Breaking concrete

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johno20

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Hi,

I am replacing several exterior doors, and a couple of them had concrete sills rather than wooden/aluminum ones set over the framing.

The first one was relatively easy to break up and remove with a hammer and chisel, but the second one entering the basement is proving to be much more difficult to remove, as the concrete they used is very strong. I'm making little progress with hammer and chisel, and have also tried an air chisel with almost no progress at all.

Any suggestions as to what tool may make this easier. I've seen some rentals for electric breakers (one from Bosch). I suspect this is designed for larger jobs, but any advice would be helpful.
 
They come in all sizes from hammer drill to jack hammers. A hammer drill with a chisel should do the job. I have a small Bosch for this kind of work.
 
I have a Harbor Freight hammer drill that works quite well for chipping out concrete, and saw the unit on sale this past week for $50 (think I paid $60 for mine some time ago). It comes with rotary drill bits and chisel points, but does take a lot of grunt to make it work.

If a small chipper isn't going to cut the mustard, I'd consider renting an electric 90-lb. breaker--it will make short work of what you need taken out. Just be very careful about not going too deep, and damaging your foundation's footing.
 
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