Removing concrete path and fence posts

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Hi

I have a very think layer of concrete path going along the garden, it is all cracked up and needs replacing as it has grass and weeds coming out from the cracks. Should I just put new concrete over that or should I remove the old concrete out and then put a weed fabric and then put a new one. I also plan to make another part of garden a concrete path, it has soil there at the moment, what i thought was put a weed sheet and then concrete, should I do it in any other way. Lastly I have some concrete fence posts, and need to remove them, any idea how to tackle it please. I have dug around it but it is really not going anywhere.

Thanks
 
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1) Old concrete - break it up and remove it. New concrete on top of old won't work especially if the existing concrete is breaking up.
2) New concrete path - dig out to around 200 mm. Backfill with 100 mm hardcore, form-work for the path edges and 100mm concrete to the top of the form-work. www.pavingexpert.com is a good place to get the full details.
3) Extracting concrete fence posts - prepare for some serious digging and weight-lifting. You need to expose the concrete surrounding the post and either break it out or mechanically lift the post and concrete out in one.
 
Why do you feel the need to remove the concrete fence posts?
 
As above you need to remove the old concrete at the very least and then aim to pour a new path at least 75mm thick, ideally 100mm thick. The best job would be to have 75-100mm of compacted hardcore underneath but for a simple garden path 100mm of concrete alone will probably suffice for many years to come.

Forget your weed membranes they are no use here. Simply placing 100mm of concrete on top of grass will not work. The grass will rot and then settle causing the concrete to move and or crack.

If you want to risk not using hardcore you must at least remove the top 4 inches of grass and soil
 
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Got it I think the best way to go is remove old concrete and then 100mm of compacted hardcore and 100mm of concrete. Hardcore will take care of the movements underneath.

The reason I want to remove concrete posts are I want to put new one's in as the old ones look ugly, any other way of removing them apart from digging in.
 
The reason I want to remove concrete posts are I want to put new one's in as the old ones look ugly, any other way of removing them apart from digging in.

If you find some new concrete posts that don't look ugly then let me know!

Sadly, without a lot of digging and the use of a breaker, there's no easy way of getting a concrete post out - assuming that they are standard height posts (6' out of the ground).
 
The best way is to lever them out, to do this leav them at their full height. Dig away at one side of the hole and then lean on top end the post with all your weight and someone elses to lean/lever it out.

NB this will create a large area of loose ground useless for concreteing a post back in the same spot so only do this if you can change the post locations easily.
 
The reason I want to remove concrete posts are I want to put new one's in as the old ones look ugly, any other way of removing them apart from digging in.
You can use masonry paint. Grey will make them look new, dark brown may make them blend in with your wooden fence.

I have a feeling you have never experienced the effort of removing old posts.
 
You can use masonry paint. Grey will make them look new, dark brown may make them blend in with your wooden fence.

I have a feeling you have never experienced the effort of removing old posts.
You are right I havent really, I did remove the fence posts with metal spikes.
 

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