Why you might not "hit it as big" as you think on sidewalk tearouts.

[Diggit]

Sadly, unless it is a VERY busy street in a downtown area, most people find little or nothing under torn out sidewalks.
You would THINK you would, but in practice, you rarely score big there.
The main reason is that people can SEE stuff when it is dropped on sidewalks and the next person to come along will see it and pick it up, whereas on grass, the coin will remain hidden when it is dropped.

If you do find stuff, it will be on the very sides. Coin sized objects will make it to the sides, and then gravity will cause them to work down the side of the slab.

Another reason is that sidewalks don't last as long as you think. Most sidewalks will last around 25 years.
So, if a sidewalk today is torn out, it was probably laid no earlier than the mid 80s. And there were a lot of people who had the same idea YOU did, and had metal detectors in the mid 80s when the LAST sidewalk was torn out to lay the current one.


Not saying don't TRY, (I'm sure some people here have had some luck) I'm just trying to bring some reality to the issue.

 

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[N.J.THer]

Depends. Sometimes if the road is old enough the road and sidewalk areas were dirt and over time switched to asphalt and concrete. There you can find some very old stuff under a sidewalk tear out. I've hunted a street that was a British parade ground back in the 1700s. I would not hunt a sidewalk tear out from a newer developement but the old areas can be true honey holes. Need to do research before any hunt.

NJ

 

[N.J.THer]

Posted yesterday: http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/todays-finds/300803-off-list-reale.html

 

[Diggit]

Perhaps my post wasn't clear.

My point wasn't "You will NEVER find stuff" it was "You may not, and here's WHY"

The MAJORITY of the time you WON'T find a LOT OF stuff.
I keep seeing posts here and on the other websites I peruse about how surprised people are that they didn't find MORE.

People tend to view it as a "virgin, untouched treasure trove",but sadly it rarely turns out as good as expected.

(BTW, sweet reale!)

 

[ppratt]

Most walks in my area were laid many moons ago. Late 1800's or later. Some are newer made for wheelchairs and such. I don't think your story holds water. It's kinda like my theory that I don't find much around older home made wood opposed to brick structures. Does it hold water no, but i just think I do better around brick homes. maybe they had more money, who knows.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Diggit, they're hit and miss. And no, I would not classify the explanation of those that are no good, as being that yester-year people simply looked down, and saw the coins, and picked them up (as opposed to grass which hides them better, and so forth). Because I have been in sidewalk demo's that had no shortage of nice coins (seateds, Vs, etc...). They weren't necessarily wooden sidewalks (and even if they were, weren't necessarily border to border right up to the building's edges, and to the street's edge). A lot of times they were dirt paths (beaten down to hard-pan over time). But even-so, rainy season makes for the perfect recipe to provide *just* the amount of covering (when a dirt path becomes more of a slime or mud). So coins did indeed become lost in dirt paths and wooden sidewalks, even without the presence of grass.

And there are many original sidewalks in oldtowns (usually the smaller towns though, not the sky-scraper big-city downtowns, which .... yes..... may already be on their 3rd or 4th generation of tearout and re-make). In some smaller towns I've see where the sidewalks are still the turn-of-century to teens-ish sidewalks. Those are going to be the most promising, because that was the generation laid right on what had previously been dirt or wooden paths. However, it's as you say: if the walk was already torn out and re-laid back in the 1970s or '80s, then that is the time when they could have scraped out the original soil, and put in modern compaction sand layer, and screwed it up. Verses the initial laying, before better engineering spec's, when it seems they laid it right on top of the ground, with no preparation. I've even sometimes found evidence of the wood planks still protected under sidewalk tearouts!

Perhaps my post wasn't clear.

My point wasn't "You will NEVER find stuff" it was "You may not, and here's WHY"

The MAJORITY of the time you WON'T find a LOT OF stuff.
I keep seeing posts here and on the other websites I peruse about how surprised people are that they didn't find MORE.

People tend to view it as a "virgin, untouched treasure trove",but sadly it rarely turns out as good as expected.

(BTW, sweet reale!)

 

[Diggit]

I don't think your story holds water.

What is this a contest?
This was an informative post to TRY to explain what I noticed as a common event.

You're right. I just made it all up to keep people from the millions Ric Savage, bigfoot, the unicorn and I will harvest under the light of the moon when they tear up all the sidewalks.
What would my motive be for making stuff up?

I give up.

You guys have a blast.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Hey diggit, I read ppratt's, and seems like he was just giving his .02c opinion on an m'ding topic. He was not at all being disrespectful, or saying you're "making it up". He was just taking an alternative viewpoint.

But going back to your initial post, when you say that the reason sidewalk tearouts aren't usually good, is that people can simply look down and see the coin, were you referring to CEMENT sidewalks? or the yester-year dirt/wood sidewalk era? Because if you meant cement sidewalks, then sure, .... of course .... no one looses coins that find their way under cement, after the cement is laid (doh ) And yes, the next person merely looks down at the sidewalk, and picks up the coin (unless it rolled to the edge). So maybe we're not understanding your initial post, if you meant cement walk losses, or dirt/wood sidewalk losses.

