Cement removal part Deux: Zee Jackhammer
 

Well despite Supermans generous offer of help(ummmm.....still might be taking you up on that one bud), I could not resist the sirens call of the jack hammer. I figure one days rental is worth at least a years worth of anger management classes and xanax, right? :p

Actually not that bad. The electric hammer doesn't hit as hard as I would like, but not having to haul in a compressor and set everything up is nice. Out of the truck and on the cement in 5 minutes. Once I cut myself a seam, I've been able to peel it away in nice chunks that can be used somewhere on the property. Still....pretty slow going. I'm going to put 6 hours on the thing and see where it gets me. The mask? I've got mild asthma, and cement dust is not good.

I asked for your advice.......and did the exact opposite. My wife doesn't call me dumbass without cause. :D

(p.s. I have to admit, I'm having a blast.)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3611/...7de33cb4_b.jpg

You have a strange definition of FUN. Whatever floats your boat. It will be cool when it is all done to say to friends "I did it myself."

Concrete!!!

It is concrete. Please eliminate the mis-use of the term CEMENT as it reveals ignorance which this board has tried to purge.

He's trying to remove the cement but leave the aggregate. That's why it is taking him so long. Very exacting work.

Experience is learning from your own mistakes ;)

wisdom is learning from others experiences; have fun.

Why don't we sit and deconstruct his entire post while we're at it? There's a couple easily found grammatical errors, as well as lack of capitalization and punctuation. Let's just go hog wild instead of enjoying the fact that we can laugh because he took 45 minutes to type that post (anyone who's used a jackhammer knows what I'm talking about :D )

Maybe he grew up watching the Beverly Hillbillies. They were always talking about the "cement pond" in the back yard. :)

Just curious, where & how are you disposing the chunks?
Are you also going to build the frame and mix/pour the concrete yourself?

My sidewalk needs to be destroyed and rebuilt as well.

funny. i am a civil, and i still call soil, "dirt". drives folks crazy around here.

back on topic, i watch three guys destroy a driveway with sledge hammers. they scooped it up, and wheelbarrowed it into a "dirt"box. they offered to do my driveway as well. i am not ready to pay for the new one,..yet.

I call it dirt too? Never had a problem, but I see where it could be. This is different as Harddrive is doing it on purpose. He is being very inconsiderate for those of us that are terminology challenged.

I rented a 90 pound hammer a couple of weeks ago to blow out a sidewalk. There is no comparison in terms of power and speed.

I worked for a concrete guy in college. We mainly used spud/pry bars and sledge hammers to make short work of busting up sidewalks. You simply pry up section of slab and let gravity and the sledge hammer bust/collapse it. Once a corner is lifted, it breaks very easy. We NEVER used a jackhammer on sidewalks or pool surrounds.

terminologically

Oh god this is what the use of the term CEMENT does to me, I can't even speak.

Cool. I wish I were there to help but......YOU DON'T CALL ME. No phone calls, no cards, no flowers........it's like you don't care anymore. Alas, as I said, I am out of town this weekend anyway. Still......it looks like you're having a bit of fun.

I can see how, as Tim said, the stuff would break much easier if you could tilt the slab just a little. Using one of those LONG, thick bars with the point on one end and a curve at the other. Long meaning five feet or so.

I wish he had listened to us. I can use 2-3 large pry bars with concrete chunks as the fulcrum and lift big sections up. Then I break them with a sledge. Breaking concrete on grade is making a huge amount of rubble that has to be shoveled and raked.

Maybe he is trying to get the cement out of the concrete?

You guys are so mean. cement, Cement, CEMENT, CEMENT!

SO after getting heat stroke and throwing up, and having my forearm muscles so tweaked that they keep going into painful spasm and making me look like I'm having an epileptic fit, I got say.....it was a great day.

I do indeed have an odd definition of 'fun'.