Question:
How would I carefully remove an important piece of concrete pavement that has childhood footprints on it without breaking it into pieces?
anonymous
2017-10-23 07:09:10 UTC
I am looking for a way to carefully remove a very, VERY important piece of concrete from my old childhood home. This piece of concrete has my old foot/hand prints, as well as the hand prints of my family members. It's not very big, and is around two (2) square feet by three (3) square feet. It is located at the very edge of my sidewalk, and is right at the edge where the concrete "stops" (by this I mean that it is not in-between more slabs of concrete/in the middle of a sidewalk where there are no real edges/ends). If there is no way to remove the piece of concrete without breaking it into pieces, are there other ways to preserve/record the foot and hand prints that are on this piece of land? I've heard of using putty or clay to make an imprint of said hand/foot prints, but I'm not very sure how I would go around using this method (any further information on this technique would be very appreciated). I planned on giving this piece of pavement as a gift to my mother for Christmas since it holds so much sentimental value, so any help with this issue would be great!
Five answers:
anonymous
2017-10-23 08:29:30 UTC
LIke boy boy said - you could try cutting it out with an angle grinder. If the slab is thick enough, it might hold together - but at 2 x 3 feet, it'll be rather heavy, probably too heavy to lift it on your own. Just had a look - a common paving slab over here, 50x50x5 cm (roughly 1.6 x 1.6 feet, 2 inches thick), comes in at just under 30 kilos.



As for copying it: If you can do it in smaller segments, that would be very good - you won't need to handle extremely heavy slabs and fiddle around with reinforcements, and you might be able to use e.g. plaster of paris instead of concrete for the molding.



In this case, what I'd do:

- prepare a frame (or several) that are just big enough to cover one set of prints (less than 1 ft square in any case, maybe 2-3 inches high. The frames should fit flat on the concrete around the prints - if theat slab isn't plane, you'll have to improvise.

- fit that frame around the prints you want to copy

- cover the inside of the frame and the concrete with a thin seperating layer. Never done it from concrete - on human body parts, we used ordinary hand cream, vaseline should also work

- prepare plaster of paris - stir well and shake a bit, to get all the air bubbles out (unless you got a vacuum pump and jar, then you can use that.

- fill the frame with the plaster mix, let it solidify

- carefully lift the cast from the concrete



If everything went well, you'll now have a negative cast of your concrete slab. Let the plaster cure completely (may take a couple of days), then repeat from the negative cast to get a positive.



If you want to save some weight (and spend some more money), you could also use plaster dressing to make a thin shelled cast of your imprints. Easier to handle, but rather expensive: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_4_8?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=plaster+bandages&sprefix=plaster+%2Caps%2C290&crid=33WQTR7L2TNRY
oil field trash
2017-10-24 18:58:10 UTC
If you have a hand held circular saw you can buy a concrete cutting blade for it. If not, then you can rent one at the local tool rental store.
robert x
2017-10-23 21:16:21 UTC
you could hire a stone cutting machine that has a diamond cutting wheel fitted.. its a standard type of machine used for cutting paving and stone.
JES
2017-10-23 14:09:16 UTC
Rent a cement saw at a local hardware store. Cut out the slab you want, then you can form it up and replace what you took out.
boy boy
2017-10-23 07:23:06 UTC
this concrete can be removed in one piece using an angle grinder ..simple job


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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