Removing part of concrete drive

[NeedSleepNow]

I'm househunting and have seen a house I'm considering putting an offer in on but I dislike the front garden. The whole thing is imprinted concrete, no greenery at all. I only need parking for 1-2 cars and the garden would comfortably park 4-5 cars as it is so I'm wondering if it would be possible to remove part of the concrete area around the edges and plant a hedge or make a flower bed as I really don't need so much parking space. I'm assuming with imprinted concrete this will be difficult to do neatly as it is likely to crack a lot of it and it will end up looking a mess. Any suggestions on how I could do it or ways to make the garden look more green?

Wouldn’t have thought it would crack if you cut it first ?

Thanks, I'm pretty clueless when it comes to DIY or what work can be done easily or can't be. I'm buying my first house since splitting with husband and he always did all property maintenance /diy on our houses and I'm feeling pretty lost with it all!

Mark out the area the want to remove, then you can use a disc cutter to neatly cut the edge. Once that’s done you can break up and remove the section you don’t want.

Thank you. That sounds like it will be an easier job than I first thought, although could well be costly as I don't know if I'd be brave enough to try and do it myself.

I love green gardens so the concrete front garden and an almost entirely paved back garden are big negatives about the house for me.

You’d most likely need to get a builder in. You could need a big cutter on wheels, with a water supply, not a hand held one.
Imprinted concrete won’t be the easiest thing to cut through.

I would add raised beds on top of the concrete rather than trying to take out some of it

And disposing the concrete will also be a job, you will need a skip etc. we had to remove 10 slabs from our garden (not sure whether I printed or not) and it was a huge job. The noise, mess, disposal etc, not sure it was worth it in the end. Wish I'd gone for raised beds instead.

I think as jobs go, it will be messy but not particularly difficult for a bloke with the right equipment.

As pp said, mark your shape, cut it with a disc saw and jackhammer the slab to break it up.

Pick a day when you can stand over him with your arms folded making sure he cuts to your exact measurements.

Make sure there are no water pipes, electric wires or gas lines under the sections that you cut.
Wear protective mask, earmuffs and goggles.
Does the company who installs imprinted concrete also offer services to cut up and remove sections of the same? They would know which reinforcing to expect etc.

Thank you, I hadn't thought about the cables and pipes etc that could be under it.

Raised beds on top could work, thank you for the suggestion. I will look into this as this could be a lot easier than digging it all up

Raised flower beds or large pots with different plants. Different levels, shapes and sizes!
You can cover the concrete with stones.
The concrete doesn't have to go!