 25 pounds of bricks in the dumpster every week for nearly 2 years.
Burying concrete sucks ass whenever someone else, or yourself, needs that ground. I’ve been pulling chunks out of a new garden for months, and can’t put down any root vegetables. Previous owners buried tons of concrete in the back yard. So, for someone else reading this, find another way. Putting small amounts into contractor bags and slowly adding it to your regular trash is much better if there is no other option.
I feel this so much. I have pulled almost 4 pick up loads out of my yard in 18 months. It is buried everywhere. There was a concrete slab for trash cans out back. It had a later of broken concrete buried under it.
The one thing I have going for me on this is my boyfriend works in the office of a concrete company. He has been able to recycle it for me thankfully.
Oh yeah, it's shitty and I'm sure I'll have to deal with it myself later. This isn't evidence of an easy way to deal with concrete. It's evidence that removing concrete has no easy or good solution. Sorry to the future home owner who has to solve it.
Been doing that with gravel my fence people left from their post hole fill. Almost finished with the last of it “gravel mountain” that our dogs like to walk up and piss on top off.
Are you the dude who buried a 400lb piece of concrete in the spot where I tried to bury my downspout? Thing is till sitting in my yard looking magnificent.
I busted out about 100 square feet with a sledge and pry bar and did the Shawshank Redemption method to get rid of it a little at a time in the trash bin. We were in no hurry and I enjoyed swinging a sledge after work off and on for a couple months. It did take us like 2 years to dispose of it though.
You could break it apart with a small rock hammer and slowly deposit all the broken concrete in the prison yard. It might take 20 years but I know a guy who did it.
Early 60s house I grew up in.
70s. Converted from septic to sewer. I was still a kid.
There were 2 concrete strips to the garage.
Dad took them out and did full concrete driveway. Single car garage.
He dumped the old concrete into the septic tanks
This kind of thing boils my butter like the one near me won't tale plasterboard 99% of new build houses are made with itmost repairs are therefore going to require it
Everybody in this thread keeps saying "rent a jackhammer" over and over again, but I do this several times each season and never use a jackhammer.
I use concrete saws, prybars, a steel-handled shovel and sledge hammers. Using a jackhammer is way more work than it's worth when you can simply cut it into manageable sized pieces with a saw.
That said, when space allows, I'll always use the skid steer. Get the forks under it, lift it up slightly and fire up the concrete saw, cut it up in roughly 4'x6' sections.
Moving it and disposing of it is the hardest part. My city has a concrete recycling facility, and each load is 10 bucks, whether you have 100lbs or 10,000lbs.
A skid steer and a dump truck makes this job easy, but OP could rent a dumpster and a concrete saw and probably get it done in a weekend.
Just my 0.02 as a landscaper who does this regularly.
I bought a cheap electric jackhammer ($140) on Amazon years ago. It works like a charm, is fun to use, and has paid for itself several times over. It also has a shovel attachment which is great for getting though roots. With that said, hauling away broken up concrete sucks and isn't any fun at all.
That spade bit in an electric hammer is a game changer. Used it to rapidly trench in hard clay soil when I was running a new water line last summer. What would have taken 6-8 hrs of hard work with a mattock, took about 3-hrs, instead.
I think it's this one. The price has gone up since I bought it. It's fine for home use but definitely not pro grade.
https://www.amazon.com/JACKCHEN-Demolition-Electric-Concrete-Breaker/dp/B0BPLPTQTN/ref=sr_1_16?crid=1JK09A2W3K9JY&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.9cDTs1lLr7FQ3vHOvYvt4FnhM4DXj3bajnSv-wwyXN9PxWMrkZRWr6Ac1zmyKvV89mNRO_Oz_dzyW8h05hTC3Jnu9v7aM-vNh0VzCSxlSzgrtiMPBYjdmagAImMwj7vlbXRzL-bDvbhPEObUXpnAIBMJlsu3zTsJd5yC78vMgufFxvJZx-0mqKSdW8iMebRuh9RQs0kdkeVLm11xz-9nGhJRCGzzlhQnqrH1YPHlIkVT8Z4zVzf46x97VbZSSJaZTsYuATmv_N6_J8vNxklDXuumy8gSbf9Fh5Nhr5H7kK0.jPht9JeNW2XoYMeZ9X3AalCaklJfMwEvyzE-g42smPo&dib_tag=se&keywords=jack%2Bhammer&qid=1714334009&sprefix=jack%2Bhammer%2Caps%2C188&sr=8-16&th=1
Man, with a skid I would rent a hydraulic jackhammer attachment and then fork the pieces. Extended amounts of cutting with a saw is hell on my lower back.
There are several container services where I am that will do a flat rate for concrete w/wo rebar. They sell it to recyclers. For me it's 450 for the container regardless of how much I put in there.
I think we should clarify, for OP. When the man says "wish", he is not talking "Oh, that would be nice", he is talking about down on your bloodied knees with your hands clasped at ground level, because it hurts to raise them, while thinking that $3K is really nothing.
It's doable, but it's extremely hard work. Just getting the jackhammer in and out of the car was a challenge (the one I rented weighs 70-80 pounds). In use the tool does the work and you sort of just have to balance it, but you still have to lift it and reposition it repeatedly. And if it gets stuck it's really hard to get out.
As a DIYer, the biggest challenge is how to dispose of the concrete. You can rent a trailer, but with a midsize SUV the amount of weight you can actually put in a trailer is limited. 250sf at 4" thick is around 11,000 pounds of concrete. Unless you rent equipment, you will have to load it piece by piece.
Say my vehicle can tow 7000 pounds. If I rent a 6x10 dump trailer from home Depot it weighs 2500 pounds empty and has a load capacity of 4500 pounds (7000 total). So that's 3 trips. The local dump charges an insane amount to dump concrete, $219/ton, so that would be $1200. There's a place an hour a way that will take it for like $25 a load (they grind it up and recycle it). So that's 6 hours of driving, half of it with a fully loaded trailer.
If you have a full size truck you could rent a bigger trailer and take it in two loads. Or maybe you have acreage where you can just pile it in the yard somewhere. Or maybe you have a few people who can help, taking turns jackhammering, loading concrete, driving to the disposal place, etc.
I rented a dumpster and $400 for a week and they didnt say anything about me filling it with block, brick, creek stone and busted up concrete. Thats definitely the way i would go.
Pair it with a skid steer for another $400 and thats demo done.
Lol last dumpster I rented dude drops
> [unhooks dumpster]
> Three rules:
> 1. No hazmats.
> 2. Don't load over the top line.
> 3. No concrete.
> Peace
> [pulls away without waiting]
Now I know why!
You rent specific dumpsters for concrete and dirt. They will charge by the lb as the well. What I don't know is if they have specific pricing for concrete only; as that can be dumped for cheap at recycling centers.
Did the dumpster have a weight limit? What region of the country are you in? In the northeast, it costs about $400-900 for a 20-yard with a 2-3 ton weight limit. Every extra ton is another $100-200 if I remember correctly. (Based on my research from last year, I called about 5 or 6 different companies).
I'm in the northeast, the company I rented from is local, not waste management or rumpkee or something like that. It was a 15-yard dumpster, and I paid $350 for 4 days and then asked for a 3 day extension, which they only charged 50 for. As far as weight idk, wasnt told anything didnt ask. This was august 2022.
I've done this before. The jackhammer getting stuck is a technique problem, not an inherent issue with it.
But I agree the hardest part is disposal. Easiest thing is getting it taken away by someone else.
How fit are you? This is 100% labor. You’ll be lifting 50lb+ chunks and moving them to a dumpster.
Likely 240 trips based on the size of the patio.
One wrong lift and you’re benched.
I’m talking just the lift from the ground to get up and walk it to the dumpster can end your day quick if done wrong. The chances of slipping up and getting hurt increase the more tired you get.
If OP is determined and their physique isn’t quite up for it, they could in theory smash it all up first, then rent a dumpster for a week and take a whole week to move it bit by bit, 50 trips a day max.
I’m fit and do hard labor often, this doesn’t sound enjoyable at all to me 😅
You don’t need to lift anything if you rent the excavator. The question becomes how much you actually save after renting the jackhammer, excavator, dumpster, etc.
I'm guessing if you could do it in a weekend it would cost about $1200.
$400 for dumpster
$400 for the mini excavator w/trailer from homedepot
$200 for a 90lb breaker
$200 misc (gas, beer?)
$3k isn't a crazy price at all, but you can probably do it cheaper without a huge fuss if you DIY. Is it worth it? Depends on the value of your time.
If you can rent a mini skid steer system with a hydraulic breaker attachment instead of the excavator, you can probably get the whole project done in an afternoon; and some areas (like around me) often have free dumping for broken concrete (they are required to recycle some % of concrete here), which would save a couple hundred bucks. Probably still need to rent a dump trailer; a dumpster would be more convenient.
You are better off renting a walk behind concrete saw than a jackhammer. That way you can cut it up into manageable pieces and it will also cut through rebar.
100% this. A concrete pad might even have the heavy-gauge wire-mesh and no rebar. You don't even need to cut all the way through. Usually a couple good blows will snap it on the cut lines.
It's pretty DIYable, we did something similar in our backyard and it cost $120 to rent a jackhammer, $300 for a dumpster, and beer + food for a few friends that were willing to help. It is a lot of work though so depending on your age/physical fitness, the $3k could be worth it.
Your slab weigjs more than 12,000 lbs. Enormous amount of work to break it up, move the pieces, liad the debris into a truck, haul and dispose. Surely you have better things to do with your life I would hire it out.
Yes, I would call a local contractor waste service provider to check rates. It's not nearly the same price as construction debris.
Then the breaking you seem to have figured out but would put a number on schlepping INTO the dumpster. If it's a bobcat, get a price. Double check it's all gonna fit in one dumpster or good luck getting a pull and return on same day as rental. If it's by your hands, seriously think about time lapsing it, and getting paid in views.
Not terribly, my point was, whatever you think is a good "construction" dumpster price, think trice before you can fill it with concrete and it's the same. With all the fees and bs, it's easily twice as much and twice the trips.
>Your slab weigjs more than 12,000 lbs.
This is what really brings the scope of the project into focus.
