Power (Tool) Play

After the hailstorm last year, we decided that the aluminum awning wasn't worth replacing, so we sold it for scrap. I had originally put a little brick extension on the patio, which worked out well for a season or so, but the sand I used to grout it didn't hold the way I thought it would. (Turns out on further research, I should have mixed the construction sand and the play sand, and let the mud do the rest.) Anyway, I pulled the brick out, and dumped the sand in the compost area. That left us with four concrete footers where there should be grass. What to do? I could have dug the area out and pulled them up with a big lever, but they were far too heavy to move after the fact.

The last set of footers I dealt with was when we took out the shed. The previous owners put a @$200 shed on a foundation that would have survived a nuclear blast. In that case, I took my trusty 8-pound sledge to them, and broke them up below the surface of the grass, enough to where I could plant over top of them and nobody would be the wiser. This took several hours of my time. I actually had the week off at the time, so this was no big deal, but I'm always looking for a more efficient method to my madness...

Enter Home Depot's tool rental service and the Wacker brand electric breaker. You and I know it as a jackhammer. It was quite heavy. I could manage it, but just barely. I wasn't too sure how it would handle the concrete, even with the very sturdy bits that came with it. There were two chisel bits, one wide and one narrow, and one pointed bit. It came on it's own hand truck. Lifting it into the truck was fun. :-) (As was moving it to the car, when there was some confusion about what vehicle to take it back in...) It ran off of standard house current, so no issues with that.

So how did it work? Well, I have two things to say about that. The first, is that this thing hated concrete with a passion. It tore through the footers with some speed, doing in about 30 minutes what would have taken me a few hours with a hammer and chisel. The second, is that it shook like a small, no, make that large earthquake. The safety warning sheet said "vibration hazard". It spoke the truth. My arms had the feel of overcooked linguine when I was done. But the point was, I was done. It went very fast, and I could even get the tool back fast enough to get the 4-hour rate instead of the all-day one. Sweet.

Proof once again, that it's all about having the right tool for the job. Speaking of which, I have a server to work on. Where'd that sledge go...?