Free Urbanite! I'll have some now and more and more over the next few months!

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Permalink Reply by Joe Debbins on February 3, 2010 at 1:11pm

Right on... I do these projects just to GET that sense of accomplishment that eludes me all day at work! It was particularly gratifying to get my 11 yo son involved, he too has some sense of accomplishment from this project. Thanks for you encouragement Chris!

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Permalink Reply by Anita Mahaffey on February 5, 2010 at 12:20pm

As I said before: Urbanite is a blight. Pavers are the gig going on!

Kristin, you already have your own resources. Drop the sledge hammer!

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Permalink Reply by Kristin on February 5, 2010 at 1:00pm

As I mentioned before, unfortunately the concrete job the previous owners did at my house is not suitable to make pavers. a garden wall? sure! pavers? nope. none of it is level, it has giant river rock in the bottom of it, and if I were to make pavers out of it I'm afraid it would become more of a tripping hazard than an actual walkway... it would never look like the stuff that Joe did. The previous owners simply didn't know what they were doing when they poured it.

so sorry Anita- I'm not going to drop the sledge hammer on this one :)

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Permalink Reply by Chris Byers on February 5, 2010 at 1:36pm

Rent a jackhammer, make your life a lot easier if you are going to break it up. Wear a face mask!

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Permalink Reply by Joe Debbins on February 5, 2010 at 1:59pm

is the concrete level and smooth on the top surface (like it is supposed to be)? Don't worry about the underside, that can be leveled with sand no matter how ugly it is, and that is what I had to do as well. Mine was the same way, you get anything and everything in terms of surface prep from old concrete pours, sounds like yours was pretty watery too and rocks really went to bottom. Like you said, they just didn't know what they were doing. Look carefully at the photo called "patio beginning" and "scraps 0" you can see the uneveness of the underside, and also the variations in bulk thickness, neither matter using my (soon to be patented) sand leveling technique.

So yeah, you could cut big concrete "pavers" out of your existing backyard slab and move them over to the side of your house and dress them up with real pavers... which is sorta what I did, except that I was starting with an old sidewalk instead of a slab.

However, depending on your requirements, you might consider a few strategic ways to use the colored real pavers to dress up your existing slab. This would save you a bunch of destruction and disposal, and would only involve cutting your slabs with a saw to drop the real pavers in. I would be happy to come by and give you my "sage" advice, ha ha! Send me an email ...

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Permalink Reply by Kristin on February 8, 2010 at 10:08am

great stuff! I need to take some closeup photos of what I've got and post them up...

the surface is not level, and nowhere near sidewalk type quality. If it was I'd be making pavers like a crazy woman! Over the weekend I looked at it and I was wondering if maybe I could maybe skim coat it and try and salvage some of it...I guess you've really got to see it in person! It's like somebody dumped quickcrete over a yard of river rocks- some of the river rocks on the bottom are bigger than my hand! and the depth of the concrete varies from 2 inches to 4 inches, but you can tell the top of the job really moves with the yard's landscape...that's why I mentioned it would be a tripping hazard. The previous owners actually carved in a message that says that two brothers "lovingly" did the concrete for "their dear mother" LOL

I'd love it if you could come check it out and tell me if a leveling skim coat would make some of it salvageable...and I have WAY more than I need for my little side yard project. the main pour is probably fifteen feet by twenty feet. it's really a shame that it's not better quality.

I wanted to apologize to Anita for my tone in my earlier post. I didn't mean to come off harsh at all, I just got a little upset that the word "blight" was used. Any attempt at recycling in my opinion is a good thing, and shouldn't rely on what's trendy. I do very much appreciate all the different ideas for re-use and we'll see if we can do a few different things with this unfortunate slab. I have busted up 3 sections- one a 4 x 8, and two other smaller funny shaped areas between the fence and the pool deck, and between the pool deck and the shed (btw the shed is built on more of this infamous concrete job as well!) but the big 15 x 20 and the under the shed part that is probably 8x 10 still exists and needs to come out.