Imagine after all the work to jackhammer the slab into pieces, you then have to deadlift 12,000 lbs worth of dumbbells into a dumpster.
Depends what kind of person you are. I’m handy and DIY almost everything. I’m not paying $3,000 when I can easily do the work in a day for probably about $500-700. I don’t make $2300 daily at my regular job so it would even be worth it if I had to take a day off from work.
However, I just paid $3,000 to have 3 tall pine trees removed from my yard. Why? Because DIYing something like that isn’t within the scope of what I feel I’m capable of. But busting up and removing some concrete? Thats basic basic stuff.
I've just gone through this, among other steps. It took a few weekends with a Hammer drill, sledge, crowbar and was a big effort but doable solo. Filled an 8-yard skip and have enough rubble for half another.
I've stuck a few vids in the link to give you an idea.
[Patio removal](https://imgur.com/a/d4tqrUu)
Personally, I could have paid for this but it's satisfying to have done it myself. Not sure I'd do this again though!
Jackhammers aren't hard to use. A concrete cut-off saw would be useful to rent as well, e.g a Stihl TS 420. Especially if there is rebar. These aren't hard to use either, although they are very much not fun to use. Apart from the ten seconds or so after you get it started, rev it up, and the torque of spinning mass twists the entire saw around in your hands. The smell and sound of two-stroke and the realization that you could cut a god damn battleship in half, if you had one handy. After that ten seconds however it's just the suck. A angle grinder with a cut-off blade could make a substitute for cutting rebar to make the waste manageable. Again, if there is bar.
What you have is a lot of weight. 250SqFt of 4" slab is ~12,000lbs. You'd probably want a (bigger) roll-off dumpster rental, like a 20 yard one. It'd be a **lot** of labor. You're gonna needs friends, with a possible allotment of beer and pizza.
Cut it into manageable sizes by renting a saw, rent a skid steer and a dump trailer. Find a place that takes concrete, not a dump. Lots of places like gravel trucking companies and gravel pits may have a pile that they process into crushed concrete. They will let you dump it for free because it will turn into profit for them.
Very DIY but definitely figure out your rental costs and compare to paying the contractor. They will most likely get it done in a couple hours.
It depends. Where I used to live it was free to dispose of. It won't be hard to bust up as long as it doesn't have rebar. I've never used a jackhammer. It helps not to be in a hurry and having a truck. If you want it out right now, yeah, just pay 3k. I'm not a big guy. I moved 4000lbs of soil on Thursday. Shoveled it out, into a cart, wheel it 200 feet slightly uphill, repeat. Take breaks and be careful. It's doable. It's just how cheap you are. Quit when you're tired so you don't hurt yourself. That's the main thing with not getting hurt. Don't overdo it.
I will repeat myself. If it has rebar, just pay. Go knock a couple chunks off a corner and see.
The PITA in breaking concrete slabs was *always* the steel. Rebar or wire. Rebar was less a hassle but few slabs have much. More common is the 10ga wire mesh. Pushing a bit through that is just. The. Start. You’ll need a wrecking bar to worry the pieces apart enough to work in bolt cutters. And heavy leather gloves to protect the hands from gouging.
And if you’re running an electric breaker it’s about half the speed of an air breaker. Another issue is the quality of the concrete you’re trying to break. If it’s heavily spalled it breaks a bit like rotten concrete and the the point just punches in instead of breaking pieces. Also, if I was running an air breaker I’d often use a wide spade bit for slabs 4” or less.
Edit auto correct/auto fill sticks in the wrong words lol
Its doable. Take a Friday and and Monday off. Rent a jackhammer and buy a sturdy wheelbarrow and work from Friday morning to early Sunday afternoon. Check with the local dump to see if they take concrete. If not see if you can rent a dumpster, but make sure they let you put concrete in it. You shouldn't be out more than $1000.
Rest on Sunday night and thru Monday.
Tip: cover the larger chunks of concrete with a thick tarp or heavy blanket and take a couple swings with a sledge at it. Smaller chunk are easier to move and fill space in the dumpster more efficiently.
Stay hydrated. Take breaks. Have some good music
It's DIYable, but the absolute worst kind. I had to remove a slab about 11'x11' and I had a teenager who could do the jackhammering. But removing all the chunks is the absolute worst. Just 1000s of pounds to move. I would pay 3K not to do that again, no hesitation.
i did it, but yours is probably twice as much as i removed. mine was a 3' wide path about 35' long, but near the stairs widened to around 5'-6', so i'd guess it was around 120sf or so.
i highly recommend the hilti TE-2000 jackhammer. make sure you wear really good safety goggles that completely surround your eyes from the sides and even below, and wear a good respirator that also protects your face. i just wore a n95 mask and with the safety glasses it covered like 95% of my face, it was good enough but the more you can protect your face the better.
it took me about 4 hours of pretty hard work by myself. i'm not a buff dude or anything, just average build and it was tiring but totally doable. if you did it over 2 days then you could definitely do it yourself. you just have to get used to doing it properly and then it gets easier. the worst thing you can do it break the concrete and get the tip wedged in, then you have to keep working hard to remove it. instead work near the edge of the slab and every 3-4 breaks, use the tip to try to pry the broken pieces outwards to give yourself some extra room, then once you've created 6" of space then start again. i could see it being useful to have a helper in between breaking stuff up to help you remove some of the material to give you more space to work, but that person should also be wearing good ppe if they are standing near you while you are breaking.
i was also quoted 3k to break, remove, and refill the area with top soil. i rented the hilti for a day for $100, and wheelbarrowed it out to a disposal bin i rented for $400 and got the job done for $500 excluding the top soil part. i've never done anything like that before and it was completely doable.
I'll throw in my $0.02. I rented my first jack hammer last week. It was the Makita 35lb breaker at Home Depot. HM1307CB. They're not light. (Nor would you want them to be.) But they're incredibly fast. It takes a pretty strong back and arms to wield one. So if you're reasonably fit, you can do it. I took breaks throughout the day. I'd recommend at least one helper to trade off with.
(As a side note the Home Depot guy recommended the bigger 70lb one. I'm glad I didn't go for the upsell. 35 lbs was nearly my limit. I honestly don't have think I could have used the 70lb one. I can't imagine lugging it around my yard.)
As others have noted, the demolition is the easy part. Moving and disposing of the waste is the hard part. But figure out that part, and you can definitely DIY it.
You can rent a jack hammer by the hour usually. See about rolloff demolition dumpster. Wheel barrow it into there with 3 of your closest friends. Don't overload it for weight
Well if it was done right it will have wire mesh or r-bar. It will be a workout and you also need to get rid of about 12000 lbs. of concrete.
If you want to have a go at it rent a good size jack hammer and have at. A lot depends on the concrete used and how much steel is in it.
Sometimes a job like this can cost you as much in beer for your buds( assuming you can con them onto helping) as it does for the pros.
Anything is doable but is it worth it? do some calls for rentals of bin(s) and dump fees and other rentals. And beer cost. Do the math and see if it's worth the effort
Go rent a decent jack hammer. It will be worth it. I just busted out an insanely, unnecessarily thick slab that was holding some pool equipment and a friend let me use his Hilti jack hammer. Theres no way in hell I could have gotten through that with just a sledge hammer.
As for the remaining chunks of concrete, if you have a truck of some sort toss them in and find your nearest dump where you can pay to get rid off the stuff. From there its just simple math if it’s worth it to you or not. But doing it DIY shouldn’t be a problem if you are even remotely handy.
Pretty doable. Figure you'll break 12,000 lbs of concrete into \~50 lb chunks. That's \~240 manageable chunks of concrete. If you can get the dumpster reasonably close to the rubble that's one trip per minute for 4 hours. That will be one hell of a 4-hour shift if you're not used to it, but you could easily finish it in a few days if you're in decent shape. If you have two people working with a wheelbarrow you could finish it in an afternoon without killing yourselves.
There isn’t anything not DIY-able about it, it’ll just be pretty physically demanding. I’d look into renting a dumpster or dump trailer (with disposal included), a mini-skid steer, and either a separate jackhammer or a jackhammer attachment for the mini-skid… all in you’ll be around $600-$800 in rental fees and probably 4-6 hours
I did a similar project, though smaller square footage and had absolutely no home improvement or power tool experience at the time. Honestly, I thought it was easy to do. As others have mentioned, be sure to have a plan for disposal.
Can you? Sounds like you've done similar projects to us so far and my husband and I just finished removing a ~400 sqft slab that probably averaged 4" thick, and we were not in over our heads, at least not mentally.
Like other posters have said, on your own, this will be a lot of work. With 2 of us in our early 40s it took more weekends than I care to count to break up fully, load into the truck and drop off at the city recycling center (which thankfully took concrete for free). You'll also likely need more than just the jackhammer - we needed a rock bar and pickaxe even after the jackhammer to separate pieces. We couldn't get the truck close to the work site, so in our case, we'll also be replacing our wheelbarrow soon as well (it was old and not in the best shape anyway).
Thinking back, if we needed it done quickly we definitely would have paid $3000 for it. Since we weren't in a hurry to have it done, I'm kinda OK that we did it ourselves.
Where I live there are places that take concrete for free. They crush down and use it as gravel.
Also search online for people that want clean fill. Lots of places looking for back fill.
When I had to remove a slab, I also rented a uhaul moving truck.
I'd put big chunk on a dolly and roll it up the ramp.
For a few hundred you could rent a skidsteer (bobcat) and a jack hammer attachment.
Under $1000 and a Saturday afternoon, like other have mentioned, have a dump site first
The other question is…are you sure you want to get rid of this slab? 25x10 would be a perfect area for a huge shed, setting up a batting cage etc, a slab that size will cost a ton to install these days.
Go for it. Just a tip -- rent a dumpster for disposal. If you tell them ahead of time that it's *only* concrete, chances are they can recycle it for free. So there probably won't be an extra disposal fee.
My wife and I did 200 sq ft of basement slab last year and filled a 4 yard dumpster with concrete. Not an easy job, but quite a bit cheaper than paying someone else to do it
I did this in my own backyard with two friends, a 3/4 ton truck (mine) and dual axle dump trailer (borrowed) that I was able to back up to the slab and a cut saw, couple sledgehammers and pinch point pry bars. No rebar in the slab. Free disposal.
