how to remove asphalt driveway
 

hey all

i've bought a property that was severed into two plots and the old driveway
is now where i'd like to put a garden. somebody told me that asphalt is too
rubbery to use a jack hammer on. what's the best way to take up an old
asphalt driveway? are their saws i can rent to cut it into small pieces and
then just shovel out the sections?

tks

you don't mention what you have on hand to remove the asphalt or your skill
level? How large the area is what condition it is in etc.. You could rent a
saw cut it into squares then take a skid steer rent a dumpster or dump truck
or lots of trips in pickup truck to the dump. or just hire someone to break
it up and haul it away. You will also need to dig down a ways to replace
the compacted " dead" soil with nice top soil for the garden. You might
want to just put in raised beds and keep the asphalt?

Wayne

"Nancy Drew" wrote in message
...
hey all

i've bought a property that was severed into two plots and the old
driveway
is now where i'd like to put a garden. somebody told me that asphalt is
too
rubbery to use a jack hammer on. what's the best way to take up an old
asphalt driveway? are their saws i can rent to cut it into small pieces
and
then just shovel out the sections?

tks

Nancy Drew wrote:
hey all

i've bought a property that was severed into two plots and the old driveway
is now where i'd like to put a garden. somebody told me that asphalt is too
rubbery to use a jack hammer on. what's the best way to take up an old
asphalt driveway? are their saws i can rent to cut it into small pieces and
then just shovel out the sections?

tks



Can't use a jack hammer ?!?! What do you think road crews use?

That being said. Call a paving company. They know what they're doing
and can recycle the materials. They'll probably use a bob cat to lift
the old asphalt and haul it away.

NJBrad

Nancy Drew wrote:
hey all

i've bought a property that was severed into two plots and the old
driveway
is now where i'd like to put a garden. somebody told me that asphalt is
too
rubbery to use a jack hammer on. what's the best way to take up an old
asphalt driveway? are their saws i can rent to cut it into small pieces
and
then just shovel out the sections?

tks

Doing it yourself is a lot of hard work. The pros with the right
equipment can come in and take it out with ease. They will also have the
equipment to remove the rock under it and fill the resulting depression with
soil. There should be a base of at least 4 inches of rock below ground
level under the asphalt.

--
Joseph E. Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math

it's about 150 sq feet. i have no tools, but there's a rental place down the
street. there's a fence that divides the driveway and i've got about 1/3 of
that on my lot. i can't take up the entire driveway so i'd like to just
split off what comes onto my land. i'm hoping there are industrial saws
available that are designed to cut into asphalt so i can get a good clean
cut along the fence line. you're saying there are such saws?



i am considering building a raised garden on part of the asphalt, but
there's a strip that runs along the side of the house where it would be too
narrow to go that route, so i'm definitely committed to removing at least
some of the driveway.



"wayne" wrote in message
news:mez4d.92372$MQ5.28403@attbi_s52...
you don't mention what you have on hand to remove the asphalt or your
skill
level? How large the area is what condition it is in etc.. You could rent
a
saw cut it into squares then take a skid steer rent a dumpster or dump
truck
or lots of trips in pickup truck to the dump. or just hire someone to
break
it up and haul it away. You will also need to dig down a ways to replace
the compacted " dead" soil with nice top soil for the garden. You might
want to just put in raised beds and keep the asphalt?

Wayne

"Nancy Drew" wrote in message
...
hey all

i've bought a property that was severed into two plots and the old
driveway
is now where i'd like to put a garden. somebody told me that asphalt is
too
rubbery to use a jack hammer on. what's the best way to take up an old
asphalt driveway? are their saws i can rent to cut it into small pieces
and
then just shovel out the sections?

tks

"Nancy Drew" wrote in message
...
hey all

i've bought a property that was severed into two plots and the old
driveway
is now where i'd like to put a garden. somebody told me that asphalt is
too
rubbery to use a jack hammer on. what's the best way to take up an old
asphalt driveway? are their saws i can rent to cut it into small pieces
and
then just shovel out the sections?

tks



Removing the asphalt with a rented jackhammer will be easy enough, although
hard on the bod. What will be hard is removing the compacted gravel base
that's underneath the asphalt. That's pick and shovel work, and it's even
more grueling than a vibrating jackhammer. You might want to investigate
local day labor for something as labor intensive as that. Or, bite the
bullet and work smarter and not harder, and just spend the money for a
bobcat to come in and rip everything out in a short period of time. It'll
cost more, but it'll be worth it!

bullet and work smarter and not harder, and just spend the money for a
bobcat to come in and rip everything out in a short period of time. It'll
cost more, but it'll be worth it!


