How to get concrete out of the ground

Keithmac said:
If its an ex council house that will have been the old clothes line poll, I removed ours abd it was a fair lump of concrete!.

Had to remove a few concrete wire fence posts as well ans again they didn't scrimp on the concrete!.
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Yeah not ex-council, but it was one of those rotating washing line thingies, and they don't seem to have scrimped on the concrete either, sadly. I did dig down a bit, but gave up somewhere approaching 18".

The jack idea is really cute, but I'd need a big scaffolding pole or something, and I just haven't got anything like that.

I can't hammer anything down the inside of the central pole bit, unfortunately, as I whacked it a couple of times with the sledge, and it's all closed up. Not sure what I thought I might achieve really - probably just frustration. But the concrete didn't even vibrate when I whacked the metal seriously hard with the sledge...

Just for a laugh, I did manage to drill a few holes down into it with my ordinary old hammer drill and an 8mm masonry bit, and it did seem to penetrate reasonably well, so maybe I'll try making a line of them tomorrow, then try and break a big bit off with the sledge or something...

Trouble is, I haven't really got stone chisels to batter into holes, or metal bars to lever with or anything...
 
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Why do you want it out? If it's just to grass over, and you don't have many tools, just a few inches more off the top with the sledge and cover it with soil.
 
scbk said:
Why do you want it out? If it's just to grass over, and you don't have many tools, just a few inches more off the top with the sledge and cover it with soil.
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Well, as is always the way, I want to plant a tree there. But hitting it with the sledge isn't really having any effect now anyway :(
 
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Burnerman said:
Drill, Roger....that's how the quarrymen do it (y)
In the absence of explosive, a cold chisel will suffice!
John :)
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Before the Troubles started here, back in the 60s, we used to nick gelignite from the pathetic little huts they used to keep it in in the local quarries, and (allegedly) go... errm... fishing with it in the big pools the salmon used to lie in on their way upstream... can't get hold of any now, so not an option sadly :eek:
 
DIG, Roger..... You need a hole for the tree so you will have to dig at some point. (y) Even if you manage to split it in half (which isnt a given) you will still have to dig it out
 
I bought an SDS+ drill as we had to remove some fence posts as well.

Maybe hire one for a day or two?.

Chisel attachment worked wonders although like someone else on here I did get it stuck a few times!.
 
scbk said:
Why do you want it out? If it's just to grass over, and you don't have many tools, just a few inches more off the top with the sledge and cover it with soil.
Click to expand...

Any grass that managed to grow would be poor quality. 1/ The remaining concrete would continue to leech alkaline into the soil. (Fine if you have acidic soil but bad if your soil is already alkaline or neutral PH. 2/ Grass roots actually go quite deep to get a firm hold and reach for the water table.
 
Ask a neighbour.
Any self - respecting red - blooded male (who is not "trade" ) will have just the drill and bits you require, and will be more than happy to try them out on your concrete.
It'll only cost you a couple of beers(y)
 
I've lost count of the number of threads I've followed on various forums which go on for pages, then stop abruptly, and you never know what happened. So... eventually I gave up trying to find cheap options, and bought the cheapest SDS drill/hammer thingy (as above - £70 from Screwfix). As I said, not much more than hiring something wih a transformer and all.

An hour's hard labour and more rubble sacks than you would think later :cool:

20190711_172038.jpg

Thanks to everybody for your help as always.

And a part of me will always regret that I wasn't able to try the idea with the jack :(

PS note that ENTIRE hole was concrete, including a 2' square, 4" deep section on top.
 
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