Floor slabs, machine bases, garage and shed bases broken out to the depth you need. Reinforcement is separated for recycling and the concrete is crushed on site where there is room, rather than paid for twice.
Concrete is priced by weight going out and fill is priced by weight coming in, so a slab that leaves the site as waste and comes back as imported stone has been paid for at both ends. Crushed on site it becomes granular fill that can be reused under the new build, and on any reasonable area the saving is larger than the cost of bringing a crusher in. It needs room to work and a neighbour situation that will tolerate a day or two of noise, so it is not always the answer, but it should be a decision rather than an assumption.
Some slabs are held in compression by steel tendons under very high tension, and cutting one without releasing it first is genuinely dangerous rather than merely awkward. They are common in car parks, podium decks and some commercial floors, and they are not always recorded on the drawings that reach the contractor.
The tell is often a marked edge detail or a stressing pocket, but the only safe method is to scan and to treat any unknown slab as suspect until proved otherwise. We scan before cutting, and where tendons are present the release is designed rather than improvised.
Usually, if there is room for a crusher and the volume justifies it. Crushed slab makes granular fill, which avoids paying to send concrete out and paying again for stone coming in.
Most are. The steel is separated as the slab is broken out and goes for recycling, which is worth doing rather than leaving it mixed into the crushed material.
We scan. Drainage, ducts and live services run under slabs far more often than drawings suggest, and finding them with a machine is expensive.
To whatever the next use needs. A garden needs less than a new foundation, and taking more than necessary just adds muckaway and fill to the bill.
A garage or shed base is commonly a day. A house floor slab with footings is two to four, and access for the machine and the muckaway sets it more than the area does.
Customer reviews
What Hartford owners say about their demolition contractor
