Concrete hot tub demo

[skyking]

I was tasked with removing a large hot tub in a very difficult location, and got started on it yesterday.
The only access was from a common area behind the home, and through the bottom of a dry pond. I'll bail the concrete out of there with the big excavator, track it over to the edge of the pond, then re locate to the bench above it and load it out.I'm guessing (3) 12 ton dump truck loads. Here is the access, over the 18" high wall and across that lovely lawn.

I set the 6x6 T1 steel sheet for a landing pad, and plywood and a 4x8 to lift myself down with.

I jumped down there and then spun the machine 90 on the steel sheet without dragging a track over the edge. Then I set form plywood on the lawn and headed for the pool deck.
Here I have passed the hydraulic demolition hammer down and am picking the steel sheet off the grass before it does any harm.

It is very narrow passing by the pool. The deck has a continuous drain down the edges, this means it is not supported for about 8" and I won't track on that. I had to set one track on the curb on the left and the other on a 4x8 on top of shipping blankets to make sure i don't mar the pool deck.

You can see the hot tub there, it is massive and raised up, I have to demolish my way into it to make the corner at the end of the pool.
I think I found the leak!

I figure 2 more full days of hammering, and a couple more to clean it all up. I have the big machine down in the pond below and pulling the material out as I go.
BTW, this is the other access to that area. Nope!

 

[bbhaag]

Wow that looks like quite the project. What exactly is the end goal?

 

[skyking]

We'll grade it out, add some sand and artificial turf as a placeholder for this winter. Next year he'll put in a nice outdoor seating area with a fireplace.
The hot tub had a leak that could not be fixed without destroying it. it would need 50~60 gallons of makeup water each day. They rarely used it and it was just a waste.
I can get the big excavator down in the pond and up on the slope. That is as close as I can get. I have to dig in the blind behind the wall.

In this picture, you can see that side is intact that is closest to the fence/big excavator.

I was able to give it some bucket heel love taps and grab it out. It is reinforced with #4 bar all over, and you can't just pull that stuff apart. You bend it just like any wire till it heats up and fails.
I can just reach the far side and got that one too. That saved a lot of hammer time.

The hot tub is more of a not tub now.

I'm taking it out to that cold joint on the deck in the foreground.

I can sit on the other side of the pile in the pond bottom, grab and swing it one more time to the toe of the slope. Then I can get at the top of the bank and reach it and load it out. Here is the distance I am at now and the dump truck for scale and elevation.

 

[skyking]

I finished hammering on it yesterday morning.

That corner snotball came out in one string. Mad respect for #4 rebar!


The homeowner left town with a hot tub, and came back to a void with the mini in it Surprise!


My estimate is 34 tons

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

Cool pics thanks for sharing. Yeah concrete is heavy af.

 

[BoomerD]

Cool pics thanks for sharing. Yeah concrete is heavy af.

Right about 150 lbs per cubic foot.

 

[VirtualLarry]

wowsers. neat-o.

 

[iRONic]

Real work done by a real man. Love it!

 

[crashtech]

Been following this, looks good, would be interested in seeing more projects if you feel like posting them. Seems a little weird to me to have an in-ground pool but a raised hot tub made of cement. the above-ground tubs I have seen are fiberglass.

 

[hardhat]

Nice job! You spent a lot of effort getting in without damaging other stuff. I don't know many contractors who would even bid without being given better access than that.

 

[skyking]

That is the beauty of owning a construction company and having an operator (Me). He wanted it done,, I said I could do it without damage, and had carte blanche to get it done.
I was getting the last of the big concrete loaded today and 4 does came down to the pond and clearly were not too disturbed by my presence.

I am installing a type 30 catch basin (CB) in the center of the hot tub cleared area, and recessed for a 2% slope to it from all sides. I'll set a pump in it to discharge any water that makes it through or under the wall.

 

[dphantom]

Heck of a job!! Thanks for the pics.

 

[Sukhoi]

Nice write up! FYI I highly doubt you're heating the rebar to failure by bending it. The bending is cold work which causes causes dislocation build-up in the microstructure, then cracking and finally failure. Same thing as a paper clip.

 

[skyking]

Agreed I had the wrong term. What I do know is a piece of #4 bar does not just pull apart, not even with a 12 Mt. excavator.

I installed the type 30 and frame and grate, and dug out some soft material and replaced it with better stuff.
We have a hoe pack for the mini and I compacted it all. It's down ~5" from finish.
I had drilled up some 3" pipe and made my own perf pipe, because the type 30 was used and had a 3" sand collar already mudded into it. Rather than haul in a tiny little bit of drain rock, I just hand picked enough smalls from the concrete rubble and put it around the pipe and wrapped it all with fabric. I put the pipe in an L shape in the corner there.
The Catch Basin ( CB) has no outlet, but in a bad situation there would be no place to drain it to and he can set a pump in it.

I had excavated all along this wall and cut roots and patched it. I banked up those small shrubs in a pile of dirt and kept them wet, and then restored it all and de-mobilized out of there just before the rains came.

 

[Sukhoi]

So you're saying you have a reason to buy a larger excavator?

 

[skyking]

No! That machine is part of a set. If I get a bigger excavator, then i have to replace this 20 ton tandem tilt trailer:
It is downright sporty to tow around town and into tight places. This job, I had to hit the trailhead just right and not take down any tree limbs, for example.

The truck can handle more weight, but I'd have to get one of these 3 axle pigs. They are nothing like my trailer above, they scrub hard in tight turns and take a mile to get backed around in a new direction. In contrast, I have picked up the free end of this trailer and dragged it around where I needed it.
3 axle 30 ton Titanic Land Barge

In Washington they follow the federal axle rules. That's 34,000 on any two axles.
The excavator is 28,000 as equipped. The trailer is ~10,000. I run with about 6000 pounds of tongue weight to be on the safe side. Ponder 6000 pounds of tongue weight

 

[skyking]

I finished dry packing all the holes, seams, cracks in the exterior of the wall today. In the worst high water that pond gets within a foot of the top of that wall.

 

[Sukhoi]

That seems like potential for a lot of mosquitos