Jackhammering Cement
Hi We’re tackling our backyard in our Bed-Stuy home and we want to remove the cement that covers 3/4 of the backyard area. Would it be relatively the same price to hire someone to jackhammer the cement and remove it as it would be rent a jackhammer, do it ourselves, rent a truck and haul…
Hi
We’re tackling our backyard in our Bed-Stuy home and we want to remove the cement that covers 3/4 of the backyard area. Would it be relatively the same price to hire someone to jackhammer the cement and remove it as it would be rent a jackhammer, do it ourselves, rent a truck and haul it to the dump?
Has anyone else done this? What have you done?
Thanks
I feel like a rants coming on. How do you get your sanitation worker to remove a few thousand pounds of cement for twenty bucks when I can’t get him to take 10 lbs of household waste in a plastic bag? Maybe by the time he gets to my house, his back hurts from hauling everyone elses construction waste. As someone who has worked in the construction trades for years it always surprises me how cheap people are. I mean a penny smart and a pound foolish. Someone is actually going to dump broken chunks of cement out to the sidewalk a little at a time for what, weeks? months? My cheap ass neighbor tried to do the same thing. Sure sanitation may take one bag but then they would always leave the rest. Then every evening he would drag the bags back to his front yard leaving a slug trail of plaster dust across the sidewalk. I had to look at his shit piled six feet high for months. Then he finally got “smart” and paid a homeless guy in the neighborhood to cart it off for him. Sure enough the six foot pile of crap was left in front of a vacant building on the next street. Do yourself a favor get a 10 yard dumpster or someone who does clean outs like Greg’s.
Fine Homebuilding (a few months back) wrote about a chemical that you pour into small holes in the concrete which then expand and break up your concrete so that you don’t have to use a jackhammer. The hard part then involves the removal. They may have it one their website.
My suggestion would be to break it up yourself and call Greg’s Rubbish removal (you see their trucks all over brooklyn) to haul the debris away.
Good luck.
You should be able to break up the concrete (cement) using a sledge hammer and pry bar (crow bar or heavy steel bar) starting from the edge. Chances are the people who placed the slab only made it a few inches deep and without rebar. If it is three inches or more deep and has any reinforcing (bars or mesh) you may need a jack hammer and something to cut the reinforcing (bolt cutters for light steel, chop saw /demo saw or grinder for rebar.
Disposal will be the biggest headache – I agree if your sanitation guys (or gals) are cooperative or take a schmear that is the easiest way (the driver is the boss). I don’t know if your 3/4 of your yard qualifies as a home project but you are thinking of doing it yourself…..
You could hire a man-with-van who may dump it illegally for you for a fee or bring it yourself to a private dump – Maspeth, Kidds or there are probably places in Gowanus and Greenpoint.
If you do end up hiring someone check out the thickness and for the presence of reinforcing so they don’t rip you off by claiming that the job is harder than it really is.
I am What Dump. If you have too much for the DSNY you have to pay for a dumpster. They are 500-800 depending on the size. If you want a crew to haul it out, then figure another 150-200 per person. The DSNY has specific sizes and amounts of what they will pick up. Usually only one of the pick up days (recycling day) is when they will take bulk items.
I think you were the poster from 10:12PM, but if you meant me, the guy’s name is Muhammed and his number is 917-803-9189. He would be fine for breaking cement up, and he did a fine job on the sidewalk, but I wouldn’t recommend him for anything that needs attention to detail or a nice finish.
To poster 10:12PM – can you recommend the person who broke up your sidewalk? Thanks
Last summer I paid someone to break up my sidewalk, haul it away and pour new cement for $1300. So my guess is you could pay someone around $500 to do the whole thing or around $200 to just cart it away. As for the lack of a public dump, you can leave a decent amount of construction debris on the curb if it is bagged in small amounts, larger stuff can go out on bulk day (there are guidelines on dept. of sanitation website), you can slip the sanitation drivers a twenty and they will take almost anything, or you can rent a dumpster or pay a service to cart it away.
Sorry, I should have referenced my previous post was in response to “dump? What dump?”