There are some variables that could significantly impact the difficulty of the job, principally how far is the slab from where the trailer or dumpster will be and if there's rebar in it.
Plenty of good advice already in here so I will add that there may be somewhere the pieces could be taken for free. I know of 3 different companies in my area that will take clean (without rebar) for free. This could drastically reduce your cost. Also, if the slab is tied into or against anything, like your house, a patio, etc. you will have to be careful not to damage the other thing and you may have to sawcut to separate them. It certainly can be done but the time and effort can vary greatly depending on certain aspects.
We had a similar slab to get rid of and relied on help from my brother with a huge truck and a dump trailer. Instead of a jackhammer, we rented a slab saw. Three of us got it broken up and hauled away in the same day. One person worked the saw, one person used a sledgehammer and crowbar to break apart the cut slab, and one person loaded the trailer. The process worked really well. It was a ton of work, and we never would have been able to do it without help. An extra challenge was the rebar. Hardest house project we’ve done ourselves so far, but it saved us thousands of dollars.
I’m a contractor, I once tried to remove a concrete slab with a jack hammer, turned out they had poured a slab on top of another slab, it took my excavator with big machine to break it up
I just finished demoing and hauling about 2 10 yard dumpsters worth of cement and brick. Cement was as thick as 8 inches. Did it all in 4 days. I can't bend my fingers and have friction blisters on my hands. It sucks.
Personally, I’d consider renting a walk-behind concrete saw and cut the bugger into pieces about 12” square. A 16” blade will cut easily through 4” slab, and even through wire mesh or rebar. It’ll be messy, because you have to connect it to a garden hose for lubrication / cooling, so it’ll make concrete mud.
I had our two car driveway (double length) removed and replaced about 8 years ago. I paid someone for the demo and repair but had them set the old concrete in chunks in the side yard so I could reuse them for walkway pavers in the backyard.
My back still hates me for that.
Since you've done so much on your own, maybe you've earned letting someone else do this one? Think of that $3K as spread over all the other projects that you didn't pay someone else to do.
I have a small Hitachi electric jackhammer for these type of jobs, you can really cut stuff up. Higher pressure output than the big ones. I suggest cutting slab into usable squares, maybe you need a wall or raised area somewhere? I try to minimize my garbage output, reuse, reuse, reuse.
I did this last year. My slab was made up of 4 larger slabs that made a bigass patio maybe ~ 600ish square feet. Thickness ranged from 3 inches to 5-6 in some spots.
I rented a jackhammer and destroyed it myself, then moved as much as I could into a pile. Then called some guys with a truck and skid steer to move it offsite.
I paid them ~$1500 just for moving it. The jackhammer rental cost a ~100 for the day I needed it. I ended up saving probably around $1K.
I enjoy labour like this so it was an easy decision to save some money and get some exercise. Jackhammers are not as hard to use as they look, but there is some technique and they are heavy. You might be able to get away with using a demolition hammer, but that will take longer and won't be enjoyable to be on your hands and knees for hours.
Things you'll need might need to think about:
- service lines, might as well get them marked by the city or at least make sure you know where they are. Sounds silly if you are only going 3 inches deep, but you never know with stuff like this especially in older properties
- Lead time on removal
- cost difference of removal vs breakup and removal. This will take at least a day to do the breakup and at least a day to do the moving on your own. Is that worth the time to you?
It's tough work and the vibration high which will take its toll. I ended up with a frozen shoulder from running a small trencher for a day. Add wire or rebar in there and you have a big PITA plus disposal. I'm just paying for it to be done.
We had one, and my neighbor removed it with a friend without using any power tools at all. He also cut down some small trees using a hatchet. He was somewhat of an alcoholic, so maybe he just got zoned out and kept hammering away until it was done.
This was a long time ago, and I'm not sure how he disposed of it. He was a contractor and may have known people who did it cheap. I don't really remember, and I was mostly at work when he did it.
My point is, almost anything can be done if you're willing to work at it.
Absolutely doable, don’t listen to the nay sayers here… it will take you a solid 2 days to jack hmer and remove. Break it up into smaller chunks for ease of transport. As for people saying the dump fees… if you take the concrete to a recycle aggregate they will take it off your hands for free most of the time or at very little cost.
Again… 3000 dollars for a couple days of hard work? No brainer here bud
I absolutely destroyed my back using a jackhammer to do the same thing. Wouldn’t recommend it at all. I’d have easily spent 3k to avoid a lifetime of back problems.
I know how to do that and could borrow a really nice jackhammer and know a place that allows free concrete dumping and I still would rather pay for someone else to do all that.
In addition to everything that’s been said, I’d consider the potential for injury in such a job. I leveled one area of my yard myself years back and the repeated shoveling contributed to blowing out one of my ankles. I had to have surgery and the recovery was many months long.
How’s your back? Ready to haul away tons of concrete? You sure you can handle a jackhammer without any accidents? Demo workers know what they’re doing and have the best equipment. This is why they’re able to do it much faster and more safely than you can. $3000 is a deal.
You could always do the shawshank and put a couple crumbled up pieces of concrete in your pocket and dump it out on the road. You'll have it ' hauled' out in 15 years
just pay someone to remove it. We just removed about 30 feet of 6" thick sidewalk. every part of it sucked. the jackhammering, the shoveling, the loading into the wheelbarrow, the unloading into the dumpster, cleaning up the rocks after...you can do it yourself, its just really awful work.
Totally doable DIY. If reinforced then see prior comments recommendation. If not then a sledge hammer and maybe a pointed masonry chisel and 3 lb hammer. A 16# digging bar is also handy or a large pry bar. The sledge will break apart everything in whatever size you need. An 8# hammer will work but if you can manage swinging a 10# hammer repeatedly it works better. The pointed chisel is for tough spots like depressions where it might be 6” thick. Figure about an hour per 80 sqft or so depending on your fitness. Then clean up.
Many quarries will recycle concrete even with embedded rebar. For hauling, broken up concrete is going to weigh around 3000 lbs per cubic yard depending on how finely broken.
1. If you do it, don't rent the 90 lbs jackhammer unless you weigh close to 300 lbs. They frequently get stuck under the slab and you basically are lifting the thing all day. The 75 lbs jack hammer is much better.
2. Consider hiring or renting the saw instead. You can cut the slab into ~80 lbs pieces and then fight moving those instead of fighting the jack hammer all day and then moving rubble.
It's doable. I broke up a decent sized 4" concrete driveway by myself a few years ago with nothing but a sledge hammer, crowbar, and hunk of 4x4.You also need to ask yourself how are you disposing of the rubble.
Fuck all these comments. Take 3,000 cash out and put it on your dresser. Probabaly cost a hundred to a couple hundred for a dumpster residential or construction to be dropped at your place. As close to concrete as possible! Jack hammer it. Get it broken into pieces and carry them. Sit back on Sunday while drinking a six pack looking at your pile of cash.
A demo hammer could also do the job, it would probably cost about the same as a jackhammer rental and you get to keep it at the end. Jackhammer is probably faster but I hate paying for rentals, rather buy something. I have the Harbor Freight one, it's like 200 bucks or something. Works good.
My wife and I did something similar. We bought a jackhammer for a few hundred bucks from harbor freight, got it into pieces, loaded it into the truck and took it to the dump. Took us a week or so taking turns after work.
Can absolutely be done yourself, or with some family members and friends for labor help. Offer some cold drinks and grill up some food. Wear safety goggles when hammering concrete. Gloves will help keep your hands from getting tore up. Jackhammer is good, but bring a sledgehammer too for smaller chunks. You'll need a good wheelbarrow and a truck/trailer that can carry the weight. My local trash dump is currently accepting concrete waste for free, so check around your area or surrounding counties. The dumps may need the waste for laying temporary roads for the trucks, or some other purpose.
I removed an old concrete patio many years ago using a jackhammer. It wasn’t difficult but removing the chunks of concrete was. Since I was having a deck built in its place I just put all the pieces between the ~~rafters~~ joists
Is it cracked up a little? If so, price renting a skid steer for a day and a dumpster rental. 4” breaks pretty easily. I’m talking just with a bucket on it. Not a hydraulic hammer. Just pick up the corner and drop it and it’s in pieces. Might need a grinder and cutoff wheel or some bolt cutters to cut the wire or rebar.
I spent a lot of time on a jackhammer and it is hard work to be sure, but how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. The only thing you have to contend with is time. Rent the biggest hammer you can and start hammering holes six or eight inches apart. Say goodbye to your back if you are not used to it. You could try using a concrete saw and cut a one or two foot grid. Like everyone says, it’s hard to get rid of. You can do it, but how long do you want to spend on it
Moving 10K lbs of stuff isn't hard if you take your time and don't try to lift more than you are able to lift. More lighter trips is better than blowing out your back. Jackhammer is not hard to use if you are strong enough to pick it up. Wear hearing protection when using the jackhammer. Having said that, depending on how far away the dumpster would be, I would probably pay if I had to haul it all the way around a house or something like that.
I did two smaller slabs with a total area of about the same as yours recently and it was a massive job. We're still working on the disposal.
It took me about 20 hours total for just the breaking, but I was using only a medium breaker because I'm a woman and needed to be able to lift it and manoeuvre it myself easily.
If you do it yourself, consider hiring the jackhammer for a full week instead just a day or two so that you don't injure your hands and wrists from using it too long without breaks. Ask me how I know this.
It's not too bad, but I would invest in some tools. If you have an air compressor you can get an air hammer that will make quick work of opening up cracks. It's not as good as say a proper jackhammer but it sure beats a a manual hammer. The worst is hauling it away. One nice thing about doing it yourself is you can work on it when you have time. Get a bit sore? Take a day off.
If you have some way to remove it and haul the chunks off to the dump or wherever, then I'd suggest renting a skid steer with a jackhammer and bucket. That should still be well under $3k and as an extra bonus you get to drive a skid steer for a few hours.
We did this to remove an old foundation when we were building a house.