In my area you can rent a 60 horsepower Bobcat with a toothed bucket for
about 150/day, plus a round trip delivery of 150 or so. A compressor
package with a hammer costs about 90, you're going to need a trailer hitch
to pick it up. Cutting asphalt with a jackhammer is not easy. Most wiegh
about 90 lbs, and one they penetrate the asphalt, they can get a bit stuck.

The bobcat won't be able to cut a clean line in the ashpalt if you are
leaving part of it. Might need a cuttoff saw for that. Also rentable.
Maybe the neighbor will pay for part of the equipment costs and you can
remove the whole thing. Hauling and disposal costs can easily be the most
expensive part of this whole game.

On a hot day you might just take a digging bar and pick and start prying
chunks of asphalt off, it will probably break away pretty easily.

Will

On Thu, 23 Sep 2004 08:13:03 -0400, "Nancy Drew"
wrote:

hey all

i've bought a property that was severed into two plots and the old driveway
is now where i'd like to put a garden. somebody told me that asphalt is too
rubbery to use a jack hammer on. what's the best way to take up an old
asphalt driveway? are their saws i can rent to cut it into small pieces and
then just shovel out the sections?

tks



I used to work for the city. We removed a lot of asphalt using
pneumatic jack hammers, pick axe, wheel barrels, dumpster, and a lot
of muscle. A bobcat would make the job much easier.

Many of the answers depend on the quality of the original
install. Most residential asphalt is only 2" thick without much
of a subsoil treatment, either gravel, road base, or lime
stabilization.

Assume all this to be true. You can rent a walk behind pavement
saw. Pop a chalk line down the property line. Get several fiber
blades, you will probably only need one, but have spares. These
saws are big and heavy, you will need at least 2 people to get it
in and out of the truck. To hold down on the dust, you can hook a
garden hose to the saw. It will slow fiber/asphalt cutting. Make
as many cuts as you want to reduce the size of the demolition.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Keep the whole world singing . . . .
DanG (remove the sevens)




"Nancy Drew" wrote in message
...
hey all

i've bought a property that was severed into two plots and the
old driveway
is now where i'd like to put a garden. somebody told me that
asphalt is too
rubbery to use a jack hammer on. what's the best way to take up
an old
asphalt driveway? are their saws i can rent to cut it into small
pieces and
then just shovel out the sections?

tks

The concrete walk behind saws can also use an asphalt blade you can cut the
stuff into squares like a checkerboard

http://www.mytoolstore.com/mk/mkindex.html

Any rental yard can help you out. you rent the cutter then pay for usage on
the blade

Wayne

"Nancy Drew" wrote in message
...
it's about 150 sq feet. i have no tools, but there's a rental place down
the
street. there's a fence that divides the driveway and i've got about 1/3
of
that on my lot. i can't take up the entire driveway so i'd like to just
split off what comes onto my land. i'm hoping there are industrial saws
available that are designed to cut into asphalt so i can get a good clean
cut along the fence line. you're saying there are such saws?



i am considering building a raised garden on part of the asphalt, but
there's a strip that runs along the side of the house where it would be
too
narrow to go that route, so i'm definitely committed to removing at least
some of the driveway.



"wayne" wrote in message
news:mez4d.92372$MQ5.28403@attbi_s52...
you don't mention what you have on hand to remove the asphalt or your
skill
level? How large the area is what condition it is in etc.. You could
rent
a
saw cut it into squares then take a skid steer rent a dumpster or dump
truck
or lots of trips in pickup truck to the dump. or just hire someone to
break
it up and haul it away. You will also need to dig down a ways to replace
the compacted " dead" soil with nice top soil for the garden. You might
want to just put in raised beds and keep the asphalt?

Wayne

"Nancy Drew" wrote in message
...
hey all

i've bought a property that was severed into two plots and the old
driveway
is now where i'd like to put a garden. somebody told me that asphalt
is
too
rubbery to use a jack hammer on. what's the best way to take up an old
asphalt driveway? are their saws i can rent to cut it into small pieces
and
then just shovel out the sections?

tks