Concrete Removal!

Removing the concrete that was my over sized driveway was hard work and well worth it! It is/was like a breath of fresh air. Sometimes one doesn't realize how they are affected by something untill its gone. In this case "you don't know what you've got 'till its gone" works out for the better.

Our urban landscapes are tremendously over paved. Often by building codes. My modest house had parking for five cars. By good luck, a friend was interested in having some of the remains of the driveway and we decided to rent a cement saw. Neither of us had removed a driveway before. I was thinking of just having a driveway bashing and smash it with sledges. That would have been a fruitless exercise with massive amounts of useless rubble. Even without rebar, smashing it would not have worked. Usable pieces would mean cutting the cement and that is what we did. Renting a gas powered cement saw is not difficult, they are heavy and clunky but it works.

We scored the 4 inch slab less than two inches deep in rectangles less than 2 feet by a foot or so. Then with a 2 inch wide cement chisel in the score, whacked it with a 6 or 8 pound sledge. Usually, a crack developed from the score, sometimes not following the score. There were plenty of pieces that were nice, square cornered rectangles. Rob used his booty for a permeable paving project at his place. The scored and cracked pieces are then leveraged up with a 5 foot metal pry-bar. A wooden fulcrum is useful. Sometimes, a 20 to 30 square foot area of concrete would lift from the underneath pry-bar like a volcano was about to erupt. This was very exciting! Bit by bit to remove all that pavement brought a growing satisfaction.

So I kept half and Rob took half. There was a lot of gravel under the driveway. I moved it so the area closest to the former carport could be planted. Near the street has served as a 2 car sized car park but now is home to a large pile of decomposing leaves. A raised bed with bamboo is an evolving screen between the two areas. We had a ceremony to plant an English walnut tree where there had been a 4 inch slab. The chunks are wonderful for use as retainers for raised beds or border for water features. Very attractive! Some of the "nicer" squares now see use as a curving sidewalk to my front deck and door. Concrete removal, many benefits.

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