Cutting Down Concrete Piles

[NoWittyHandle]

We're involved in a job which calls for existing pile cap to be lowered. The piles in the pile cap are concrete piles. The contractor is removing the piles with a jackhammer, which from what I understand is destroying the piles. Is there an easier and better way to cut down concrete piles? Thanks for your responses.

 

[SlideRuleEra]

Diamond saws or hydraulic pile cutters, such as this...

http://www.pilecutter.com/index.htm

http://www.SlideRuleEra.net

 

[DRC1]

Typically we score the piles with a cut off saw and break w/ 35-65 # guns. The problem with lowering piles is that generally the pile is not uniformly reinforced. In CIP piles often only the top 20 ft or so is reinforced to handle bending. In both precast & CIP, generally the top few feet are reinforced to transfer load from the pile cap. In lowering an existing pile one must acount for the loss of reinforcement at the pile caps and for CIP piles the reduced length of reinforcing avilable for lateral loads. Even with precast, the loss of prestress will reduce the bending capacity. This may not be as much of an issue as precast does have supplemental reinforcement.

 

[Ginger]

Hydro cutting. Use a high powered water jet to cut through the concrete.

A bit late for you perhaps but in the UK we use something similar to domestic foam pipe lagging taped to the upper ends of the rebar that we wish to keep in place. The foam stops at the cut level so you just cut the concrete pile at the design level and the top of the concrete just lifts off the pile leaving the rebar in place

 

[jeff805]

Water Jet/Abrasive Cutting is the desired way to alleviate your problem.

 

[vulcanhammer]

Another method is shown at

http://www.vulcanhammer.net/info/pilecutter.php

 

[PileBreaker]

Sounds like you need help now, rather than searching for a machine like. You might want to call a service compnay like American Pile Cutting in Georgia, since they have diamond saws, LBT cutters (to also crush) as mentioned in previous postings as well as a Taets Pilebreakers to break the concrete without damaging the rebar.

 

[crossframe]

PileBreaker may be right and this response may be too little, too late.

If the pile are precast, bear in mind that the longitudunal mild reinforcement often does not extend the full length of the pile. If you're counting on bars extending out from the top to anchor the pile into the pile cap, make sure there's still enough bar left in the pile for development.