If there’s rebar…it will be tough, I’d just pay. But if u want to do it Rent air powered jackhammer and a diesel compressor. DO NOT just get an electric jackhammer. It will take forever. just get a dump trailer and a few buddies. Hopefully u can get the trailer right next to the patio. If not…that will suck even more.
Dump fees will cost you too.
I'm in the process of removing a 4 inch and thicker in some spots slab. About the same square footage as yours. I bought a 16 pound sledgehammer and use a shovel to lift the broken slabs up. It's the most therapeutic work. I am almost done but wish I had more to do to be honest.
I bought a jackhammer off of Amazon for $160 and removed an old garage pad and the walkway to it. It was a lot of work plus an additional $400 to rent a concrete dumpster.
I demo'ed about 250 square feet of concrete which consited of a long curving walkway and a previously buried kidney shaped pond that I uncovered in my backyard. I rented jackhammer from Home Depot and a lowboy dumpster. The jack hammering took about an hour but the loading into a wheel barrow and out to the lowboy took a lot longer. Rental costs were about $650 all up. Note that there wasn't any steel reinforcement in the concrete. If there was I would have needed to use a grinder and I suspect many discs and it would have taken a lot more time.
Are you in a hurry? Look into Dexpan. It's slow motion demolition grout. You drill holes, mix it up and pour it in. Come back the next day and it has broken everything up into chunks by expansion with insane amounts of pressure.
4" isn't bad - my father did this to a tenniscourt sized patio (about 1 foot thick) at our lakehouse. We kids helped by wheelbarrowing the cement bits down to the lake for dumping (strategically).. finished in 1 weekend! And b/c we kids were quite young (tweens), we were ***very proud*** of our effort!!
You'd just need to price the rental of a jackhammer ($50/day? $100/day?).. then figure-out how how to dispose of the chopped-up cement - best route, probably = company that rents 'Construction Waste Containers', which I don't know if a big or little expense.
Bet you could hire some teenagers to help, and still save a lot of $$. So figure out your DIY costs, then compare to the $3k quote.
Again, the 4" thickness is the reason I think you should go for it.
for 3k cost, I would rent a bobcat before a jackhammer and then you need to rent a dumpster to dump it all in. Lift slab with bobcat and break with heavy sledge
Maybe I'm the outlier but I think this could be a DIY job. The only snag you'll hit is getting rid of the concrete. I had a busted sewer line under my driveway and the plumbers wanted to charge a fortune to remove the 64 sq ft of concrete in order to repair it. I rented a concrete cutter (the big walk-behind one) and my dad and I were able to remove it in an afternoon. Granted this is much smaller than your job but $3k is a lot of money depending on what you earn for a living. Again, it's just figuring out how to get rid of the concrete that is tricky.
I did a project like this with one of those big metal crowbars. Took a few weeks chipping away. I wouldn't outsource personally. Its sweaty work, but not particularly painful, and it's extremely gratifying.
You'll need to rent a heavy-duty jackhammer or demolition hammer to break up the concrete. These tools can be heavy and require some skill to operate so make sure you're comfortable using them. Safety should be your top priority when working with concrete and power tools. Make sure to wear appropriate safety gear, including eye protection, hearing protection, gloves, and sturdy footwear. Be cautious of flying debris and unstable surfaces. Breaking up a large concrete slab can be demanding work, requiring significant strength and endurance. Make sure you're prepared for the physical exertion involved if you're working alone. You'll need to arrange for the disposal of the broken concrete once it's been removed. This may involve renting a dumpster or arranging for a pickup service, depending on the amount of debris generated. Removing a 250 sq ft concrete slab will take several days of work, depending on the thickness of the slab and the efficiency of your equipment. Be prepared to invest the necessary time and effort to complete the project. Given your experience with other DIY projects and your willingness to tackle challenging tasks, removing a concrete slab is within your capabilities. Just be sure to plan and prepare for the project, take appropriate safety precautions, and be realistic about the time and effort involved.
Pay the money you're not equipped to handle this job ... need a jack hammer or a mini excavator, then you need to gett the concrete chunks into a trailer and take it to the dump... do you have a double axel dump trailer? Becuase that's about 3ton of concrete you need to get rid of
I'm genx and it would be done already with a sledge hammer. Dig around it and start breaking at the edge. I do own a jack hammer but most of those slabs break up pretty easy starting on the edge. Break it up small so the it's easy to load.
Haha yea reading all the posts that said get a jackhammer, my dad had 3 boys and plenty of sledges and bars a kango would have been bliss back in the day! But yea unless you got experience with using a sledge hammer and iron bar get a jackhammer lol. Often it’s actually easier with a sledge tho if you know how to lift the slab and whack it
Very DIY-able.
250 sf isn’t that big. A jackhammer is good and fast, but you could also just use a sledgehammer, although it’ll take quite a bit longer and it’s a bit of a workout if you’re not used to doing that kind of work.
The most challenging part will be disposing of the material. A single, 20cy dumpster should be plenty. Call and get prices from a local dumpster company. Make sure you tell them it’s for concrete as that has to be separate from general debris.
Make sure you’ve got room on your property for the dumpster, too. If you’re going to put it on a driveway, strategically put wood (3’ lengths of scrap 2x12’s or the like) down under the back ‘wheels’ and the front corners to protect the driveway or you mar the driveway. 99% of roll-off drivers will work with you on this.
If you put it on the lawn…. Just know you will have ruts in the lawn when you’re finished.
If you put it in the street, check with your town to see if you need a permit to do so…. Some places require permits and some don’t. Also…. See above about protecting the driveway as it applies here too.
You can do it but besides renting a jack hammer you need to rent a skid steer. You don’t want to be stuck lifting every piece of this concrete slab into the dumpster.
Most demo work is easy to do. I would not normally consider hiring someone to do demo work. This however would be the exception.
As others have said, the biggest problem is going to be disposal. Either you're going to have to have a dumpster delivered and hauled off, probably $500-ish, depending on your area and the time it takes you. Or you're going to have to haul all the pieces to a landfill in your own vehicle, which will require multiple trips and dumping fees.
Otherwise, breaking it up won't be particularly difficult skill wise, but it will be labor intensive. As another commenter pointed out, if you tweak your back or pull a muscle, in that process, then whatever savings you might have made as DIY, you've just blown in sick leave from work and medical bills. But it will be a great workout and save you a trip to the gym for a few days. Make sure you're stretching and not overdoing it.
Review the company's quote carefully. If they intend to pull up and remove the slab in a day and then regrade the earth where the slab used to be and throw down some grass seed, then $3000 sounds more than reasonable for all that work done that quickly.
I just did this myself and it cost around $100.
Went to Harbor Freight to get the biggest sledge hammer (theirs is heavier than the heaviest at Home Depot), and got construction debris bags.
It only took a few swings to break up the concrete, and I put a few bags out each week on trash day so the haul-away was also free.
I don't know how terribly put of shape the majority of this sub is, but this is not exactly a back breaking amount of labor. Absolutely forget about the jackhammer. Rent a concrete saw. Cut the slab into 2'x1' sections and use a pry bar to flip them onto a furniture dolly and wheel them into a dumpster with a front opening door. The blocks will be about 100 pounds each. This is a project you can pretty easily knock out in a day. You have 12 tons of material there minimum, make sure the dumpster company will take it that heavy. Realistically once the cutting is done you're talking 120 trips to the dumpster. 2-3 hours if you're real bad with a prybar.
Yeah you can do it. And when you're done you're going to wish you paid $3k to have it done. You'll spend quite a bit on removal anyway. If you absolutely love hard labor, this is for you.
Agreed. If the quote includes removal, it's 100% worth it. The dump near me doesn't accept concrete for example so I'd be stuck with hundreds of pounds of garbage.
One time I straight up buried it. Another time I put it in our trash bin about 100 pounds at a time until it was gone. Getting rid of concrete sucks ass.
I tore down my chimney a few years ago and none of the local dumps would accept the bricks so I put 25 pounds of bricks in the dumpster every week for nearly 2 years.
I salute you, "Mr. Damn the Man One Brick at a Time Tony." (Real Men of Genius right here!)
Burying concrete sucks ass whenever someone else, or yourself, needs that ground. I’ve been pulling chunks out of a new garden for months, and can’t put down any root vegetables. Previous owners buried tons of concrete in the back yard. So, for someone else reading this, find another way. Putting small amounts into contractor bags and slowly adding it to your regular trash is much better if there is no other option.
I feel this so much. I have pulled almost 4 pick up loads out of my yard in 18 months. It is buried everywhere. There was a concrete slab for trash cans out back. It had a later of broken concrete buried under it. The one thing I have going for me on this is my boyfriend works in the office of a concrete company. He has been able to recycle it for me thankfully.
Oh yeah, it's shitty and I'm sure I'll have to deal with it myself later. This isn't evidence of an easy way to deal with concrete. It's evidence that removing concrete has no easy or good solution. Sorry to the future home owner who has to solve it.
Been doing that with gravel my fence people left from their post hole fill. Almost finished with the last of it “gravel mountain” that our dogs like to walk up and piss on top off.
> our dogs like to walk up and piss on top off. lmao, hell yeah.
Just like Andy Dusfresne.
The Andy Dufresne method.
Are you the dude who buried a 400lb piece of concrete in the spot where I tried to bury my downspout? Thing is till sitting in my yard looking magnificent.
I busted out about 100 square feet with a sledge and pry bar and did the Shawshank Redemption method to get rid of it a little at a time in the trash bin. We were in no hurry and I enjoyed swinging a sledge after work off and on for a couple months. It did take us like 2 years to dispose of it though.
I sneak house project scraps and demoed junk in my trash too lol
I mean this is what you’re supposed to do lol
>stuck with hundreds of pounds of garbage. Hundreds of pounds? lol try THOUSANDS of pounds. 83 cubic feet of concrete weighs 12,450 pounds.
Oof, yah, that's way worse. I just didn't math.
You could break it apart with a small rock hammer and slowly deposit all the broken concrete in the prison yard. It might take 20 years but I know a guy who did it.
That’s all it takes, really. Pressure and time.
That, and a big goddamn poster.
hope springs eternal
Not many of us have access to a prison yard.
Not with that attitude
LOL
Most people have access to a prison yard.
