Demolishing Concrete Wall

[Anonymous Poster]

Check out the Concrete Demolition section on www.concretenetwork.com for some interesting solutions to this project.

 

[centex]

Franz, that is a very good site.

Everyone, thanks for all the good suggestions. I have been out working for the last week and did not get to respond to your inputs. I spent some more time this last weekend trying to do more demolition by hand. I tried one of Harv's suggestions about drilling a series of holes. This definitely helped but drilling the holes was not easy itself especially in the weather we have here. I have decided to look for a concrete demolition contractor and let them do the work of breaking up the concrete.

 

[Boondox]

Harv -- Thanks for the excellent how-to guide! Lots of great info in that post!

Let me tap your expertise again. I have a 16x20' outbuilding that is being lengthened by four feet. The side of the building that's being added to has a 10" high concrete wall to protect the wood framing from contact with the often wet ground. If I add to that end of the building without cutting that short wall down to floor level, I won't be able to wheel my power tools around, i.e., I won't be able to take full advantage of the extra space.

The existing slab is 50 years old and is absolutely free of cracks even though the footings only go down 28". I'm afraid using a rotary or demolition hammer might weaken the existing slab. A contractor wants $400 to use a concrete saw to cut it flush.

I'm doing the slab extension this year, but a shortage of contractors makes it look like the shop won't be rebuilt till next spring. So I need that 10" concrete lip until then, and will have to remove it when the existing structure comes down. So it can't be removed before the new slab is poured...unless it's kosher to score it deeply at floor level with the wall in place, shim it till next spring, and detach it next year when the walls come down?

What would you do?

Pete

 

[wroughtn_harv]

A couple of questions Pete.

Is the contractor cutting and removing the wall for four hundred dollars or just cutting it?

Is he cutting it horizontally where only the wall is removed or is he cutting vertically where the footing is affected too?

If he's cutting and removing the wall and guaranteeing a smooth transition from the old slab to the new one I'd figure the four hundred as a good investment.

I was in a shop the other day of a bud of mine. This guy is so smart, well, he's just about the smartest guy I know. In his shop he has a gantry crane for moving lathes and mills around. It's attached to the ceiling using unistrut channel and ball bearing rollers.

That might be an alternative for you. Your addition could sit ten inches higher than the original slab and you could still have easy access for moving tools between slabs.

It'd make a great conversation piece and be handier than a pocket on a shirt.

 

[Boondox]

Harv -- He was going to cut and remove the wall for me, but only if the cutting was done before the new slab was added. (I guess he needs room to manuever in order to get a flush cut.) But since it looks like the shop cannot be rebuilt this year, cutting it now would leave me with a three-sided structure thru the worst of winter. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

I love the crane idea. My wife suggested building up the floor. Also a good idea since it would let me work on wood instead on hard concrete. Ah, decisions!

Thanks!

Pete

 

[centex]

I have made a good bit of progress on this project and will update it. I have attached a picture of the current state of the wall. I used an electric jack hammer and as you can see in the picture, pump jacks for a scaffold. The scaffold was the key to making this work as I could not work on top of the wall without it.

I bought a Harbor Freight jack hammer for $400 and thought it should last at least 90 days for this project. Boy was I wrong. I went through three of them before I spent another $400 to replace the motor with a Bosch motor. It turns out they just bought a Bosch jack hammer ($1350 new) and tried to make an exact copy of it except for cosmetics. Well as I already knew, the Chinese cannot build motors period and especially not for severe applications. If you are thinking about buying one of these bargans - just be forewarned that you will be sorry.

 

[centex]

I still have a little ways to go on the wall but now the bridge is a bridge again and I started work on the really hard part of this project - fillinging in the washouts on both sides of the bridge. After clearing lots of trees and brush from the South side of the bridge I was left with a dished out area about 35 feet in diameter and anywhere from 8 feet to 4 feet deep. It took approximately 95 yards of fill which I dug and moved with my tractor to ge this side passable. The attachment is a before picture after the vegitation was removed.

 

[centex]

Another before view.

 

[centex]

This after the fill was moved.

 

[centex]

This is the backside of the filled in area showing some of the boulders and rocks I placed for erosion control. A few of these boulders tested the limit of my tractor to move them. There were a few hairy moments involved.

 

[centex]

Now it is on to the North side of the bridge. It will take between 400 and 500 yard of fill to repair this side.

 

[centex]

This a shot after four 8 hour days of work. It is not as good as it looks as I am just trying to get a path to drive the tractor across completed and then I will have to go back and widen it. I think I am about 1/4 of the way to completion on this side.

 

[centex]

This is the source for the fill and the large boulders. Of course the boulders are on top of the hill where thy could do real damage if they feel on the tractor or me.

 

[centex]

One of my neighbors is a retired heart surgeon who pays to have all kinds of work done. He estimated that it would cost $100K to have this done. I will spend about $2000 to do it myself not including the $40K tractor that I wore out.

The attached picture is of the backside of the source of the fill showing a lot more boulders.

 

[Junkman]

wondering how the project came out now that a year has passed...... If you tried to do this in the Northeast, it would take you a lifetime just to get the permits to do it, not to mention all the environmental impact studies that you would be required to complete......

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Oh Don,

If only you had known me and Iris before you opened the wallet. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif I would have recommended a skid steer.

I have all the respect in the world for farm tractors. They will out pull my skid steer not only anytime, they'll do it just about anyway. But when it comes to construction they are no match.

I was given two hundred dollars for two hours work a couple of weeks ago. A survey company was wanting input from a skid steer manufacturer. So they offered a bunch of us two hundred dollars cash money each to spend two hours in a conference room discussing skidsteerology.

What surprised me from my co-dollar-takers was the assumption that a skid steer owner should expect ten thousand hours of work before major repairs if normal maintenance is kept up.

That is amazing when you look at what skid steers are put through. Your chunk of concrete would have been gone now for the cost you have in electric jack hammers. It would only have been a hydraulic hammer rental expense but the power and efficiency of those things are almost beyond belief.

An operator of a small skid steer will do twice the work of a conventional tractor with a FEL if it's just moving material.

Of course a skid loader isn't worth a flip a pulling a plow. They can do it. But only if you're used to going backwards and your neck never gets a kink in it. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Boondox]

I realize you've made a lot of progress on this already, but I just noticed the thread. Way back when, long before 9-11, I knew of a couple of friends with similar issues. They called the local national guard who were glad to blow it in place for practice, provided no buildings were nearby.

Do they still do that sort of thing?

Pete

 

[centex]

"They called the local national guard who were glad to blow it in place for practice, provided no buildings were nearby."


My place is near Ft. Hood and I thought about seeing if they wanted to use it for target practice with one of their Appache's but I don't think the neighbors would have approved.

 

[centex]

Harv, I know what you are saying. I was sick when JD made their 110 available a couple of months after I bought my tractor and for almost the same price. It is not a skid steer but it is a commercial and noticibly more robust. I have noticed a lot of wear and play in my FEL after only 400 hours of use on the tractor - a lot less on the FEL as I spent maybe half of the tractor hours running a PHD. At least what I am doing now is not a boring as watching a PHD run day in and day out!!!!

 

[Boondox]

Oh yeah, neighbors. I keep forgetting most folks have them. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Pete