Demolition and Concrete Removal
Some concrete is simply finished. The driveway is in six pieces and each one sits at a different height. The patio has tilted toward the house and sends rain to the back door. The slab from a shed that came down years ago is still sitting in the middle of the yard. At that point the useful job is not another patch. It is getting the old material out cleanly so the ground can be fixed and something sound can be built.
We break out and remove old driveways, slabs, sidewalks and small structures for homeowners and commercial properties, haul the debris away and leave the site graded.
What we tear out
Driveways are the most common, followed by patios, walks, carport and garage floors and pads left over from old outbuildings. We also take out concrete steps and stoops, curbs, small masonry walls, and small structures such as sheds and detached outbuildings that are past saving.
Partial removals are a regular request. A single sunken section by the garage can be cut out and replaced without touching the rest of the drive. A strip can be removed to run a drain line or a utility trench. A patio can be shortened to make room for an addition. In each case the edge is saw cut first so the concrete that stays has a straight, clean face.
Commercial work includes sidewalks and entrance slabs that have heaved, parking pads, dumpster pads and equipment pads. The company is licensed and insured for residential and commercial jobs. If a tear-out needs a permit where you are, we will tell you at the site visit.
How a tear-out runs
It starts with finding out what is under and beside the slab. Buried utility lines are located and marked before any breaking begins. We ask about anything private that the locate service will not know about, such as sprinkler lines, a septic tank and drain field, low-voltage lighting or a water line run to an outbuilding. We also look at how thick the concrete is and whether it has steel in it, because a thick reinforced slab is a very different day from a thin plain one.
Saw cuts are made wherever the removal meets something that stays: the garage floor, the street apron, a neighboring section, the base of a wall. Then the slab is broken into pieces a machine can lift. A skid steer with a hydraulic breaker handles most of it. In tight spots close to a house, a fence or a gas meter we switch to smaller tools and work by hand. Rebar and wire mesh are cut free as we go.
We protect what is not being removed. Equipment routes are chosen to stay off septic areas and lawn you care about, and we tell you ahead of time where ruts are likely so there are no surprises.
Haul-off and site cleanup
Broken concrete is loaded and hauled off the property, along with any stone, steel and trash that came out with it. Clean concrete can often go to a recycler to be crushed into base stone instead of to a landfill, and we send it that way where we can.
What is left behind matters as much as what leaves. Once the slab is out we deal with what was underneath it. Under an old driveway on red clay that usually means soft, wet pockets, old fill, roots and voids, which are often the reasons the slab failed in the first place. Bad material is dug out. The area is then graded so water drains away from the house, and it is left one of two ways, depending on your plan: backfilled with soil and smoothed for grass, or cut to grade and ready for stone base. The street, the walks and the yard are cleaned of chips and mud before we leave.
Tear-out, then repour
Most removals we do are the first half of a replacement, and there are real advantages to one company doing both halves. The crew that breaks out the old slab sees exactly why it failed: no stone under it, a downspout emptying beside it, a soft spot where a stump once rotted. That knowledge goes straight into the new base. There is also no gap between contractors where a bare clay driveway bed sits open through a week of thunderstorms.
When we pour the replacement, the layout is open for changes. This is the time to widen a narrow drive, add a parking pad or turnaround, fix the slope so water stops running into the garage, or put in a drain. If the old concrete is not being replaced at all, we can regrade the lot so the spot blends into the yard and drains properly. We take on this kind of work across Greenwood and on jobs up in Laurens and the towns in between.
What sets the cost
Area and thickness come first, since they set how much material has to be broken, loaded and hauled. Reinforcement adds time. Access is the next big factor: a driveway open to the street is quick work, while a back patio reached through a gate means smaller equipment and more trips. Working close to a house, a pool or utilities slows the job down. So does saw cutting for partial removals. The distance to the disposal or recycling site and the number of loads affect the hauling. Finally, the condition you want the ground left in plays a part, since a finished, seed-ready grade takes more work than a rough bed that is about to be covered with stone.
A slab hides its thickness and its steel until someone checks it. Every job is priced after someone has walked the ground and measured it, with the price in writing before a truck is ordered. If a new pour follows the tear-out, the quote shows removal and replacement as separate lines so you can see what each one costs.
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Tell us what needs to go
Fill in the quote form with your name and phone number. In the message box, type what you want removed, about how big it is, how equipment can reach it and what you want in its place, if anything. We will come out and look, check what is under and around it, and give you a free written quote.
Open 24 hours. Call any time or send the form.