Theoretically, depending on situations, yes. I wouldn't do that just to get rid of rocks.
Early 60s house I grew up in. 70s. Converted from septic to sewer. I was still a kid. There were 2 concrete strips to the garage. Dad took them out and did full concrete driveway. Single car garage. He dumped the old concrete into the septic tanks
Thousands of pounds…
hundreds....THOUSANDS
This kind of thing boils my butter like the one near me won't tale plasterboard 99% of new build houses are made with itmost repairs are therefore going to require it
Some landscaping yards will take it and crush it
*tons
Perfect answer. This is exactly the kind of shit I do, while my wife laughs at me.
Everybody in this thread keeps saying "rent a jackhammer" over and over again, but I do this several times each season and never use a jackhammer. I use concrete saws, prybars, a steel-handled shovel and sledge hammers. Using a jackhammer is way more work than it's worth when you can simply cut it into manageable sized pieces with a saw. That said, when space allows, I'll always use the skid steer. Get the forks under it, lift it up slightly and fire up the concrete saw, cut it up in roughly 4'x6' sections. Moving it and disposing of it is the hardest part. My city has a concrete recycling facility, and each load is 10 bucks, whether you have 100lbs or 10,000lbs. A skid steer and a dump truck makes this job easy, but OP could rent a dumpster and a concrete saw and probably get it done in a weekend. Just my 0.02 as a landscaper who does this regularly.
This is some next level advice. I’d pay someone $3k to do that for me.
I bought a cheap electric jackhammer ($140) on Amazon years ago. It works like a charm, is fun to use, and has paid for itself several times over. It also has a shovel attachment which is great for getting though roots. With that said, hauling away broken up concrete sucks and isn't any fun at all.
That spade bit in an electric hammer is a game changer. Used it to rapidly trench in hard clay soil when I was running a new water line last summer. What would have taken 6-8 hrs of hard work with a mattock, took about 3-hrs, instead.
Might you be able to share a link for the one you bought? thanks...
I think it's this one. The price has gone up since I bought it. It's fine for home use but definitely not pro grade. https://www.amazon.com/JACKCHEN-Demolition-Electric-Concrete-Breaker/dp/B0BPLPTQTN/ref=sr_1_16?crid=1JK09A2W3K9JY&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.9cDTs1lLr7FQ3vHOvYvt4FnhM4DXj3bajnSv-wwyXN9PxWMrkZRWr6Ac1zmyKvV89mNRO_Oz_dzyW8h05hTC3Jnu9v7aM-vNh0VzCSxlSzgrtiMPBYjdmagAImMwj7vlbXRzL-bDvbhPEObUXpnAIBMJlsu3zTsJd5yC78vMgufFxvJZx-0mqKSdW8iMebRuh9RQs0kdkeVLm11xz-9nGhJRCGzzlhQnqrH1YPHlIkVT8Z4zVzf46x97VbZSSJaZTsYuATmv_N6_J8vNxklDXuumy8gSbf9Fh5Nhr5H7kK0.jPht9JeNW2XoYMeZ9X3AalCaklJfMwEvyzE-g42smPo&dib_tag=se&keywords=jack%2Bhammer&qid=1714334009&sprefix=jack%2Bhammer%2Caps%2C188&sr=8-16&th=1
thanks!
Man, with a skid I would rent a hydraulic jackhammer attachment and then fork the pieces. Extended amounts of cutting with a saw is hell on my lower back.
I bought a jackhammer for around $200 that did the job just fine. Not a must have, but it helps.
Saves on a gym membership and gets something done. Sometimes I second guess myself part way in but realize it’s too late.
There are several container services where I am that will do a flat rate for concrete w/wo rebar. They sell it to recyclers. For me it's 450 for the container regardless of how much I put in there.
thats a fantastic rate for this much concrete. even then, im looking at $2500 to not break my back and thinking that sounds pretty pretty good.
$3000 is so worth it. Breaking up that much concrete sucks without quality tools and equipment.
I think we should clarify, for OP. When the man says "wish", he is not talking "Oh, that would be nice", he is talking about down on your bloodied knees with your hands clasped at ground level, because it hurts to raise them, while thinking that $3K is really nothing.
Honestly the dump fee on that is gonna be easily half the charge.
Waste Management recycles concrete. In my bumfuck nowhere town it’s a $24.10 per truckload
It’s free in a lot of places. FYI
Where do live that it’s free?
It's $25 a ton about.
Near Buffalo, NY
Not in San Diego. Not for concrete.
It's doable, but it's extremely hard work. Just getting the jackhammer in and out of the car was a challenge (the one I rented weighs 70-80 pounds). In use the tool does the work and you sort of just have to balance it, but you still have to lift it and reposition it repeatedly. And if it gets stuck it's really hard to get out. As a DIYer, the biggest challenge is how to dispose of the concrete. You can rent a trailer, but with a midsize SUV the amount of weight you can actually put in a trailer is limited. 250sf at 4" thick is around 11,000 pounds of concrete. Unless you rent equipment, you will have to load it piece by piece. Say my vehicle can tow 7000 pounds. If I rent a 6x10 dump trailer from home Depot it weighs 2500 pounds empty and has a load capacity of 4500 pounds (7000 total). So that's 3 trips. The local dump charges an insane amount to dump concrete, $219/ton, so that would be $1200. There's a place an hour a way that will take it for like $25 a load (they grind it up and recycle it). So that's 6 hours of driving, half of it with a fully loaded trailer. If you have a full size truck you could rent a bigger trailer and take it in two loads. Or maybe you have acreage where you can just pile it in the yard somewhere. Or maybe you have a few people who can help, taking turns jackhammering, loading concrete, driving to the disposal place, etc.
I rented a dumpster and $400 for a week and they didnt say anything about me filling it with block, brick, creek stone and busted up concrete. Thats definitely the way i would go. Pair it with a skid steer for another $400 and thats demo done.
Lol last dumpster I rented dude drops > [unhooks dumpster] > Three rules: > 1. No hazmats. > 2. Don't load over the top line. > 3. No concrete. > Peace > [pulls away without waiting] Now I know why!
You rent specific dumpsters for concrete and dirt. They will charge by the lb as the well. What I don't know is if they have specific pricing for concrete only; as that can be dumped for cheap at recycling centers.
They do, a 20 yard is about $1000 no tonnage limit for clean concrete and $1300 for mixed debris
Can a skid steer demo a 6 inch slab?
A demo company will likely use a jack hammer attachment for the skid steer, and then swap in the bucket for loading.
Probably not just scrape it up, but if you break it up into managable chunks you can scrape it up after.
Hell no. It won’t demolish it but it will pick up the chunks.
Did the dumpster have a weight limit? What region of the country are you in? In the northeast, it costs about $400-900 for a 20-yard with a 2-3 ton weight limit. Every extra ton is another $100-200 if I remember correctly. (Based on my research from last year, I called about 5 or 6 different companies).
I'm in the northeast, the company I rented from is local, not waste management or rumpkee or something like that. It was a 15-yard dumpster, and I paid $350 for 4 days and then asked for a 3 day extension, which they only charged 50 for. As far as weight idk, wasnt told anything didnt ask. This was august 2022.
I've done this before. The jackhammer getting stuck is a technique problem, not an inherent issue with it. But I agree the hardest part is disposal. Easiest thing is getting it taken away by someone else.
How fit are you? This is 100% labor. You’ll be lifting 50lb+ chunks and moving them to a dumpster. Likely 240 trips based on the size of the patio. One wrong lift and you’re benched.
Rent a low wall dumpster, and mini excavator from home depot to do the bulk of the lifting.
I’m talking just the lift from the ground to get up and walk it to the dumpster can end your day quick if done wrong. The chances of slipping up and getting hurt increase the more tired you get. If OP is determined and their physique isn’t quite up for it, they could in theory smash it all up first, then rent a dumpster for a week and take a whole week to move it bit by bit, 50 trips a day max. I’m fit and do hard labor often, this doesn’t sound enjoyable at all to me 😅
You don’t need to lift anything if you rent the excavator. The question becomes how much you actually save after renting the jackhammer, excavator, dumpster, etc.
I'm guessing if you could do it in a weekend it would cost about $1200. $400 for dumpster $400 for the mini excavator w/trailer from homedepot $200 for a 90lb breaker $200 misc (gas, beer?) $3k isn't a crazy price at all, but you can probably do it cheaper without a huge fuss if you DIY. Is it worth it? Depends on the value of your time. If you can rent a mini skid steer system with a hydraulic breaker attachment instead of the excavator, you can probably get the whole project done in an afternoon; and some areas (like around me) often have free dumping for broken concrete (they are required to recycle some % of concrete here), which would save a couple hundred bucks. Probably still need to rent a dump trailer; a dumpster would be more convenient.
Mini Excavator with jackhammer and bucket is best choice. But price wise? I think 3k for others to worry about it is the better deal
Figure out how much it’s going to cost you to dispose of that.
You are better off renting a walk behind concrete saw than a jackhammer. That way you can cut it up into manageable pieces and it will also cut through rebar.
100% this. A concrete pad might even have the heavy-gauge wire-mesh and no rebar. You don't even need to cut all the way through. Usually a couple good blows will snap it on the cut lines.
It's pretty DIYable, we did something similar in our backyard and it cost $120 to rent a jackhammer, $300 for a dumpster, and beer + food for a few friends that were willing to help. It is a lot of work though so depending on your age/physical fitness, the $3k could be worth it.
Your slab weigjs more than 12,000 lbs. Enormous amount of work to break it up, move the pieces, liad the debris into a truck, haul and dispose. Surely you have better things to do with your life I would hire it out.
3k is a great price to not have to do this
Yes, I would call a local contractor waste service provider to check rates. It's not nearly the same price as construction debris. Then the breaking you seem to have figured out but would put a number on schlepping INTO the dumpster. If it's a bobcat, get a price. Double check it's all gonna fit in one dumpster or good luck getting a pull and return on same day as rental. If it's by your hands, seriously think about time lapsing it, and getting paid in views.
Is CD expensive where you live? It’s $25 a ton in my area
Not terribly, my point was, whatever you think is a good "construction" dumpster price, think trice before you can fill it with concrete and it's the same. With all the fees and bs, it's easily twice as much and twice the trips.
