Breaking out concrete / tarmac - can I DIY?

[NamelessKitten]

The previous owner of my house, for reasons I cannot begin to fathom, completely paved over the garden with a mad hodgepodge of paving slabs, tarmac, and concrete. It looks as terrible as it sounds.

It's a large garden and I spent my life savings on the deposit, so I'm trying to DIY as much as possible. I think I can prise up the paving slabs and just pay to have them collected and disposed of, but I'm less sure about the patches of tarmac and concrete. I assume I can rent some kind of tool (pneumatic drill?) to break it up, or am I being too ambitious?

Photo attached to show the kind of thing I'm dealing with. I think most of the concrete/tarmac/stone is 1-3" deep.

A sledge hammer, pick and digging bar should take car of that.

I think I'd have to go the power tool route. I have back problems and I think wielding a sledgehammer might not be a good idea!

We just got up a 7 inch reinforced concrete shed base from our garden using a hydraulic breaker. We hired it from a DIY place. A sledge hammer would work on that but it'll take a while. I'd hire a machine, have it all up in no time

No idea about how to do any of it but if the paving slabs are in reasonable condition pop them at the front of your property and post on your local FB page as “free to whoever can collect”. That’ll probably get rid of them without having to pay anyone.

It’s actually more cost effective to buy the concrete breaker from screw fix and sell it when you’re done. It means you can do the job over a longer time. If there is lorry access at the back use a muck away lorry by far the cheapest option. Also if you are laying a path keep some of the best rubble as hardcore.

We bought a big hammer drill in Screwfix with the concrete attachment. Heavy but effective.

What are you planning to replace it with? Disposing of it is half the battle. In some areas we dug out the edges to make a lip and have Cotswold gravel.

We also built a huge raised bed and disposed of some of it in the bottom in small pieces for drainage.

It's worth considering what you want it it's place and whether it needs full removal or whether you can work with it. We put the new patio over the old one and all the horrible concrete around it in the back as it was sturdy, just very ugly. We had plenty of depth to the damp course and it helped level everything out better.

I 2nd buying a breaker then selling it. However long you think it will take, treble it. The worst part is the moving of the concrete, it is heavy! We recently built a shed and had to remove an old base to put the new one in. It took hours between us to break it, load it in the barrow and move to the front.

Lifting slabs is easier with a pick. Pop one end under and stand on the other side to lift. I bet if you put it on Facebook marketplace someone would come and lift them and take them away for free.

Thanks all!

Calmdown14 It sounds like my plans are similar to yours. I'm going to put a nicer stone over the current concrete patio and I'm creating a few raised beds. But the entire garden (75x25ft) is paved, tarmacked, or concreted. The weeds you can see in the picture are growing out of a very thin layer of soil/moss on top of concrete. I can reuse some of it but most is going to have to be taken away.

I 2nd buying a breaker then selling it. However long you think it will take, treble it.
Don't hire a breaker and try to get the job done ASAP in order to reduce hire costs - you could end up with vibration white finger. Taking time is actually a good thing.
As PP have said, acquire one so you can work at your own pace and then sell it on when the job is done.

Blimey! 75x25ft is huge, it will take you forever. I think you may be better off getting the professionals in with their big guns (assuming that there is access).

I disagree with not hiring a breaker, you can get lots of different size ones from the hire shop. I have a smallish makita ( hex steel ) ands it’s good but would take a long time to break the area you have.

I had a conservatory concrete base to break up , was about 4 inch thick and hired one ( electric ) well went half and half with a friend who needed to break some concrete steps up too . It was a hilti one and I think it weighed about 15 kg. It was £40 for the day and it was money well spent. It was easy you just put it where you want and let the weight of the machine do the work.
I did Google how much it cost new ……2 grand 😳 , so I think I got my money’s worth.

Ear defenders and safety glasses are a must and you don’t get vibration white finger from using a breaker for one day 🤣. It’s does make your hands tingle a bit.

before and after.

It’s was same as this .

https://www.balloohire.com/product/equipment-hire/medium-duty-electric-breaker

The majority of the area is paving slabs which I can prise up by hand (I tried a few). If I can get the hang of the tool I think I can break out the other patches in a day or two... but that could be famous last words. 😁

Regarding getting rid of the paving slabs: they always go well on Freecycle (round here, at least).