Breaking up and removing cement, can I do it myself?

I have a 10 x 16 sun room off my master bedroom. It has a cement floor. I'm taking this sun room down and adding a larger sun room and additional addition. It will now be 16 x 53. The sun room will be 16 x 20 with a large walk in closet after it. The rest is a garage. It is next to my pool so I will call it a pool room for storing pool stuff and probably my lawn mower etc. It will have a 10 foot wide recessed bar. This breaks up the long wall. It will have a panel that will open up so one could be a bartender and stand inside and serve drinks etc. Heated floor, cathedral ceilings and sky lights. 6 large windows facing the pool.

On to my question. Has anyone ever rented an electric demolition hammer and broken up and removed cement? I'm wondering how many trips in my GMC full size truck to take it all to the dump? It is 10 x 16 and 4" thick or so. Might be many trips? Or I can hire someone to do it. One guy offered $600 and would haul it away. My contractor wants $1500 to do it. I have a strong guy that I can pay to help me.

Thanks
Rodney
1990 348 TS

 

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Hope this works.

 

Bushes and trees by the sun room are gone now. My wife and I cut them all down. I have a large area where I can burn brush. Have 6 acres. Large dirt berm has been removed. Bushes and fence will be gone once the addition is finished. Hated that berm. Was a pain to keep up. Will be all cement between the pool and the addition. Much nicer.

Rodney

 

There seems to be no mesh in it. I used my air chisel and chiseled open a 6" or so hole to see. I'm guessing it will not have rebar in it. I have a large industrial high speed die grinder with cut off wheels so I can cut rebar if need be. I would rent a hammer at Home Depot if I go that route. I should be able to take 2000 pounds per trip. So 4 trips. Dump is about 6 miles away. I'm not sure what the hammer costs to rent. Maybe 80 for a day? Plus I have to pay my helper maybe $150 a day. I'm not sure if we would get it done in one day? But if we get most of it done and broken up I can take some trips to the dump myself to finish up if need be over the next few days. I'm going to talk to the $600 guy.

Thanks
Rodney

 

I'm going to go with the $600 guy. I'll still help. I do not expect something for nothing and $600 is a bargain. I may have my friend help also and pay him. Maybe $100 for a few hours work. I'll also pay the $600 in cash because he is giving me such a good deal. So maybe $700. Saves me $800 and that makes me happy. Stupid addition is going to cost around $115,000. But it will make my house much nicer. Sun room becomes the exercise room. All the equipment comes up from the basement. Wife will love that. Work out and be able look out at the pool and my golf course.


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Rodney

 

http://citysquares.com/b/harvill-concrete-inc-10892090

No web page but he shows to be a cement contractor. I'll be there the whole time he is there. Hard work but a basic simple job. Hardest is getting the first few pieces out but since it is a tear down if we push out a wall some it does not matter.

Thanks again
Rodney

 

He will for $1500. I can do it for less. $800 less if good for me. I'm semi retired and still strong. I got here by being a hard worker and frugal. Can't change now. He also wants $3500 to demo the existing sun room. I'll do more than half of the work and save maybe $2000 on that also. I have the interior almost all gutted out. I have to plywood over the french doors to the master bedroom and then I can then take out the windows and sliding patio doors. I'll pull the old electrical. No need to pay a licensed electrician to do that. As the home owner I can do that. I'll pull the brick and make trips to the dump. They did not even dig for the foundation yet so I have plenty of time. I'll gut it to just the roof and wall studs.

Next year I'm tearing down my detached garage (54 wide x 18 and building a very nice high quality 54 wide by 30 deep with a small upper level. Heated floor. I beams so one can put very heavy stuff up in the upper level. I'm sure the garage will cost me big. I'll do what I can on that also but it is so large I'll let them demo it. Sun room is small enough I can do that.

Rodney

 

I (and at times my carpenter guy who has been working for me on other projects here [not related to my GC for the addition]) will be hanging the windows, doing all the exterior trim and caulking. Installing the double door by the pool and the garage door on the end, laying the floor tile, doing the interior trim work etc. Anything I can I will do. I enjoy doing it.

Rodney

 

Guy did show up with 4 helpers. There was no way an electric hammer would suffice. Took them 2 hours from driving in the driveway and driving out. I worked right along with them. The 4 helpers did all the heavy lifting. I helped with a pry bar and stuff. I ran the jack hammer for some of it. Certainly was a lot of work for those 4 helpers. Jack hammering was tough also. The guy worked hard. They hand loaded it into a large dump truck. Smaller stuff they tossed up and larger stuff they lifted by hand to the tailgate and a guy in the truck grabbed it. I'm happy. Saved me $900.

Rodney

 

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Just some small stuff to pick up now.


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They dug for the foundation yesterday.

Rodney

PS: I'm out in the country just south of Milwaukee county. NW Caledonia, WI. These guys came from central Milwaukee to do this.

 

Floor cement is now complete. I need to take a new picture. The left most floor is not heated. The floor on the right is heated. That is the now larger sun room (16 x 20) and nice sized walk in closet. The left is basically a large one car garage but it is for pool stuff and yard equipment. It faces the back of my yard and I'm sure I'll never put a car in there. The center has a opening for an outside (inset) bar. There will be a granite bar top and the back top over the bar top will open up for a bartender to stand inside and serve drinks. The only way into the sun room is from the master bedroom. The back bar area is accessed thru the garage area. There will be a double door on the side with the bar into the garage. We will put my wife's exercise equipment in there plus some sun room furniture. Cathedral ceiling and 2 sky lights. 5 large south facing windows looking out to the pool and my golf course. Should look very elegant.



Rodney

 

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A better picture.

The original sun room is on the far right. This is an old picture before we started. The dirt berm is gone. The previous owner was an avid golfer and liked berms. We have several berms in and around the golf course that we do like. We hated the one off the sun room next to the pool. This was his privacy fence for the pool. With this berm now gone the addition is now the privacy fence.


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Rodney

 

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Some updated photos. The interior is semi finished. I'm doing all the interior work. Ceramic floor. Electrical etc. I spent a lot of time on the door for the bar opening. It is on a track and slides over into the garage area when you want the bar open. In hind sight I maybe would have looked to make this panel in glass. The inside wall behind will probably have beer signs. Would look neat if the bar door was glass and one could see the back bar wall. To see the back wall I will need to slide the door over. The lifting system I made and the securing parts to keep the bar door in place when closed work well and opening it/closing it is fairly easy. In time the brick will darken. Might take several years or more. Neat project. Once finished all the exercise equipment goes in the sun room. The garage area is for all the lawn and pool stuff. Plus a large walk in storage closet. One can never have too many closets.

Rodney