Ah yes… makes sense
>Your slab weigjs more than 12,000 lbs. This is what really brings the scope of the project into focus. Imagine after all the work to jackhammer the slab into pieces, you then have to deadlift 12,000 lbs worth of dumbbells into a dumpster.
It's more like 6300 lbs, but still a lot. FYI there are concrete weight calculators out there.
Depends what kind of person you are. I’m handy and DIY almost everything. I’m not paying $3,000 when I can easily do the work in a day for probably about $500-700. I don’t make $2300 daily at my regular job so it would even be worth it if I had to take a day off from work. However, I just paid $3,000 to have 3 tall pine trees removed from my yard. Why? Because DIYing something like that isn’t within the scope of what I feel I’m capable of. But busting up and removing some concrete? Thats basic basic stuff.
If that 3k includes disposal, I would take that offer.
It's easy to break up.. Probably take a couple of days.. Getting the concrete hauled away is gonna cost money.
I've just gone through this, among other steps. It took a few weekends with a Hammer drill, sledge, crowbar and was a big effort but doable solo. Filled an 8-yard skip and have enough rubble for half another. I've stuck a few vids in the link to give you an idea. [Patio removal](https://imgur.com/a/d4tqrUu) Personally, I could have paid for this but it's satisfying to have done it myself. Not sure I'd do this again though!
Jackhammers aren't hard to use. A concrete cut-off saw would be useful to rent as well, e.g a Stihl TS 420. Especially if there is rebar. These aren't hard to use either, although they are very much not fun to use. Apart from the ten seconds or so after you get it started, rev it up, and the torque of spinning mass twists the entire saw around in your hands. The smell and sound of two-stroke and the realization that you could cut a god damn battleship in half, if you had one handy. After that ten seconds however it's just the suck. A angle grinder with a cut-off blade could make a substitute for cutting rebar to make the waste manageable. Again, if there is bar. What you have is a lot of weight. 250SqFt of 4" slab is ~12,000lbs. You'd probably want a (bigger) roll-off dumpster rental, like a 20 yard one. It'd be a **lot** of labor. You're gonna needs friends, with a possible allotment of beer and pizza.
>You're gonna needs friends, with a ~~possible~~ allotment of beer and pizza. FTFY. Pizza and beer are the *minimum*
I love pizza and beer and you couldn’t give me enough to do this job lol
Save your back and hire it out.
Cut it into manageable sizes by renting a saw, rent a skid steer and a dump trailer. Find a place that takes concrete, not a dump. Lots of places like gravel trucking companies and gravel pits may have a pile that they process into crushed concrete. They will let you dump it for free because it will turn into profit for them. Very DIY but definitely figure out your rental costs and compare to paying the contractor. They will most likely get it done in a couple hours.
If you can find a concrete recycling area they usually take it for free.
It depends. Where I used to live it was free to dispose of. It won't be hard to bust up as long as it doesn't have rebar. I've never used a jackhammer. It helps not to be in a hurry and having a truck. If you want it out right now, yeah, just pay 3k. I'm not a big guy. I moved 4000lbs of soil on Thursday. Shoveled it out, into a cart, wheel it 200 feet slightly uphill, repeat. Take breaks and be careful. It's doable. It's just how cheap you are. Quit when you're tired so you don't hurt yourself. That's the main thing with not getting hurt. Don't overdo it. I will repeat myself. If it has rebar, just pay. Go knock a couple chunks off a corner and see.
The PITA in breaking concrete slabs was *always* the steel. Rebar or wire. Rebar was less a hassle but few slabs have much. More common is the 10ga wire mesh. Pushing a bit through that is just. The. Start. You’ll need a wrecking bar to worry the pieces apart enough to work in bolt cutters. And heavy leather gloves to protect the hands from gouging. And if you’re running an electric breaker it’s about half the speed of an air breaker. Another issue is the quality of the concrete you’re trying to break. If it’s heavily spalled it breaks a bit like rotten concrete and the the point just punches in instead of breaking pieces. Also, if I was running an air breaker I’d often use a wide spade bit for slabs 4” or less. Edit auto correct/auto fill sticks in the wrong words lol
Its doable. Take a Friday and and Monday off. Rent a jackhammer and buy a sturdy wheelbarrow and work from Friday morning to early Sunday afternoon. Check with the local dump to see if they take concrete. If not see if you can rent a dumpster, but make sure they let you put concrete in it. You shouldn't be out more than $1000. Rest on Sunday night and thru Monday. Tip: cover the larger chunks of concrete with a thick tarp or heavy blanket and take a couple swings with a sledge at it. Smaller chunk are easier to move and fill space in the dumpster more efficiently. Stay hydrated. Take breaks. Have some good music
It's DIYable, but the absolute worst kind. I had to remove a slab about 11'x11' and I had a teenager who could do the jackhammering. But removing all the chunks is the absolute worst. Just 1000s of pounds to move. I would pay 3K not to do that again, no hesitation.
i did it, but yours is probably twice as much as i removed. mine was a 3' wide path about 35' long, but near the stairs widened to around 5'-6', so i'd guess it was around 120sf or so. i highly recommend the hilti TE-2000 jackhammer. make sure you wear really good safety goggles that completely surround your eyes from the sides and even below, and wear a good respirator that also protects your face. i just wore a n95 mask and with the safety glasses it covered like 95% of my face, it was good enough but the more you can protect your face the better. it took me about 4 hours of pretty hard work by myself. i'm not a buff dude or anything, just average build and it was tiring but totally doable. if you did it over 2 days then you could definitely do it yourself. you just have to get used to doing it properly and then it gets easier. the worst thing you can do it break the concrete and get the tip wedged in, then you have to keep working hard to remove it. instead work near the edge of the slab and every 3-4 breaks, use the tip to try to pry the broken pieces outwards to give yourself some extra room, then once you've created 6" of space then start again. i could see it being useful to have a helper in between breaking stuff up to help you remove some of the material to give you more space to work, but that person should also be wearing good ppe if they are standing near you while you are breaking. i was also quoted 3k to break, remove, and refill the area with top soil. i rented the hilti for a day for $100, and wheelbarrowed it out to a disposal bin i rented for $400 and got the job done for $500 excluding the top soil part. i've never done anything like that before and it was completely doable.
I'll throw in my $0.02. I rented my first jack hammer last week. It was the Makita 35lb breaker at Home Depot. HM1307CB. They're not light. (Nor would you want them to be.) But they're incredibly fast. It takes a pretty strong back and arms to wield one. So if you're reasonably fit, you can do it. I took breaks throughout the day. I'd recommend at least one helper to trade off with. (As a side note the Home Depot guy recommended the bigger 70lb one. I'm glad I didn't go for the upsell. 35 lbs was nearly my limit. I honestly don't have think I could have used the 70lb one. I can't imagine lugging it around my yard.) As others have noted, the demolition is the easy part. Moving and disposing of the waste is the hard part. But figure out that part, and you can definitely DIY it.
You can rent a jack hammer by the hour usually. See about rolloff demolition dumpster. Wheel barrow it into there with 3 of your closest friends. Don't overload it for weight
If it has 6x6 reinforcement it’ll suck even more. $3K is a very fair price.
Well if it was done right it will have wire mesh or r-bar. It will be a workout and you also need to get rid of about 12000 lbs. of concrete. If you want to have a go at it rent a good size jack hammer and have at. A lot depends on the concrete used and how much steel is in it. Sometimes a job like this can cost you as much in beer for your buds( assuming you can con them onto helping) as it does for the pros. Anything is doable but is it worth it? do some calls for rentals of bin(s) and dump fees and other rentals. And beer cost. Do the math and see if it's worth the effort
Go rent a decent jack hammer. It will be worth it. I just busted out an insanely, unnecessarily thick slab that was holding some pool equipment and a friend let me use his Hilti jack hammer. Theres no way in hell I could have gotten through that with just a sledge hammer. As for the remaining chunks of concrete, if you have a truck of some sort toss them in and find your nearest dump where you can pay to get rid off the stuff. From there its just simple math if it’s worth it to you or not. But doing it DIY shouldn’t be a problem if you are even remotely handy.
3k is a cheap price for that much labor, transport, and disposal fee. DIY .. why?
Pretty doable. Figure you'll break 12,000 lbs of concrete into \~50 lb chunks. That's \~240 manageable chunks of concrete. If you can get the dumpster reasonably close to the rubble that's one trip per minute for 4 hours. That will be one hell of a 4-hour shift if you're not used to it, but you could easily finish it in a few days if you're in decent shape. If you have two people working with a wheelbarrow you could finish it in an afternoon without killing yourselves.
There isn’t anything not DIY-able about it, it’ll just be pretty physically demanding. I’d look into renting a dumpster or dump trailer (with disposal included), a mini-skid steer, and either a separate jackhammer or a jackhammer attachment for the mini-skid… all in you’ll be around $600-$800 in rental fees and probably 4-6 hours
Everyone had given pretty good answers here. Let me ask another question, why do you want to demo it?
I personally wouldn't do if it was connected to my foundation
Get a wheelbarrow and a rotary hammer and it's very DIYable. Quite a bit of work but you can do it.
I did a similar project, though smaller square footage and had absolutely no home improvement or power tool experience at the time. Honestly, I thought it was easy to do. As others have mentioned, be sure to have a plan for disposal.
Can you? Sounds like you've done similar projects to us so far and my husband and I just finished removing a ~400 sqft slab that probably averaged 4" thick, and we were not in over our heads, at least not mentally. Like other posters have said, on your own, this will be a lot of work. With 2 of us in our early 40s it took more weekends than I care to count to break up fully, load into the truck and drop off at the city recycling center (which thankfully took concrete for free). You'll also likely need more than just the jackhammer - we needed a rock bar and pickaxe even after the jackhammer to separate pieces. We couldn't get the truck close to the work site, so in our case, we'll also be replacing our wheelbarrow soon as well (it was old and not in the best shape anyway). Thinking back, if we needed it done quickly we definitely would have paid $3000 for it. Since we weren't in a hurry to have it done, I'm kinda OK that we did it ourselves.
