Hello folks. Back in the early nineties we did the site prep for a good sized hog facility, and now they're up for refurbishment. We're trying to figure out if biting on a concrete crusher is something we want to persue or not. The slabs are 4" thick. I'm pretty sure we want one with a tracked undercarriage and wireless remote, and be able to crush it down to a size that would be acceptable to spread on a road. We don't have a lot of dealers in our area other than Komatsu and Caterpillar, and customer support is going to be pretty important for us as we aren't real familiar with the big loud crushy machiney. Simple dirt guys. . Any input or suggestions would be greatly appreciated so I don't have to get BS'd by a salesman for a week.
I don't know anything about crushers but the guy I buy my concrete from has a tracked crusher that he only crushes concrete with and says he can't produce enough for the demand, and think he said he charges a premium.
I've been told concrete with mesh in it will be hard on tires when used for roads. It's too hard to get all the metal out. Don't know if that applies or not, but that's the extent of my knowledge of concrete crushing.
It is in high demand. People are putting it in parking lots and on driveways/approaches and a lot of the site prep we do takes it in the building bases. I've heard of it going for $30/ton but I think that was just an example of someone getting screwed .
I bought 18 loads of crushed "bull rock" recently, it came with some wire in it. I was thinking it was going to be hard on tires, but haven't had any problems. Yet. I'm planning to cover it with a layer of 3/4 - 1 1/2 fines, that shouldn't have any wire in it. The fines cost me $19/ton and the bull rock was $25/ton. That's just material cost, delivery was extra. I went with the bullrock as a base because I wanted to minimize what I lose to packing into the ground.
You will probably want to make a crushed base, with the top size in the 1" - 1 1/2" size range. You will need a magnet belt, to pick up the metal and throw it out to the side in a reclaim bin or pile.
I don't know anything about concrete crushing but I do know the steel used for "pig pens" in the confinement is polarized. The steel is made to be resistant to corrosives indigenous to livestock confinement operations. If you want to ruin a good 48" bolt cutter try cutting some of that 3/8" rod! If you are contracting the demo, be careful that there is no restriction on the concrete because of diseases from swine permeating the pores in the concrete. Cover your bases here..... I used to have about $500,000 reasons in one of my confinements to be careful.
I tore down a hog confinement set-up 6-7 years ago. It consisted of 11 total confinement buildings, a 40x60 shed and 2 lagoons. I wasn't in a position to buy a crusher but I checked into having it crushed. IIRC at that time it was going to cost about as much to have it crushed as the end product was worth. So basically, the only expense we were going to have in it would be the loading of the end product. I hadn't committed to the crusher yet when a guy that works for the county pulled up to the jobsite and asked if he could have the concrete if they loaded it and hauled it away. Sure, I said!!!! That was a no-brainer. So I basically tore out the concrete and piled it and the county did the rest. This all being said, I don't know much about crushers but I think about all of the concrete I have taken out and either buried or hauled to varies washouts along creeks etc over the years and I should prob take a better look into this whole crushing thing.
Is that where they kill the pigs to make bacon? cool.
I know enough about crushers to know that I don't know enough about crushers to buy one. I know that there are ones you want, and one's you don't. Also, I know that it can be very expensive to repair / re-line one. The other thing that blew my mind was how many people build crushers. At Con-Expo there must have been 80 companies with crushers and screens.
Crushed concrete is big business and does sell for a premium. They say it will pack almost like the original concrete. Several demo companies as well as the city and private contractors are crushing it for resale. A lot of times they get it for free because the contractor just needs a place to dump it.
Around here a lot of times it needs to be certified clean before you can sell it.