Marcy wrote:

I am purchasing a home with a hot tub that I do not want. A friend is
taking the tub, but the 8' x 8' concrete slab will remain.

Is there an easy way to break it up? Any suggestions?

Before you rent a jackhammer or hire someone to deal with it, try
using a sledgehammer on it yourself. It's hard to break up concrete
when it's flat on the ground, which just absorbs the shock of the
sledge blows. Frankly, an 8 x 8 slab is probably too large and heavy
for you to pry up yourself, but you could try it with a steel pry
bar. Otherwise, this worked for me: start at one of the corners and
dig out/under it a bit. You
want that bit of corner hanging over the soil, not supported by it.
Slide the pry bar or a 2x4 under that corner, so that pounding that
corner with the sledge won't just cause the corner to settle back
down into the dirt. Hit the concrete corner a couple times with the
sledge. If the corner fractures off easily enough, repeat this
process a few more times to break off more pieces of the slab. At
some point when the slab gets smaller, you may finally be able to
pry it up with a pry bar, at which point slide a 2x4 or two under it
to prop it up so it'll keep fracturing more easily.
You may decide you can do the whole job yourself. If you decide it's
too much effort for you to manage with a sledgehammer, then you can
look into renting a jackhammer or hiring the job out.

You have some possible options for getting rid of the concrete. For
a fee, a local trash hauler may provide a dumpster you can fill, and
they'll remove it in a week or so. There may be a local dump site
that'll accept concrete chunks for a fee, if you can manage to haul
it over there. Ask around to see if there's a company in the area
that does heavy construction, like roadbuilding, where they pour
concrete and supply gravel. The one in my area accepts concrete
chunks for free, they grind them up and reuse them. I just had to
borrow my neighbor's trailer to haul it over there.

Finally, remember you'll end up with a large shallow hole in the
yard where the slab was. You'll need to haul in some topsoil to
level it off. Now that you've had a chance to think about how much
work and expense getting rid of the slab will make for yourself, you
may decide you'd rather leave it in place.

HellT