Removal prices, and what pushes them up
| What is coming out | Per sq ft | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 4-inch slab, no reinforcement | $2 to $2.50 | Breaks into liftable pieces in one pass |
| 4-inch slab with 6x6 wire mesh | $3 to $4 | Mesh holds the pieces together; every slab has to be cut free |
| 5 to 6-inch slab with mesh or rebar | $4 and up, quoted separately | Double the material, slow breaking, heavier loads |
| Backyard patio, no equipment access | $3 to $4 | Jackhammer and wheelbarrow instead of skid steer |
| Two-car driveway, 800 sq ft | $1,600 to $3,200 | 800 sq ft at $2 to $4 |
Two more things move the number. Access: a standard skid steer needs about 6 feet of clear gate; otherwise we bring a 36-inch mini skid steer or break by hand, both slower. Volume: a 4-inch slab weighs about 50 pounds per square foot, so an 800 square foot driveway is 20 tons of rubble and three or four dump trailer loads. Removal under about 300 square feet with no pour attached bills at the $1,200 job minimum. Worked examples are in the driveway cost guide.
How a tear-out goes
- Georgia 811. We file the locate request before every removal and wait the required period. Gas, water, power and telecom get marked free. Private lines are not marked, so we ask about irrigation, landscape lighting and septic runs, and hand-dig near them.
- Saw cut the edges. Wherever the old slab meets concrete that is staying, the garage floor, the public sidewalk, a neighbor's drive, we cut full depth so the break stops there and the new pour has a clean edge.
- Break. Hydraulic breaker on the skid steer for anything it can reach. A 60-pound jackhammer for patios behind fences and anything within a foot of a gas line.
- Cut steel and load. Mesh is cut with bolt cutters or a torch as the slab comes apart. Rubble goes into a dump trailer or a 20-yard dumpster, steel separated.
- Haul. Loads go to a concrete recycler on GA 247, where the rubble is crushed into base stone. Some of it comes back under the next driveway as crusher run. None of it goes to a landfill.
- Grade. Clean stone from the old base stays and is recompacted. Stone that has mixed with red clay comes out, because clay-contaminated base holds water and is usually why the old slab failed.
Replace it, or leave it as gravel
Most removals are day one of a replacement: tear out on day one, grade, stone, forms and steel on day two, pour on day three. Our standard residential base is 4 inches of compacted crusher run over proofrolled subgrade, with soft spots dug out and replaced. Driveways get 4,000 psi concrete at 4 inches, 5 inches where trucks or RVs park. Specs for each slab type are on the driveways, patios and slabs pages.
Not every slab goes back in the same footprint. Since the forms are coming out anyway, tear-out is the time to widen a 10-foot drive to 12, add a turnaround (see extensions and parking pads), or regrade a 1980s driveway in Woodbridge or Tara Estates that runs toward the garage.
If you remove a driveway and do not replace it, we leave 4 inches of compacted crusher run graded to drain. Bare red clay ruts in the first wet week, so the stone is not optional. Check your covenants first in the newer subdivisions off Lake Joy Road and in Kathleen, where many HOAs require a paved drive.
When removal is the wrong answer, and when it costs more than quoted
Tearing out a slab that could have been fixed wastes about three quarters of the money. A slab in one or two pieces that has sunk goes to foam leveling at $600 to $2,500. Surface spalling on a slab that is not moving goes to a resurfacing overlay at $4 to $8 per square foot. Removal is right when the slab is in four or more pieces, under 3.5 inches thick, spalled across more than a third of its surface, or sitting on a base that has turned to clay soup.
Removal runs past the $2 to $4 range in a few cases, priced separately rather than averaged in:
- 6-inch mesh slabs. Some 1960s driveways and garage aprons near Robins Air Force Base are 6 inches with heavy mesh. Breaking is slow, the pieces are heavy, and removal roughly doubles.
- Thickened edges and footings. A patio with a 12-inch turned-down edge has a buried mass the surface does not show.
- Double pours. A slab poured over an older one means removing two for the price you expected for one.
- Tile or pavers mortared to the slab. The veneer comes off first, by hand.
- Slabs over septic tanks. Hand demolition only, no breaker weight near the lid.
Permits, and what the tear-out exposes
Houston County Building Inspection handles unincorporated county addresses. The City of Warner Robins, Centerville and Perry issue their own permits inside city limits. Replacing a driveway in the same footprint is usually exempt. A new or widened curb cut on a public road needs an encroachment permit. Removal by itself does not trigger a permit. The replacement can, if the footprint or curb cut changes, and we file that before the tear-out so the job does not stall between day one and day three. For county addresses, Houston County Building Inspection, 200 Carl Vinson Parkway, Warner Robins, GA 31088, (478) 542-2018.
What the quote cannot predict is what is under the slab: a water meter box below grade, an abandoned fuel line, a buried stump, 1970s clay sewer pipe inches down. We stop, show you, and price the fix before going on. Robins Air Force Base is the county's largest employer. Many homeowners are on a three-year assignment, so we quote with resale in mind and write warranties that transfer to the next owner.
Questions we get asked
Where does the old concrete go?
To a concrete recycler on GA 247, where it is crushed and sold back as base stone. It does not go to a landfill. Rebar and mesh are separated and scrapped.
Can I break out the slab myself and save the removal cost?
A 10 by 12 shed pad with a rented electric breaker is a hard Saturday and doable. A driveway is not: 800 square feet of 4-inch concrete weighs about 20 tons, and hauling is the expensive part. If you do your own demo, the rubble has to be gone and the base graded before the pour date.
How long between tear-out and the new pour?
Two days in most cases. Day one is removal, day two is grade, stone, forms and steel with any inspection a permit requires, day three is the pour. Rain or a soft subgrade adds a day.
Will the skid steer tear up my yard?
It leaves tracks on wet ground. We run it on plywood across lawn, use the existing driveway as the haul road, and rake and seed the track line afterward. On a tight lot the 36-inch mini skid steer fits a standard gate.
Can you remove just part of a driveway or patio?
Yes. We saw cut a straight line full depth, remove the section, and form the new pour against the cut edge with an expansion joint. The new section is a slightly different gray for the first year or two.
Get a written quote
Tell us what you need and where. Sandhill Concrete matches your project with a licensed Houston County concrete contractor, who measures on site, writes the quote and does the work. You hear back within one business day by text or email with a site-visit window, and the written quote states thickness, reinforcement, base and removal so you can compare it line by line.
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Where we work
Based in Warner Robins and working across Houston County: Centerville, Perry, Bonaire, Kathleen, Byron. Not sure if you are inside our area? Send the address with your quote request and we will confirm.