Chip Away at the Stone, Part Two

"Even a rock will crumble, if you strike it night and day, if hammer I must, I'm gonna get through your crust, gonna chip that stone away ..." -that Aerosmith song was playing in my head all day long! I continued with the rotary hammer. I chipped away for hours down at the concrete furnace pad to get prepped for the new hot water supply and return lines that will run underground from the outside wood furnace to the house addition. When I started Sat. afternoon, with 45 minutes left on the clock before returning the rental, I had assumed that the concrete pad was the standard 4' thick with no rebar. (It was poured in 2000 and I found no reference to thickness in my notes from then..) Pretty soon it was clear that I'd be keeping the hammer for the next day.

The pad was 6 to 8 inches thick, fibermesh cement reinforced with 2 layers of wire mesh!

Today I learned that the rotary hammer is helpful in busting up the HUGE sedimentary rocks that keep the backhoe from doing its job properly and this total chip job will be over $100. Maybe an excuse to invest in one...one of the benefits of doing it yourself-you can blow a lot of cash on cool tools...