Ideas for using scrap concrete slabs and chunks?

I have several properties where the houses are gone but the concrete remains...(see my Urban renewal post for details)...I have a need for a good parking area for larger trucks, and all this concrete laying around would make a good dent in the driveway project.

This is old concrete from the 20's and 30's but they built things pretty well back then.It looks as good as stuff poured a year ago.even the slabs that were in the fire. I have porchtop slabs from porches where they poured slabs on top of walls that were filled in with rubble. I have sidewalk slabs that are 3-6 feet wide and 4-10 inches thick. SO far I have seen little sign of reenforcement, tho I bet there is a bit of scrap steel in the sidewalks.

If I haul it off and dump it in a hole in the ground it won't do anyone any good, and it will cost to dump it, by the ton.. I also have probably ten yards of old bricks and hollow clay tiles that were the style for home building here a long time ago. None are worth saving for bricks as they have deteriorated to the point where they are half or smaller bricks and spalling into pieces.

I would like to bust it up into coarse aggregate of some sort. I realize there are machines the highway guys use to do this, but I bet I couldn't afford to rent one for a minute.

I do have access to an old Joy air compressor and a similarly old jackhammer.. and a sledge. Is that the only way to do this for a guy like me, or is there a process I am not thinking of that i need to look into?

I guess I could dig out where I want the parking area and just place the slabs there in dirt, but it seems like it would be pretty tough to get them level and mated up to each other...

Any ideas?? If I were up in NY I'd be filling in the low, wet areas of my property with them, then adding gravel to the top. That works well, but here in TX the ground is hard clay dirt, and I don't have any low spots.
After reading this I am thinking I just need to dig out where I want the driveway and parking area, and just use this as fill. Probably ought to sledge or jackhammer the large pieces, right?

In my area there is a businesses that sells it to farmers, etc. to use in waterways and runoffs and to help stop soil erosion. It is $200 for a dual axle load (not sure how many tons) compared to $500-$600 for what we call rip rap or large limestone rocks. It's an attractive buy for a farmer compared to rip rap.

It'll take you decades to bust all that up into small enough pieces with a jackhammer.

I have a feeling for the amount you're looking at it it's probably cheaper to haul it away and buy an equal amount of new crushed stone, than it would be to hire one of those hammer mills to bust up the concrete.

Just for grins you might want to check around for building material recyclers.

There is a mobile crusher not too far from here. He charges $2500 to set up and I believe that is good for the first 500 ton or so. Quarry rock is $8.00 a ton now so he crushes for $5 a ton.

I don't know how many ton you have or how close a crusher may be to you???

Gary

You need a place to park stuff, this crete is still solid and strong, flat and square??? Get some stoneworkers from Old Mexico at Home Depot, they can level off a base and reset this stuff into a paved pad in notime. I presume there isn't the frost moving issues as up here, so it should work out well. hastaluago amigo.

I buy several loads of crushed concrete every year and am of the opinion that my supplier takes concrete at no charge. You might give them a call and see if they'll take it.

It would save you the dump fee's any way.

Busting it up and hauling it is going to be a major expense.

Unless you have a bobcat or back hoe mounted breaker, loader tractor, and dump truck it's not really a do it yourself project.

Renting a jack hammer, loading and unloading by hand, will be very labor and time intensive.

(quoted from post at 06:37:57 05/07/12)Just for grins you might want to check around for building material recyclers.

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If it was here, we have a quarry/sand & gravel yard 5 miles away that takes old cement, brick, roof tiles, etc, runs it thru a grinder and sells it for 5 bucks a ton for people with steel tires that wanna fix roads on the cheap (always plenty of nails etc in it....

I would be careful abount use along a water way the Corp of Engineers highly frowns on this use.

I was able to "donate" my concrete rubble to the county for use as fill to stop erosion in water ways. They provided the payloader and dump trucks to haul it away. I consider myself lucky.
It wouldn't hurt to ask in your area if a similar use could be made of your concrete. If you can depose of it at no cost, you could spend the savings on a few loads of gravel.

Here in Ohio, there is a Company that specializes in "Leveling" Concrete by pumping cement under the slabs until they are level...
IF you could get the slabs moved and in place, I would think there would be a similar Co there that does the same..

For myself, I took a good 70 Ton of broken slab and lined the (very Long) Spillway from our 1 1/3 Acre Lake.. The pile was so large that the zoning Inspector sent us a letter...seems he saw it by a Satellite Photo...!!!
He could not believe we were going to "use" that much anywhere...thought we starting some kind of "business" venture..!!

Ron..

Yup. The county here practically begs for busted up concrete. It might be better if you give it to the county, then pay for new to park on - especially looking at the removal costs...

They could/should use a conveyor with a magnetic drum at the top end. Takes out most of the steel scrap. As the drum rotates, it attracts the metal, holds onto it til the scrap gets to the underside (after the gravel has spewed off), and dumps it to another conveyor when the belt leaves the drum.

(quoted from post at 08:49:21 05/07/12) They could/should use a conveyor with a magnetic drum at the top end. Takes out most of the steel scrap. As the drum rotates, it attracts the metal, holds onto it til the scrap gets to the underside (after the gravel has spewed off), and dumps it to another conveyor when the belt leaves the drum.

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I'm sure they do or else it'd be unbearable.... Still some gets by...

Mpls and Metro, plus some other MN counties, you are required to haul rocks/concrete to a crusher. Illegal to bury rock/concrete, as if it didn"t come from there in the first place! Fine minds at work there. Excavator with a pecker on the stick will break that small enough for the crusher- even with that equipment, it"s a tedious job. BTDT.

Years ago I rented a motorized concrete "pounder/breaker-upper" that was self propelled to get to the slab, then you pushed it around by hand. That thing really put a thumping on the ground!! The slab/patio was about 14 x 20 and I tried to break it up softball size....maybe an hour to break up concrete. No trouble then to use tractor loader bucket (you could use skid steer also) to clean up debris.

Check with equipment rental places that cater to small contractors and home owners. Sorry I can"t give you proper name for machine.

Rick

They were putting new sidewalks in in town about the time my brother and I needed septic tanks. We went and got several slabs,put big ones in the hole,layed up several rows of concrete blocks,then used them for lids too.

This is what we are using.only have about 2 acres to go.
Ron

If the pieces are fairly big, they make great stream crossings.

I am using it as breaker run for a new 1/2 acre parking lot for my semi trailers. I an getting field stone, 4 old silos, old barn foundations and old concrete. It helps that I have a small dump truck. I am about 1/4 of the way done. I dump a bunch, level it off, put down gravel and repeat the process. Takes time, but saves me money, and I enjoy the recycling of waste. Bill

Ok, what do you call that fantastic concrete pulverizer/rebar separator????

What sort of highway/shopping mall/old bridge are you taking down?

Very neat stuff, thanks for posting..And thank you to everyone else who replied, I'll have a few options to check out.

For the concrete a skid steer mounted jack hammer works well. I have used one to tear out several old barn and silo foundations. If you take your time you can get it into smaller pieces to use as the base for your new drive way. The bricks will work fine as they are.

The clay tile will break just by running over them. I got a bunch of old ones that where never used but has frozen and cracked. I just took the tractor and loader and scoped them up and dumped them high in the air. The busted most of them and then I just pushed them into a pile and leveled it the a foot thick. I drove back and forth over it with a loaded semi. They all where broken up good enough that I used them as the base in a drive way.

It's just a crusher and screen.This was a large nursery.Estimated 11,000tns all has to be smaller than 1.5in. Usually we would take it to a recycler they are very common here as we do not have rock within a hundred miles.
Ron