concrete garden

ninnypee

Hi all, Looking for some advice, buying a 2nd hand house, about 10 yrs old, the current owners have concreted the whole back garden, its really horrible, no grass or plants at all, its not separate slabs but pressed concrete which makes it much more difficult to remove. Approx 20ft x 30ft Does anyone have any advice on how to remove this? possibly DIY or any rough prices on a professional removing this concrete and planting or rolling some grass? any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

Water John

Until its dug out, you wont know if top soil has to be imported.
If it can be got in there, use a mini digger with a rock breaker. Impossible to price, too many variables.

paddylonglegs

A diy job would probably consist of using a con saw to cut into manageable chunks and barrow it into a skip.

You could also look at hiring a kango but it's a bit messier

Either way it's going to be hard work. I would invest in getting in a bit of muscle to do the donkey work as you will be wrecked!

magicbastarder

i once hacked up a section of concreted back yard about 4'x6' - so about 1/25th of your job. i found it stimulating and fun - angle grinder and sledgehammer being the two main tools - but i dunno how fun i'd find it if the job was 25 times the size.

i reckon you'll need to spend a couple of hundred quid on topsoil - you've about 50 square metres of ground, which is 5 cubic metre bags of topsoil if you need to replace the top 10cm.

my3cents

First thing I'd do is neatly take out a couple of sections where you might want to put plants, maybe near the house so you can put some climbers up. In doing that you'll get an idea of how much concrete you are going to have to remove.

If there is too much concrete to take away easily and its good concrete you could continue to take out sections for planting feature plants and then use the main concrete as a base for building raised beds (obviously breaking up the concrete under the bed for drainage).

With planting holes taken out and raised beds you might find that decking over the remaining concrete can finish the rest of the project.

fox0512

To keep cost down i would consider hiring a compresser with jack hammer and do it yourself.... You will need 1 or 2 bodys for the day to load it into a skip or arrange someone to draw it away..before you do this you would want to do a test hole...the reason for this is... If the previous owners/contractor used mesh steel in concrete..if they did it will be a nightmare to break.... So mini digger needed

Gautama

You'll need topsoil too. Whatever is underneath the concrete will have been starved of life, air, etc.

ninnypee

thanks for all the advice, Ill definitely be getting help, my boyfriend will be doing it with a few friends, hopefully wont need to hire anyone. I'm liking the idea of trying to remove parts and maybe leaving some concrete down, didnt realise that could be done with pressed concrete. Didn't even think of mesh steel being used, hopefully its not there, sounds like a nightmare to do then and don't think a mini digger will fit down the side of the house! thanks

Water John

There are minidiggers that can fit through doorways. Best of luck. Hope who put it down was sort of lazy and put on a light skin.

deandean

go to a hire shop and rent a hydraulic rockbreaker. that will easily break the concrete without too much effort.
If there is steel mesh through the concrete it will be a hoor of ajob.
And getting rid of the concrete will be very hard work. Any chance you can get a grab truck in?

fox0512

...... you could just paint it green!!

Emeralda

Just hire professional help and negotiate to pay in instalments, you would spend more time and money doing it yourself. Sending you a PM