Don't give the idiot our secrets Derek!!!!

Derek Broughton wrote:
wrote:


The previous owners of our house built an absolutely stunning example
of a horrible pond - it would lose around 40 gallons a day to leaks. We
decided to destroy and replace it, and we would have succeeded too -
had it not been for the fact that the bottom of the pond was built with
reinforced concrete and a clay bottom. The underliner was about as thin
as a trashbag - it would flake off in a high wind.

How can I remove this reinforced concrete, and excavate the clay
underneath the pond? I've tried a 12 pound sledgehammer, crowbar, and a
large pickaxe. All I've succeeded in doing is pulverising it.


I guess it's a bit late to suggest that you just forget about removing the
concrete and put a decent liner inside it...

Any tool equipment rental shop should be able to rent you an electric
jackhammer. Now, my contractor friend insists it's just as easy to break
concrete with a pick - but I expect there's a trick to it. The electric
jackhammer works well (and isn't anywhere near as noisy as the pneumatic
ones the road crews use).

The only thing that seems to cut into the clay is the pickaxe, so I'm
in the dark as to how I would remove that as well.


And the jackhammer will just keep going.