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Trimble Towers Workshop - Fitting out begins...

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Trimble Towers Workshop - Fitting out begins...

Postby TrimTheKing » 30 Jun 2016, 11:15

Just bought myself a new toy to finally kick start my build by breaking up the old slab. Got a lot on at work today but hoping to find a bit of time this afternoon to have a play with it...

Image



EDIT: I managed to delete a post from below showing the makeup of the slab and explaining it's as hard as granite and Kryptonite, so just to make other posts below make sense the pics are below...

Image

Image

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Re: Trimble Towers Workshop - Let the groundworks commence!

Postby Rod » 30 Jun 2016, 12:10

That's some toy - have fun

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Re: Trimble Towers Workshop - Let the groundworks commence!

Postby Andyp » 30 Jun 2016, 12:26

I always knew you would be in by Xmas :D
I do not think therefore I do not am.

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Re: Trimble Towers Workshop - Let the groundworks commence!

Postby TrimTheKing » 30 Jun 2016, 12:51

Cheers
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Re: Trimble Towers Workshop - Let the groundworks commence!

Postby 9fingers » 30 Jun 2016, 13:01

Good to see some workshop build mojo returning Mark! more power to your elbow(s)

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Re: Trimble Towers Workshop - Let the groundworks commence!

Postby DaveL » 30 Jun 2016, 20:14

Double weetabix before using that, they are great fun. We had one when Joe, large son bought his first place, 90% of the garden had been concerted over. I lost count of the trips to the tip with the back of my vecta estate loaded with the broken hard standing. Don't think the tip would let me dump it like that now, only allowed 2 bags a week/month!

Don't forget the ppe eyes and ears are not replaceable.
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Re: Trimble Towers Workshop - Let the groundworks commence!

Postby TrimTheKing » 30 Jun 2016, 21:15

Yeah I've had a bash today Dave and it's hard work like!

Doesn't help that I probably could have got a longer one as I'm tall (6'3") so have to stoop.

Might have to look at a longer chisel, if such a thing exists...

Was fully PPE'd up, and blooming good job too as more than once bits pinged off the lenses right in front of my eyes!!

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Re: Trimble Towers Workshop - Let the groundworks commence!

Postby 9fingers » 30 Jun 2016, 21:21

Mark If you have any flat areas of concrete to break, it often help to have prybar to lift the concrete off the hard core even by a tiny amount, it will break a lot easier as little of the effort gets transmitted to the hardcore and all goes into actual concrete breaking.

Good Luck

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Re: Trimble Towers Workshop - Let the groundworks commence!

Postby StevieB » 30 Jun 2016, 21:24

Looks like type1 scalpings mixed with concrete - with added bitumen as a waterproofer? Left over road materials perhaps?

Might need to drill a hole and insert a wedge (chisel) and give it a thump with a sledgehammer to break off bits you can feasibly lift into a skip or suitable vehicle for taking to the tip, assuming you don't want it for hardcore.....

Good luck with that!

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Re: Trimble Towers Workshop - Let the groundworks commence!

Postby 9fingers » 30 Jun 2016, 21:26

Hmm! I wrote my reply before seeing your pics.

Looks like some improvised concrete brew made up from what was on site at the time.
Didn't you have a lot of used bricks in your walls? maybe something was demolished to build your place and the concrete made from that?

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Re: Trimble Towers Workshop - Let the groundworks commence!

Postby TrimTheKing » 30 Jun 2016, 22:09

The garden was an old farm yard containing all sorts of farm outbuildings and Lord only knows what, before the house was developed on the site, so it could be absolutely anything!

I've got a couple of 1 ton sand bags I'm going to fill up with what comes out of here to use as hardcore to try and keep some of the costs down so not got much choice other than to break it up bit by bit into pieces around 4" maximum.

Guess there's not a lot to do other than suck it up and get on with it! :D

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Re: Trimble Towers Workshop - Let the groundworks commence!

Postby Rod » 30 Jun 2016, 22:23

It looks like a load of crushed Scalpings mixed with a high cement content and bl......y hard!!
Looks like you are in for a very tough time?
Take it steady - a bit at a time - have you tried to find his far it covers.
You might have to get a Pecker in?

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Trimble Towers Workshop - Let the groundworks commence!

Postby TrimTheKing » 30 Jun 2016, 22:37

Have to assume it's the whole damn lot Rod, and hope I get lucky…

Pecker…?

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Re: Trimble Towers Workshop - Let the groundworks commence!

Postby Rod » 01 Jul 2016, 00:07

It's a bigger version of what you've got mounted on a JCB (say) arm. I think Mike used one?
Our you could hoike it up with a digger bucket - getting underneath and pulling up.
You might have then to break up the chunks for transport?


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Trimble Towers Workshop - Let the groundworks commence!

Postby TrimTheKing » 03 Jul 2016, 17:29

So the weather broke long enough for me to get out and have a crack at breaking the back of this Kryptonite slab removal yesterday.

After kids football coaching duties (I help coach my little lad's under 7's, all 42 of them!!) and taking the breaker round to a mates to help him move some massive ornamental slabs of slate in his garden which had been cemented in, I managed to get cracking at around 3:30.

Drafted in my mate Phill to help and we got cracking, him initially putting together my new wheelbarrow and me tidying the site, we set to.

I had bought a new 600mm chisel during the week to try and relieve some of the back breaking element of it as the chisel that came with it is about 8".

Image

And after 2 hours of taking turns at breaking/barrowing into a 1t rubble sack (massively underestimated with those and will be ordering another 4!!!) here's the progress...

