# can I bury concrete demo



## larry228 (Feb 19, 2009)

I am a carpenter, I don't know a lot about site work.
I am getting ready to start a new house, there is a swimming pool on the site with about 300 sq. ft. of concrete deck. the sidewalls are aluminum and I will pull them out, bottom is sand.
I was going to break the concrete, haul it to the recycle yard, buy crushed concrete from them to fill the driveway. 
Why shouldn't I just break the concrete and move it for driveway fill? My gut says there is something wrong here- maybe fines will later settle through voids and cause the driveway to sink- but I need to ask a smarter crowd.
The driveway is about 50' long and needs to fill about 12-15" above existing grade at one end. I could break it down to 8" chunks with a skid loader and breaker, I need to break to move it regardless
Alternatively- can I lose this rubble in the garage fill? Just trying to avoid the disposal cost if its not a mistake
What would you do?


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## illbuildit.dd (Jan 7, 2015)

No. Get rid of it. I had the same discussion with my concrete guy. Too unstable


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## Railman (Jan 19, 2008)

I can understand why having big slabs of crete used as fill would cause problems, but if done correctly, I would think it would be ok. The problem with big slabs is that they cause pressure points below new slab, much like building a hillside home that has a basement that hits rock. If you did break into 8" chunks, fill with pipe fill, & water/settle in, & use gravel layer over it as final prep, I'd think it would be fine. 

They question is it really worth the hassle to use up the old crete, vs doing a conventional fill?


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## cedarboarder (Mar 30, 2015)

yeah if its broken up a lot i dont see any harm. but does the labour out weight the cost of dumping concrete. 

I would post an ad right now for the concrete and who know perhaps some one will want to lay them down for a walk way or use for infill. 

I notice a lot of cement that the city dumps along the seawall to help prevent erosion. always wondered if i could ad to it help out and not pay fees. i doubt it.


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## jaydee (Mar 20, 2014)

Don't roll the dice. get rid of it. you'll only save a buck if it works. What happens if it settles and has to be redone. SAVINGS LOST X 2


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## superseal (Feb 4, 2009)

It's only 5 yards of materials - that's about a $75.00 dump around here.

Most areas require 3/4" clean stone tamped in 6" lifts. That's what i'd do.


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## larry228 (Feb 19, 2009)

Thanks for the replies. You have all confirmed my suspicion, but I had to ask. 
I still need to break it to get it into a truck, but it seems like a lot of labor to break fine enough for compaction. I will continue with the original plan to haul it away


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## tgeb (Feb 9, 2006)

Seriously?
How do you intend to fill the hole left by the pool demolition?

We will typically demo the pool and put all the debris in the hole and then cover with geo-textile fabric, then soil and compact. 

How will you have material left to add to the drive lane?
I would not pay to haul away the demo from the pool. Take the aluminum to recycle, get some money for that, bury the rest, deal with the driveway another way.


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## greg24k (May 19, 2007)

Its better to recycle then bury it. Last thing you need is being liable if some kid falling into a void after the ground settles from the rain between voids in the concrete.
I saw a track home development where builder would bury all kinds of s^*t along the property line of his development, and sure enough 10 years later some kid fell into a void in the ground. 
It took 2 weeks to get rid of everything that was buried under there. 

On another occasion, I've seen a Garage floor caved in, same thing, some idiot backfilled garage with concrete and it created voids and the floor sank. When they cut the slab it was a load of sidewalk they buried under there. They sued the builder and won a negligence case.

Like someone said, for a few hundred bucks you get a 20 yrd container and they will get rid of it. I think I paid for the last box $275 to get rid of a load of concrete.


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## mrcharles (Sep 27, 2011)

A lot of production and crappy builders around here would bury their trash in the porch before they poured the porch cap..... Then years later when the debris decomposed the porch slab would crack and sink some.


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## TaylorMadeAB (Nov 11, 2014)

mrcharles said:


> A lot of production and crappy builders around here would bury their trash in the porch before they poured the porch cap..... Then years later when the debris decomposed the porch slab would crack and sink some.



That fills me with rage when I see trades putting their garbage anywhere but in the bin. Just keep adding to the ****ty stereotype boys!


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