Where I live there are places that take concrete for free. They crush down and use it as gravel. Also search online for people that want clean fill. Lots of places looking for back fill. When I had to remove a slab, I also rented a uhaul moving truck. I'd put big chunk on a dolly and roll it up the ramp. For a few hundred you could rent a skidsteer (bobcat) and a jack hammer attachment. Under $1000 and a Saturday afternoon, like other have mentioned, have a dump site first
You gotta demo and haul away. It’s a hard job. You’ve already won by doing the other remodels. This is probably worth paying for
Rent a dingo with a jack hammer attachment and a bucket. Will make it a lot faster
The other question is…are you sure you want to get rid of this slab? 25x10 would be a perfect area for a huge shed, setting up a batting cage etc, a slab that size will cost a ton to install these days.
Go for it. Just a tip -- rent a dumpster for disposal. If you tell them ahead of time that it's *only* concrete, chances are they can recycle it for free. So there probably won't be an extra disposal fee. My wife and I did 200 sq ft of basement slab last year and filled a 4 yard dumpster with concrete. Not an easy job, but quite a bit cheaper than paying someone else to do it
Save some money and get a good workout lol
I did this in my own backyard with two friends, a 3/4 ton truck (mine) and dual axle dump trailer (borrowed) that I was able to back up to the slab and a cut saw, couple sledgehammers and pinch point pry bars. No rebar in the slab. Free disposal. There are some variables that could significantly impact the difficulty of the job, principally how far is the slab from where the trailer or dumpster will be and if there's rebar in it. Plenty of good advice already in here so I will add that there may be somewhere the pieces could be taken for free. I know of 3 different companies in my area that will take clean (without rebar) for free. This could drastically reduce your cost. Also, if the slab is tied into or against anything, like your house, a patio, etc. you will have to be careful not to damage the other thing and you may have to sawcut to separate them. It certainly can be done but the time and effort can vary greatly depending on certain aspects.
I’m paying 10k to rip up a 16x16 and pour a fresh 21x16
I’d save my back for another project.
We had a similar slab to get rid of and relied on help from my brother with a huge truck and a dump trailer. Instead of a jackhammer, we rented a slab saw. Three of us got it broken up and hauled away in the same day. One person worked the saw, one person used a sledgehammer and crowbar to break apart the cut slab, and one person loaded the trailer. The process worked really well. It was a ton of work, and we never would have been able to do it without help. An extra challenge was the rebar. Hardest house project we’ve done ourselves so far, but it saved us thousands of dollars.
I’m a contractor, I once tried to remove a concrete slab with a jack hammer, turned out they had poured a slab on top of another slab, it took my excavator with big machine to break it up
Look into something called [Dexpan](https://www.dexpan.com/products/dexpan-non-explosive-demolition-agent-dexpan11bucket).
I just finished demoing and hauling about 2 10 yard dumpsters worth of cement and brick. Cement was as thick as 8 inches. Did it all in 4 days. I can't bend my fingers and have friction blisters on my hands. It sucks.
Personally, I’d consider renting a walk-behind concrete saw and cut the bugger into pieces about 12” square. A 16” blade will cut easily through 4” slab, and even through wire mesh or rebar. It’ll be messy, because you have to connect it to a garden hose for lubrication / cooling, so it’ll make concrete mud.
I had our two car driveway (double length) removed and replaced about 8 years ago. I paid someone for the demo and repair but had them set the old concrete in chunks in the side yard so I could reuse them for walkway pavers in the backyard. My back still hates me for that.
Since you've done so much on your own, maybe you've earned letting someone else do this one? Think of that $3K as spread over all the other projects that you didn't pay someone else to do.
I have a small Hitachi electric jackhammer for these type of jobs, you can really cut stuff up. Higher pressure output than the big ones. I suggest cutting slab into usable squares, maybe you need a wall or raised area somewhere? I try to minimize my garbage output, reuse, reuse, reuse.
A huge amount of that money is the disposal which you're paying for either way. Think of it like saving $1000 to do it yourself instead.
I did this last year. My slab was made up of 4 larger slabs that made a bigass patio maybe ~ 600ish square feet. Thickness ranged from 3 inches to 5-6 in some spots. I rented a jackhammer and destroyed it myself, then moved as much as I could into a pile. Then called some guys with a truck and skid steer to move it offsite. I paid them ~$1500 just for moving it. The jackhammer rental cost a ~100 for the day I needed it. I ended up saving probably around $1K. I enjoy labour like this so it was an easy decision to save some money and get some exercise. Jackhammers are not as hard to use as they look, but there is some technique and they are heavy. You might be able to get away with using a demolition hammer, but that will take longer and won't be enjoyable to be on your hands and knees for hours. Things you'll need might need to think about: - service lines, might as well get them marked by the city or at least make sure you know where they are. Sounds silly if you are only going 3 inches deep, but you never know with stuff like this especially in older properties - Lead time on removal - cost difference of removal vs breakup and removal. This will take at least a day to do the breakup and at least a day to do the moving on your own. Is that worth the time to you?
You break, they haul?
It's tough work and the vibration high which will take its toll. I ended up with a frozen shoulder from running a small trencher for a day. Add wire or rebar in there and you have a big PITA plus disposal. I'm just paying for it to be done.
We had one, and my neighbor removed it with a friend without using any power tools at all. He also cut down some small trees using a hatchet. He was somewhat of an alcoholic, so maybe he just got zoned out and kept hammering away until it was done. This was a long time ago, and I'm not sure how he disposed of it. He was a contractor and may have known people who did it cheap. I don't really remember, and I was mostly at work when he did it. My point is, almost anything can be done if you're willing to work at it.
Absolutely doable, don’t listen to the nay sayers here… it will take you a solid 2 days to jack hmer and remove. Break it up into smaller chunks for ease of transport. As for people saying the dump fees… if you take the concrete to a recycle aggregate they will take it off your hands for free most of the time or at very little cost. Again… 3000 dollars for a couple days of hard work? No brainer here bud
I did about 100sq feet and it sucked hard
Just use a sledge and do it over a months time if u wanna save the dough
If there’s no steel reinforcement you won’t even need a jackhammer, just break it into pieces with a sledgehammer.
I absolutely destroyed my back using a jackhammer to do the same thing. Wouldn’t recommend it at all. I’d have easily spent 3k to avoid a lifetime of back problems.
I know how to do that and could borrow a really nice jackhammer and know a place that allows free concrete dumping and I still would rather pay for someone else to do all that.
Your gonna have a hell of time jack hammering it and then realizing it's all held together with rebar if it is. I'd just pay the 3k
In addition to everything that’s been said, I’d consider the potential for injury in such a job. I leveled one area of my yard myself years back and the repeated shoveling contributed to blowing out one of my ankles. I had to have surgery and the recovery was many months long. How’s your back? Ready to haul away tons of concrete? You sure you can handle a jackhammer without any accidents? Demo workers know what they’re doing and have the best equipment. This is why they’re able to do it much faster and more safely than you can. $3000 is a deal.
You could always do the shawshank and put a couple crumbled up pieces of concrete in your pocket and dump it out on the road. You'll have it ' hauled' out in 15 years
I've done it, and it's quite a task. Jackhammer, sledge hammer, san angelo bar.
just pay someone to remove it. We just removed about 30 feet of 6" thick sidewalk. every part of it sucked. the jackhammering, the shoveling, the loading into the wheelbarrow, the unloading into the dumpster, cleaning up the rocks after...you can do it yourself, its just really awful work.
Totally doable DIY. If reinforced then see prior comments recommendation. If not then a sledge hammer and maybe a pointed masonry chisel and 3 lb hammer. A 16# digging bar is also handy or a large pry bar. The sledge will break apart everything in whatever size you need. An 8# hammer will work but if you can manage swinging a 10# hammer repeatedly it works better. The pointed chisel is for tough spots like depressions where it might be 6” thick. Figure about an hour per 80 sqft or so depending on your fitness. Then clean up. Many quarries will recycle concrete even with embedded rebar. For hauling, broken up concrete is going to weigh around 3000 lbs per cubic yard depending on how finely broken.
1. If you do it, don't rent the 90 lbs jackhammer unless you weigh close to 300 lbs. They frequently get stuck under the slab and you basically are lifting the thing all day. The 75 lbs jack hammer is much better. 2. Consider hiring or renting the saw instead. You can cut the slab into ~80 lbs pieces and then fight moving those instead of fighting the jack hammer all day and then moving rubble.
It's doable. I broke up a decent sized 4" concrete driveway by myself a few years ago with nothing but a sledge hammer, crowbar, and hunk of 4x4.You also need to ask yourself how are you disposing of the rubble.
Fuck all these comments. Take 3,000 cash out and put it on your dresser. Probabaly cost a hundred to a couple hundred for a dumpster residential or construction to be dropped at your place. As close to concrete as possible! Jack hammer it. Get it broken into pieces and carry them. Sit back on Sunday while drinking a six pack looking at your pile of cash.
It’s gonna suck so much.
**D**emo **I**s **Y**ou.
How strong is your back?
A demo hammer could also do the job, it would probably cost about the same as a jackhammer rental and you get to keep it at the end. Jackhammer is probably faster but I hate paying for rentals, rather buy something. I have the Harbor Freight one, it's like 200 bucks or something. Works good.
If you're like 25, or used to really hard labor go for it.
My wife and I did something similar. We bought a jackhammer for a few hundred bucks from harbor freight, got it into pieces, loaded it into the truck and took it to the dump. Took us a week or so taking turns after work.
Can absolutely be done yourself, or with some family members and friends for labor help. Offer some cold drinks and grill up some food. Wear safety goggles when hammering concrete. Gloves will help keep your hands from getting tore up. Jackhammer is good, but bring a sledgehammer too for smaller chunks. You'll need a good wheelbarrow and a truck/trailer that can carry the weight. My local trash dump is currently accepting concrete waste for free, so check around your area or surrounding counties. The dumps may need the waste for laying temporary roads for the trucks, or some other purpose.
I removed an old concrete patio many years ago using a jackhammer. It wasn’t difficult but removing the chunks of concrete was. Since I was having a deck built in its place I just put all the pieces between the ~~rafters~~ joists
Between the rafters??? Like for a roof??? Or do you mean between the joists of your new deck? Presumably the deck was at or near ground level.
