Need advice about removing cement from garden

You will definitely need new topsoil!  I took out lots of concrete, and still find things when I dig.

anotherpsarchitect

in Carpenters and Woodworkers 12 years and 6 months ago

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greenwoodnewowner | 12 years and 6 months ago

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I want to remove the cement slabs currently covering my back garden space. I’d love any advice and/lessons learned from people who’ve done this.

And, are certain times of the year better than others? If I remove the cement at this time of the year, is there anything I should do with the ground underneath for the winter, since I’d like to begin gardening this coming spring?

Also, any recommendations of contractors with experience doing this type of work would be appreciated.

Thanks!

berniceshola | 12 years and 6 months ago

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I did this myself. There are several tool rental places on Coney Island Avenue that will rent a Bosch jackhammer for the weekend. I think I paid about $60 for friday-monday. A 10-yard dumpster was about $475\. The rest was just gruntwork, breaking up the slab and carrying it through the house in 5-gallon buckets. Took about two full days. If you have steel contractor mesh underpinning the slab (I did) you’ll need boltcutters to snip the concrete chunks into manageable pieces. I took out approx 400 square feet of 5-inch slab, and that didn’t even fill the 10-yeard dumpster to the top. Depending on soil quality underneath the removed slab, you’ll probably want to bring in topsoil. Kings county nurseries delivered a truckload to the street in front of my house, and I paid a couple day laborers $100 each to carry it through the house in buckets. The soil was about $100/yard, I think. So the whole project cost less than $1000\. To get a contractor to do it for you would cost 2-3x that much, easily.