Has anyone ever dug up concrete floors ?

[GreyBird84]

We bought an old bungalow to renovate. To keep costs down we are doing as much as possible ourselves.

House has never had a central heating system so the existing floors need dug up. Apparently it's very labour intensive but not difficult to do.

I've been googling & u-tubing but just wondered if anyone has 1st hand experience?

We haven't dug up a whole floor but had a trench dug through a room to allow us to run water to a new laundry room. The dust. Sweet Jesus the dust. Oh and the noise!!

We are not living in it while doing any work so that's our saving grace!

Noise - well our neighbours objected to our extension so silver lining n that ;)

What did you use to dig it up? DH will dig it up while I do wheelbarrow trips to the skip joyful

For a neat job you whizz two lines down with a floor saw, or, if thin, a masonry blade in an angle grinder, then use a heavy breaker. If the concrete is (too) thin or (too) weak you might manage it with a heavy SDS+ drill and chisels.

The tools are quite capable of cutting off limbs if not correctly used.

A small builder would do it quite quickly.

IMO you could easily spend a couple of hundred on tool hire, ear defenders, dust masks and overalls, and have a hard day of it, or get a recommended builder in to do it for you for much the same.

I was hoping you would come along john :) great advice thank you.

We have quotes from builders & also got a quantity surveyor to price the drawings for us & it appears builders are sticking their arm in because it is such a crappy job to do, hence saving ourselves a considerable sum if we do it ourselves.

don't forget to buy a canister vac before you start.