Start By Digging Under The Concrete

It's one of the great joys you get to experience when weather is nice:  wielding a sledgehammer and breaking up concrete and moving it. 

I say this with only a little bit of cheek, because I find it more satisfying than:  painting, handling fiberglass insulation, crawling around a crawlspace, installing drywall, and many other home remodeling tasks.

I get to enjoy the sun; I don't get too dirty; I get to break up things; and that beer at the end feels well-deserved.

  Win-win all around!  I bet you'll love it, too.

What You're Breaking Up

Concrete, likely a walkway or patio, no more than 4 inches thick.

You are not breaking up asphalt, because it's an entirely different material that doesn't yield well to a sledgehammer.

And Here's The Great-Big Secret...

Begin by digging out the material from under the concrete.  This material might be sand or just dirt, but most likely sand, as that's the proper bed for concrete.

Creating a vacancy below the concrete is the one great secret to making this task easier.

Dig about one foot inward.  Depth doesn't matter.

While you can break up concrete resting on base material, it's harder and you end up with tiny pieces of rubble that are more difficult to manage.

Your Tools

• Sledgehammer:  an 8 lb. sledge should be sufficient.
• Prybar
• Shovel
• Hand truck:  This optional tool helps you move the concrete around.

Safety and Clothing

Even if you're cavalier about wearing eye protection, this is one situation when you really want to wear it.

 

To avoid scratches, wear a long-sleeved shirt and thick pants.  In other words, wear the opposite of what you see me wearing in this picture.

Swing Sledgehammer By Letting It Fall

I'll start by saying that you can injure yourself by swinging a sledgehammer.  Does that sound like a no-brainer?  If you have any kind of rotator cuff problems, handling a sledge will not help you.

Fall, Not Swing

So, what you do isn't so much swing the sledgehammer as lift it and let it fall.

1. With one hand, grasp the sledgehammer by the handle, as near to the sledge's head as possible.
2. Keep your other hand towards the end of the handle.

1. Lift the hammer as high as possible, but not directly over your head.
2. Let it fall.  Do not exert any force as the head is falling.  Let the hammer do the work.

Flying Debris

Unbelievably, sharp little bits of debris shoot away at top speed, sometimes fifty feet away and even more. 

I recommend covering nearby windows or vehicles with canvas dropcloths (not plastic) to soften the impact from shards.

Break Large Chunks of Concrete

What size do you want your concrete chunks to be? 

Choose the Size

Yes, you do have a choice in the matter.  Concrete often does have a mind of its own, but you can control the sizing to some degree.  You want:

• Large Pieces:  Make the pieces as large as you can carry without hurting yourself.  You'll find that they need to be smaller than you can think. 
• Minimal Small Rubble:  Anything smaller than softball-sized is frustrating, useless, and harder to carry out.

How to Size

I find that a series of blows in a line will create a stress crack that I can subsequently break off with one blow.

In this image, I made about 4 or 5 medium-impact blows along that crack (before it became a crack).

Then I backed up the sledgehammer to the center of the chunk and broke it off.

Use Prybar To Force Away Stubborn Concrete

In a not-so-perfect world, your best efforts at breaking away large, clean, definable chunks of concrete don't work.  This is especially true if you decide not to dig out under the concrete.  Concrete with base material underneath tends to develop hairline cracks but not chunk off completely.

In this case, force the flat end of your pry bar into the crack.  Wiggle it back and forth until it is at least 1/2" into the crack.

  Pry back until you can get your gloved fingers in.

A handtruck--like the kind you use to move appliances--is an excellent way to move those large chunks of concrete.

It's far better than a wheelbarrow because, as you can see, with a handtruck, you only have to lift the chunk of concrete an inch or two in order to get it onto the truck.

If you're breaking up a big slab, it's important to assess how much these individual concrete slabs weigh.  Personally, I find that a 9" x 9" x 4" slab (22 pounds) is easy to carry, with a 14" x 11" x 4" slab (52 pounds) still one that I can carry, but not comfortably.

 

Try to carry these slabs the right way, too:  close to your body.

I recommend separating your concrete debris into two sections:

1. Large:  Pieces that, on the flat side, are about 8" or more diameter.  These pieces are big enough that you can stack them neatly away.
2. Small Rubble:  Everything smaller, of course.

How Not To Dispose

Don't put it out in your regular garbage service.  Not only will it take hundreds of trips, but you risk provoking the ire of the garbage men, because most municipalities do not allow concrete in residential waste service.

 

If you put it in a dumpster, typically it should be one that is devoted only to concrete or masonry-type debris, and the dumpster can only be filled about 1/4 full.

How To Use It

Broken concrete doesn't have to be thrown away.  Suggestions:

• Flip over, powerwash, and turn into a "stone-look" pathway.
• Stack up and make short garden walls.
• Stack in a circle to make a fire pit.
• Use as edging for a pond, to hold down the pond liner.
• Use the small rubble as French drain material.
• And, if nothing else, use it as fill material when you want to build up an area of your yard.