Demolition - concrete crusher sensible?

[rh2205]

We have some quite large areas of house to demolish, we currently have a drop between the back of the property & existing ground levels (an extreme renovation with only a few walls left & the slab) wondering whether we agree with the builder to knock off some of the waste disposal costs if we keep the concrete tiles approx 200sqm and bricks approx 40sqm (this is the area these materials currently cover) to crush on site ourselves to help raise the levels for a patio out the back by 400mm. Is this a stupid idea? Can we raise levels only with this material by that much assuming it’s enough or can it still only be used as a standard thickness mot. We are not builders so pretty clueless but will need to do the patio ourselves slowly to save money as it’s too expensive to get a builder for the patio and it isn't time critical like the house. The garden is large and has a load of ugly standard concrete slabs laid badly all over the place so figured we could add them into the mix for crushing too. Thanks for any ideas in advance! 

[Gone West]

We crushed our waste concrete etc and used it at 200mm compacted for our driveway and shed base.

 

[rh2205]

Oh great! @PeterStarck 200mm is that just all you had or would it have been possible to go thicker? We really have no clue how much it will make when crushed & have not counted up the garden slabs on top but know there must be a at least 40sqm of the stuff. We were going to load the crusher manually and eventually shift the patio material around manually too as young and stupid, or do you really need a mini digger for this exercise to get the most out of the crusher hire? We’d of course hire a plate compactor as the manual compactor in our shed will not be sufficient for this job ! Also got an existing conservatory concrete slab we were going to leave in situ & bring all the other levels up around, but there’s still another 45sqm which needs building up. Maybe another one of our ill thought out ideas ?

[Gone West]

On 30/07/2020 at 10:44, rh2205 said:

Oh great! @PeterStarck 200mm is that just all you had or would it have been possible to go thicker? We really have no clue how much it will make when crushed & have not counted up the garden slabs on top but know there must be a at least 40sqm of the stuff. We were going to load the crusher manually and eventually shift the patio material around manually too as young and stupid, or do you really need a mini digger for this exercise to get the most out of the crusher hire? We’d of course hire a plate compactor as the manual compactor in our shed will not be sufficient for this job ! Also got an existing conservatory concrete slab we were going to leave in situ & bring all the other levels up around, but there’s still another 45sqm which needs building up. Maybe another one of our ill thought out ideas ?

All we needed for the driveway was 200mm but I don't see why it couldn't be thicker. It just needs to be wacked down in lots of thin layers, around 50 to 75mm. It's a lot less hard work using a mini digger when shifting 40 or 50 tons and the quicker you do it the less hire charge for the crusher. Ideally you want the maximum crushed size to be 40 to 50mm. I've seen videos of crushers being loaded manually and it's certainly possible if there's plenty of people doing it. We hired the crusher and digger with driver and we were glad we did because the conveyor belt split and had to be repaired  and they were paid for doing the job so had to return the next day to finish.