Image

:(

Hell's teeth this stuff is ridiculously hard!!! I need to break it all into small enough chunks to be usable as hardcore but even if that wasn't the case, the stuff is so hard I don't have a choice but to!

Anything more than an inch away from the edge and the chisel buries itself with no signs of the edge breaking away so you have to nibble away at it very slowly.

Just off out to have another crack at it. Had kids parties and homework to do today so this is my first 'me time'. We may be here some time...

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Trimble Towers Workshop - Let the groundworks commence!

Postby ScotlandtheDave » 03 Jul 2016, 17:35

Hi mark, possibly a daft question but if this stuff is so impenetrable why lift it? Can you use it or build over it?

Ps. That's some effort to get that far, I don't envy you that task!
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Re: Trimble Towers Workshop - Let the groundworks commence!

Postby TrimTheKing » 03 Jul 2016, 17:57

Hi Dave

Phill asked me the same question

My workshop is being built to full building regs spec for a habitable dwelling so from that perspective yes, to be able to get to full 100mm insulation under the 100mm slab then I do need to lift it unfortunately.

I have also had a lot of issues with ground water ingress in the house because things weren't done properly so having just got those under control I am not taking a chance with this!

Also, I want the option should I ever choose to sell up, of being able to say that it is a change of use application away from being a dwelling, granny annexe, office etc.

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Re: Trimble Towers Workshop - Let the groundworks commence!

Postby RogerS » 03 Jul 2016, 18:52

Have you thought of using a water-lubricated diamond-bladed large industrial type angle grinder ?
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Re: Trimble Towers Workshop - Let the groundworks commence!

Postby Robert » 03 Jul 2016, 19:25

Have you got any other concrete to break up just to prove the Kango is working right? and have you tried just whacking the slab with a sledgehammer to see if it cracks or levering it up a fraction then whacking it?
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Re: Trimble Towers Workshop - Let the groundworks commence!

Postby StevieB » 03 Jul 2016, 19:41

+1 - I would be giving that some wellie with a sledgehammer!
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Re: Trimble Towers Workshop - Let the groundworks commence!

Postby TrimTheKing » 03 Jul 2016, 20:28

Robert wrote:Have you got any other concrete to break up just to prove the Kango is working right? and have you tried just whacking the slab with a sledgehammer to see if it cracks or levering it up a fraction then whacking it?


I broke up a load of cement at a mates yesterday to get some large ornamental stones out and it ate through it in seconds so I think it's fine.

This stuff is seriously hard. I took a 4*6" square lump, put it on the slab and took a 4lb lump hammer to it, and while I know it's not a sledge, it didn't touch it.

Problem is even if I manage to break t into larger chunks, the slab is over 6" thick so moving them will be a big effort on my own. Then once I've moved them how do I break it up into smaller chunks to use as hardcore below my new slab?

I'm genuinely open to any suggestions that can help me make both of those things happen more quickly, but given my personal circumstances right now I need to be saving as much money as possible on this build so re-using as much as possible is imperative unfortunately.

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Re: Trimble Towers Workshop - Let the groundworks commence!

Postby 9fingers » 03 Jul 2016, 20:44

You need the appliance of science Mark as a few of us have tried to tell you.

When a slab of concrete is fully supported underneath the effect of hitting it transmits the force to the underlayers and it just laughs at your effort. You are effectively trying to move "the world" with your handful of kN from the kango.

Your kango chisel has no where to go and just chips little bits off or as you have found wedges itself in if you take too bigger bite.

Lift the concrete up off the under surface with a beefy pry bar using a broken bit of concrete as the fulcrum and whack the raised part. It will crack much easier as it has somewhere to go and all your effort goes into the concrete instead of moving the world.


As for breaking it into smaller lumps, place it onto of some unbroken slab and use the kango, the pieces can break off as they have somewhere to go now.

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Re: Trimble Towers Workshop - Let the groundworks commence!

Postby Rod » 03 Jul 2016, 20:49

I too was going to say can't you get something under the edge to lift it up and break it - a small digger bucket.
Another idea is to stitch cut it and drive in wedges to split it up.
When all else fails - water jetting!

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Re: Trimble Towers Workshop - Let the groundworks commence!

Postby TrimTheKing » 03 Jul 2016, 21:15

I'll try Bob, I've not been ignoring you but I'm really not sure without a digger that I'll be able to move it at all. 5m x 2.5m x 6-8" thick, that's a hell of an amount to lift by hand!

What I might try and do tomorrow is use a trowel and dig out beneath it as far as I can reach and try that. Will that have the same effect or will the fact it's still supported further back nullify the effect?

Rod - ideally I would get a digger in tomorrow but as I am very likely to find out at around 11am that my job no longer exists, saving as much money on this build as possible has become imperative. ☹️

It's a serious consideration though as the cost of an extra couple of days of digger hire to do this, then dig the footings then slab might be worth the savings in my time...

Let me have another couple of days at it and see how I do and I'll give it some serious thought...

Thanks for all your input chaps, and please don't think I'm ignoring your suggestions, just trying to make the best of the situation I have with what I have to hand, but I will definitely try either lifting or digging under it tomorrow.

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Re: Trimble Towers Workshop - Let the groundworks commence!

Postby ScotlandtheDave » 03 Jul 2016, 21:19

Sorry to hear things are not great on the work front Mark, not a nice situation at all. Hopefully it's good news tomorrow but if not I hope things work out.
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