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Been reading on here abt sidewalk tearouts, and watching vids also. Looks exciting. Saw on the local news abt some repair that just started, and is expected to last five weeks. Think I'll check it out. GL HH
A few pointers:
a) must be in an old-town area (obviously). Like where there used to be dirt or wooden paths, that pre-dated the concrete sidewalks. Because obviously if the concrete walks date to the same time as the buildings/houses went up, the of course there was no pedestrian traffic on terra-firma. Larger cities tended to get concrete walks earlier on. While some smaller podunk little towns didn't get concrete walks till perhaps the teens, for example (and it might be hit-&-miss, where residentials didn't get them till-later-still.)
b) must be first-generation tear-outs. By that I mean, if what you're about to work was ALREADY torn out and re-done .... say .... in the 1950s or '60s, then it's possible that the subsurface soil was scraped out, prior to the incoming walks, at that time. And if the current tearout doesn't go below the "fill" level (DG compaction material), then you might be looking at sterile ground. Contrast to sidewalks laid in earlier times (late 1800s/earlier 1900s) where there didn't seem to be the dig-out and fill-dirt layers. They just seemed to lay the new walks right on top of the existing grade, with no preparation, dig-out, fill-dirt, or compaction. Contrast to modern methods, where they dig down deeper, add fill-dirt, compact, and so forth. Thus your older undisturbed sidewalks are best, as opposed to 1950s/60s sidewalks EVEN though they may be in super old parts of town.
c) get on it right way, before they add fill dirt. The soil has to be "native" soil. If you get there, and see DG type/sand fill-dirt, it means they've already added their base-compaction layer
So this means you have to be there right after the concrete is removed, before sand or whatever is added. I heard of several projects in my area, where this time-lapse (before new cement was poured) where this gap-of-time was all in the same day! Eg.: tear out, fill, compact, and pour, all in the same day! The reason was: since it was a commercial/retail area, they couldn't leave the sidewalks closed off for multiple days. (lest stores have to close their front doors, etc....). So the buddies of mine who worked such sites, had to litterally be there right during the lunch hour and hunt furiously while the workers took a break.
The good thing about sidewalk hunting is that they are, of course, public. And even to the extent that they can't truly shut off access (well, at least as it pertains to entrances to buildings). So at most, they just throw up some cones and yellow ribbon (which you just step right over). If it means having to hunt WHILE the workers are working (on account of how the incoming cement in imminent) of course use due discretion and stay far away from the heavy equipment, etc.... (so no one gets riled, etc...)
Good luck!