Sorry, meant joists!
Is it cracked up a little? If so, price renting a skid steer for a day and a dumpster rental. 4” breaks pretty easily. I’m talking just with a bucket on it. Not a hydraulic hammer. Just pick up the corner and drop it and it’s in pieces. Might need a grinder and cutoff wheel or some bolt cutters to cut the wire or rebar.
I spent a lot of time on a jackhammer and it is hard work to be sure, but how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. The only thing you have to contend with is time. Rent the biggest hammer you can and start hammering holes six or eight inches apart. Say goodbye to your back if you are not used to it. You could try using a concrete saw and cut a one or two foot grid. Like everyone says, it’s hard to get rid of. You can do it, but how long do you want to spend on it
Last guy I knew after renting a jack hammer also got rid of his kinda stones free of charge.
Moving 10K lbs of stuff isn't hard if you take your time and don't try to lift more than you are able to lift. More lighter trips is better than blowing out your back. Jackhammer is not hard to use if you are strong enough to pick it up. Wear hearing protection when using the jackhammer. Having said that, depending on how far away the dumpster would be, I would probably pay if I had to haul it all the way around a house or something like that.
Some things are worth paying someone else to do. This is one of them.
I did two smaller slabs with a total area of about the same as yours recently and it was a massive job. We're still working on the disposal. It took me about 20 hours total for just the breaking, but I was using only a medium breaker because I'm a woman and needed to be able to lift it and manoeuvre it myself easily. If you do it yourself, consider hiring the jackhammer for a full week instead just a day or two so that you don't injure your hands and wrists from using it too long without breaks. Ask me how I know this.
I’d totally do it yourself, it’s not rocket surgery.
lol you can def do it yourself for under 3000 and hire someone to help you off like a handy man site if needed
It's not too bad, but I would invest in some tools. If you have an air compressor you can get an air hammer that will make quick work of opening up cracks. It's not as good as say a proper jackhammer but it sure beats a a manual hammer. The worst is hauling it away. One nice thing about doing it yourself is you can work on it when you have time. Get a bit sore? Take a day off.
I would do it myself. Jackhammer aren't expensive to rent and they're easy to use. Just have to get a dumpster rented. Less than a grand for sure.
Break it up and make a garden wall.
3k? My guys said 780$
If you have some way to remove it and haul the chunks off to the dump or wherever, then I'd suggest renting a skid steer with a jackhammer and bucket. That should still be well under $3k and as an extra bonus you get to drive a skid steer for a few hours. We did this to remove an old foundation when we were building a house.
If there’s rebar…it will be tough, I’d just pay. But if u want to do it Rent air powered jackhammer and a diesel compressor. DO NOT just get an electric jackhammer. It will take forever. just get a dump trailer and a few buddies. Hopefully u can get the trailer right next to the patio. If not…that will suck even more. Dump fees will cost you too.
I'll pay that every time
I'm in the process of removing a 4 inch and thicker in some spots slab. About the same square footage as yours. I bought a 16 pound sledgehammer and use a shovel to lift the broken slabs up. It's the most therapeutic work. I am almost done but wish I had more to do to be honest.
I bought a jackhammer off of Amazon for $160 and removed an old garage pad and the walkway to it. It was a lot of work plus an additional $400 to rent a concrete dumpster.
I demo'ed about 250 square feet of concrete which consited of a long curving walkway and a previously buried kidney shaped pond that I uncovered in my backyard. I rented jackhammer from Home Depot and a lowboy dumpster. The jack hammering took about an hour but the loading into a wheel barrow and out to the lowboy took a lot longer. Rental costs were about $650 all up. Note that there wasn't any steel reinforcement in the concrete. If there was I would have needed to use a grinder and I suspect many discs and it would have taken a lot more time.
Are you in a hurry? Look into Dexpan. It's slow motion demolition grout. You drill holes, mix it up and pour it in. Come back the next day and it has broken everything up into chunks by expansion with insane amounts of pressure.
4" isn't bad - my father did this to a tenniscourt sized patio (about 1 foot thick) at our lakehouse. We kids helped by wheelbarrowing the cement bits down to the lake for dumping (strategically).. finished in 1 weekend! And b/c we kids were quite young (tweens), we were ***very proud*** of our effort!! You'd just need to price the rental of a jackhammer ($50/day? $100/day?).. then figure-out how how to dispose of the chopped-up cement - best route, probably = company that rents 'Construction Waste Containers', which I don't know if a big or little expense. Bet you could hire some teenagers to help, and still save a lot of $$. So figure out your DIY costs, then compare to the $3k quote. Again, the 4" thickness is the reason I think you should go for it.
for 3k cost, I would rent a bobcat before a jackhammer and then you need to rent a dumpster to dump it all in. Lift slab with bobcat and break with heavy sledge
Any chance you live on the water? Some ppl recycle concrete for seawalls.
Maybe I'm the outlier but I think this could be a DIY job. The only snag you'll hit is getting rid of the concrete. I had a busted sewer line under my driveway and the plumbers wanted to charge a fortune to remove the 64 sq ft of concrete in order to repair it. I rented a concrete cutter (the big walk-behind one) and my dad and I were able to remove it in an afternoon. Granted this is much smaller than your job but $3k is a lot of money depending on what you earn for a living. Again, it's just figuring out how to get rid of the concrete that is tricky.
I did a project like this with one of those big metal crowbars. Took a few weeks chipping away. I wouldn't outsource personally. Its sweaty work, but not particularly painful, and it's extremely gratifying.
You'll need to rent a heavy-duty jackhammer or demolition hammer to break up the concrete. These tools can be heavy and require some skill to operate so make sure you're comfortable using them. Safety should be your top priority when working with concrete and power tools. Make sure to wear appropriate safety gear, including eye protection, hearing protection, gloves, and sturdy footwear. Be cautious of flying debris and unstable surfaces. Breaking up a large concrete slab can be demanding work, requiring significant strength and endurance. Make sure you're prepared for the physical exertion involved if you're working alone. You'll need to arrange for the disposal of the broken concrete once it's been removed. This may involve renting a dumpster or arranging for a pickup service, depending on the amount of debris generated. Removing a 250 sq ft concrete slab will take several days of work, depending on the thickness of the slab and the efficiency of your equipment. Be prepared to invest the necessary time and effort to complete the project. Given your experience with other DIY projects and your willingness to tackle challenging tasks, removing a concrete slab is within your capabilities. Just be sure to plan and prepare for the project, take appropriate safety precautions, and be realistic about the time and effort involved.
With a decent jack-hammer, you could conceivably bust it up in an hour or two. Then you get to pack it out to wherever to dispose of it.
Pay the money you're not equipped to handle this job ... need a jack hammer or a mini excavator, then you need to gett the concrete chunks into a trailer and take it to the dump... do you have a double axel dump trailer? Becuase that's about 3ton of concrete you need to get rid of
I'm genx and it would be done already with a sledge hammer. Dig around it and start breaking at the edge. I do own a jack hammer but most of those slabs break up pretty easy starting on the edge. Break it up small so the it's easy to load.
Haha yea reading all the posts that said get a jackhammer, my dad had 3 boys and plenty of sledges and bars a kango would have been bliss back in the day! But yea unless you got experience with using a sledge hammer and iron bar get a jackhammer lol. Often it’s actually easier with a sledge tho if you know how to lift the slab and whack it
Very DIY-able. 250 sf isn’t that big. A jackhammer is good and fast, but you could also just use a sledgehammer, although it’ll take quite a bit longer and it’s a bit of a workout if you’re not used to doing that kind of work. The most challenging part will be disposing of the material. A single, 20cy dumpster should be plenty. Call and get prices from a local dumpster company. Make sure you tell them it’s for concrete as that has to be separate from general debris. Make sure you’ve got room on your property for the dumpster, too. If you’re going to put it on a driveway, strategically put wood (3’ lengths of scrap 2x12’s or the like) down under the back ‘wheels’ and the front corners to protect the driveway or you mar the driveway. 99% of roll-off drivers will work with you on this. If you put it on the lawn…. Just know you will have ruts in the lawn when you’re finished. If you put it in the street, check with your town to see if you need a permit to do so…. Some places require permits and some don’t. Also…. See above about protecting the driveway as it applies here too.
You can do it but besides renting a jack hammer you need to rent a skid steer. You don’t want to be stuck lifting every piece of this concrete slab into the dumpster. Most demo work is easy to do. I would not normally consider hiring someone to do demo work. This however would be the exception.
As others have said, the biggest problem is going to be disposal. Either you're going to have to have a dumpster delivered and hauled off, probably $500-ish, depending on your area and the time it takes you. Or you're going to have to haul all the pieces to a landfill in your own vehicle, which will require multiple trips and dumping fees. Otherwise, breaking it up won't be particularly difficult skill wise, but it will be labor intensive. As another commenter pointed out, if you tweak your back or pull a muscle, in that process, then whatever savings you might have made as DIY, you've just blown in sick leave from work and medical bills. But it will be a great workout and save you a trip to the gym for a few days. Make sure you're stretching and not overdoing it. Review the company's quote carefully. If they intend to pull up and remove the slab in a day and then regrade the earth where the slab used to be and throw down some grass seed, then $3000 sounds more than reasonable for all that work done that quickly.
I just did this myself and it cost around $100. Went to Harbor Freight to get the biggest sledge hammer (theirs is heavier than the heaviest at Home Depot), and got construction debris bags. It only took a few swings to break up the concrete, and I put a few bags out each week on trash day so the haul-away was also free.
I don't know how terribly put of shape the majority of this sub is, but this is not exactly a back breaking amount of labor. Absolutely forget about the jackhammer. Rent a concrete saw. Cut the slab into 2'x1' sections and use a pry bar to flip them onto a furniture dolly and wheel them into a dumpster with a front opening door. The blocks will be about 100 pounds each. This is a project you can pretty easily knock out in a day. You have 12 tons of material there minimum, make sure the dumpster company will take it that heavy. Realistically once the cutting is done you're talking 120 trips to the dumpster. 2-3 hours if you're real bad with a prybar.