Chris- you are onto something- I have thought about renting a jackhammer if none of the slab is able to be cut and salvaged...usually I think about renting a jackhammer while I'm sledge hammering! :) my back and shoulders are sore today!

thanks everyone for the input! Joe I'll be sending you an email.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Byers on February 8, 2010 at 11:42am

Kristin, trying to put a skim coat over the top most likely will not work well. It would be very hard to get good adhesion between the two layers and the new stuff will most likely flake off after a short period of time.

Haha, I know what you mean about thinking of some tool I could have rented half way through a project, but think of all the excercise you get!! I saddly am mostly past that point, I use tools for almost everything now, just so I can function the next day. :(

Keep us up to date! Heat and slow streches work pretty well for the shoulders.

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Permalink Reply by Anita Mahaffey on February 8, 2010 at 12:30pm

Kristin, I took no offense at all. I certainly understand your offense at the term "blight", but it rhymed well. In forums like this, there are topics that people must to agree to disagree on. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and good craftsmanship is essential whether using new materials or old. Let's just say the examples of items I've seen that were constructed from urbanite still looked like broken chunks of concrete, to me. We are also doing our best to work with recycled and renewable materials. Necessity is the mother of invention! If I were you, I would go for the jackhammer rental, and enlist volunteers to help you get the concrete all broken up in a day or two. Your house may be muddy for a good while, but at least the majority of the "back-breaking labor" would be complete. Hopefully there is a place you can stack it while you find a way to dispose of it. I wish there were some way to reclaim urbanite - like pulverize it and use it to make more concrete. Construction is so much more satisfying than demolition!

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Permalink Reply by Chris Byers on February 8, 2010 at 2:51pm

Anita, I am surprised nothing like what you are talking about exists down here. In the Portland area are huge yards where old road ways are dumped and then ground up and made into new roadway.

On the plus side down here it does not take them years to decades to complete a highway project. Over the Santiam river is a project that has been under constant construction for the last 3 decades or so. So it is all a trade off I quess.

Making concrete into gravel to reuse has to be looked at from an expense point of view and when it is cheaper to make the rock that is everywhere here into gravel than grinding up concrete into something useful, the new gravel becomes the greenest material. Problem with concrete in reusing it is what kind is it, how was it cured and what actual mix is it. Saddly there are very few things unknown concrete is suitable for.

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Permalink Reply by Kristin on February 10, 2010 at 2:47pm

I couldn't agree more about the craftsmanship- that has been one of my biggest challenges at this house- the craftsmanship of what came before me is beyond shoddy! It makes me sad that I will have to re-do most things about the house because the things that are there are so crappy that you really have to get creative to re-use it!

I love the jackhammer idea, but doing it little by little on my own does keep the mud down, and with two medium to large size dogs running around all the time, the mud is a problem (although it really has only been muddy as of late...)

I also agree on the reclaim idea, but chris is right- you have to know what the properties are to know if you can re-use it for a construction project. If they would be able to crunch it up and stain it, perhaps it could be a fun alternative to DG?

the different opinions and tastes of everyone is part of what makes things great- so agreeing to disagree isn't always a bad thing :)

Chris- I had the same concern about being able to get a bond between any new skim coat and the existing concrete...so how about this idea- what about grinding the concrete down a bit to make the pavers level? it would smooth the surface, maybe expose some aggregate which wouldn't be bad...and perhaps eliminate the tripping hazard of the rough edges. It takes more time and machining...but might be worth looking into...I welcome everyones thoughts and comments on that!

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Permalink Reply by Kristin on February 10, 2010 at 3:06pm

as a sidenote I have added three pictures that might give everyone a more clear idea of what I've got going on in my yard...you can see the large pits and uneven quality of the pour, and what some of the pieces I've removed look like. Pretty fun stuff! [sarcasm] :)

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Permalink Reply by Chris Byers on February 10, 2010 at 3:06pm

The grinding idea is a thought but I am not sure you can get the equipment to do this yourself. You might call a concrete company to see what they have to say. They might have some idea about bonding new to old that won't flake too.

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