 

[Diggit]

But going back to your initial post, when you say that the reason sidewalk tearouts aren't usually good, is that people can simply look down and see the coin, were you referring to CEMENT sidewalks? or the yester-year dirt/wood sidewalk era? Because if you meant cement sidewalks, then sure, .... of course .... no one looses coins that find their way under cement, after the cement is laid (doh ) And yes, the next person merely looks down at the sidewalk, and picks up the coin (unless it rolled to the edge). So maybe we're not understanding your initial post, if you meant cement walk losses, or dirt/wood sidewalk losses.

Makes sense.
yes, I was referring to cement in residential areas.

I probably should have clarified that. :-/

 

[Tom_in_CA]

well then there you go: of course coins will not make it underneath cement. They have to have been there in prior to when the sidwalk was laid. A simple case of mis-communication

On another note: Depending on the part of the USA, how rural vs how big-cityish, etc... the earliest of cement sidewalks, if I'm not mistaken, was around the turn of the century? And in smaller towns, not till the teens (or even '20s in some residential non-commercial neigbhborhoods). So if the neighborhood was laid out at the same time cement sidewalks were laid, then there was never pre-existing dirt or wooden walks, to predate the cement, to begin with. So sometimes I've hunted teens sidewalk tearouts, where the adjoining structures were also teens. I've found them to be sterile, and rationalized that it's because the walks were built at the exact time as the neighborhood layout, so there was never a walk that wasn't cement, to begin with. Ie.: never a previous dirt or wooden path.

 

[Diggit]

well then there you go: of course coins will not make it underneath cement. They have to have been there in prior to when the sidwalk was laid. A simple case of mis-communication

On another note: Depending on the part of the USA, how rural vs how big-cityish, etc... the earliest of cement sidewalks, if I'm not mistaken, was around the turn of the century? And in smaller towns, not till the teens (or even '20s in some residential non-commercial neigbhborhoods). So if the neighborhood was laid out at the same time cement sidewalks were laid, then there was never pre-existing dirt or wooden walks, to predate the cement, to begin with. So sometimes I've hunted teens sidewalk tearouts, where the adjoining structures were also teens. I've found them to be sterile, and rationalized that it's because the walks were built at the exact time as the neighborhood layout, so there was never a walk that wasn't cement, to begin with. Ie.: never a previous dirt or wooden path.

Yeah, that was basically my point. I guess the misunderstanding makes sense when I look at it.

In OTHER parts of the US, this doesn't make as much sense as it does where I live.
And in Michigan, the weather and the freezing and thawing cycles can destroy a sidewalk in ten years, whereas in others they can last for 75.

 

[N.J.THer]

Perhaps my post wasn't clear.

My point wasn't "You will NEVER find stuff" it was "You may not, and here's WHY"

The MAJORITY of the time you WON'T find a LOT OF stuff.
I keep seeing posts here and on the other websites I peruse about how surprised people are that they didn't find MORE.

People tend to view it as a "virgin, untouched treasure trove",but sadly it rarely turns out as good as expected.

(BTW, sweet reale!)

Point taken...as with any site you may think "Hey this is a great virgin site" then it turns into a bust or you think a site will be no good but your just killing time and it turns out to be a honey hole. That is what makes this hobby so fun. As with anything other site I think if you do some research you can figure out which sidewalk tear outs have a higher chance of paying off. I'm lucky enough to be in the northeast where there are quite a few cities/towns that were around in the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s. Those are the places you want to hit the tearouts. The 50s and newer developement probably not so much.

Thanks about the reales...those two cobs are some of my favorite finds. One from a NJ city park and the other from a NC beach.

Happy hunting

NJ

 

[Jason in Enid]

I've had very limited success with sidewalk tearouts, but it has to do with how and when the ORIGINAL sidewalk was laid.

Many, many sidewalks were laid by the city planners at the same time an area was developed. This means that there was little to nothing there to begin with. Secondly, sidewalks aren't poured on TOP of the ground. The ground is dug down many inches, gravel and sand packed into the base and then the sidewalk is set. This means that if something was there before, most of it has been dug out in the process.

Even with all those reasons against finding something, the fact remains that we just never know. They are tiny windows of opportunities and you have to at least try while you can!

 

[cw0909]

i just detected about 3blocks of a tearout in the older part of town,i found very little,i thought it
might be bacause,the maint always refill new dirt and gravel everytime,so whatever was there
got hauled away,ive been Mding a place where a new building is being built,piles and piles of
soil dug,they dug about 15in off,dude says it has to go for cleaning b4 it can be used anywhere
i checked the sanborn,and the only thing ever there was an old athletic field,i dont understand
the reason for the cleaning