Concrete Removal in Canberra
Before new concrete goes in, the old surface usually has to come out. We break out and cart away failed driveways, paths, slabs and footings across the ACT, and leave the base clear and level so the next stage can go straight ahead.
What concrete removal covers
Concrete removal is the demolition and cart-away step that clears an old surface off a block. It covers cracked and lifted driveways, worn paths and steps, redundant shed and garage slabs, old footings, and pool surrounds that are being torn up for a rebuild or a landscaping change.
It is rarely a job on its own. Most of the time the old surface is coming out so something new can go back in, so we treat removal as the first stage of the pour rather than a separate visit. Tell us what is being taken out, roughly how big it is, and what is meant to happen to the space afterwards, and we can plan the break-out and the base work as one job.
How removal is done
The order matters more than brute force. A slab that sits over stormwater or a power run has to be opened carefully, not smashed, so the real work is knowing what is under the concrete before the breaker starts.
Each step below is scaled to the thickness of the concrete, how heavily it is reinforced, and how much room there is to get machinery in.
- Walk the site and check what is being removed, then locate any stormwater, irrigation or power running under or beside the slab
- Saw-cut clean edges where the removal meets concrete that is staying, so nothing cracks past the line
- Break out the slab in sections with gear matched to its size and the access, from hand breakers up to an excavator
- Separate steel and mesh from the broken concrete as it comes up
- Load out and cart the material away, sending clean concrete to be crushed and recycled where it can be
- Trim and clear the exposed base so it is ready to compact and pour, or to landscape
Access and where the material goes
How the concrete leaves the block usually decides how the day runs. On a tight Canberra property with a narrow side gate, the break-out has to be sized so it can be barrowed or carried out to a truck on the verge, which is slower than driving an excavator straight up an open drive. Where there is room, machinery does the heavy lifting and the job moves quicker.
Broken concrete is heavy, so we plan the route out before anything comes up, keeping the load path off garden beds and soft lawn where we can. Clean, unreinforced concrete can often be sent to a recycler to be crushed for road base rather than going to landfill, which keeps disposal cost and waste down. Concrete that is painted, tiled or full of steel is sorted separately because it is handled differently.
What affects the cost
The break-out itself is only part of the picture. What really moves a removal quote is how hard the concrete is to lift and how far it has to travel to leave the site:
- Thickness of the old slab and how heavily it is reinforced
- Total area being removed
- How tight the access is for a bobcat, excavator or truck
- Whether the concrete is clean enough to recycle or has to go to landfill
- How far the material has to be carted and tipping charges at the other end
- Anything sitting close under the slab, like services, that calls for a careful dig
Timeline and what to expect
A thin path or a small shed slab is often broken out and carted off in a single day. A thick, heavily reinforced driveway or a large slab takes longer, because reinforced concrete comes up in pieces rather than sheets and the steel has to be cut and separated as it goes.
If removal is the front end of a new pour, we usually roll straight from clearing the base into preparing it, so the block is not left open and rough for weeks between trades. Where removal is the whole job, we leave the base trimmed, the material gone and the site tidy, so you can landscape or build on it.
When removal is needed and preparing for a new pour
A lot of Canberra removal work is old, thin driveways poured through the 1960s to 80s that have cracked and lifted as reactive clay swelled and shrank underneath them and frosty winters worked at the surface. Once a slab has broken up like that, patching rarely holds, and taking it out to pour a properly based one is the honest fix.
On established ACT blocks we check for stormwater, irrigation and power before breaking out, because older properties often have services sitting close under the slab. When the removal is the first step toward a new driveway, path or slab, getting the base cleared and levelled correctly is what lets the replacement be set out, compacted and reinforced to suit the ground rather than just poured back onto disturbed fill.
Concrete Removal Projects
Common questions
- What is the easiest way to remove concrete?
- For anything beyond a small slab, machine breaking and removal is the easiest and safest way, rather than hand tools. We break the concrete up, load it out and cart it away, and can strip the ground back ready for whatever goes in next.
- What is the cheapest way to get rid of concrete?
- The cost is mostly breaking it out, loading it and disposal, so the cheapest approach depends on how thick and how reinforced the slab is and how easily a machine and truck can reach it. We quote from those details rather than a flat rate.
- How expensive is it to remove concrete from a backyard?
- A backyard slab is often dearer to remove than a front one, because access for a machine and a truck is tighter and the broken concrete has to be carried further to be carted out. We look at access first, since that drives the cost more than the slab area.
- Is it free to get rid of concrete?
- No, clean concrete still has to be carted to a facility and there is a disposal cost, along with the labour and machine time to break it out and load it. We include removal and disposal in the quote so there is no surprise at the end.
- Do you clear the site ready for a new pour?
- Yes. We can break out the old concrete, remove it, and prepare and level the ground so it is ready for a new slab or driveway, whether we are doing the new pour or another trade is.
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