Staged works, April to August 2026. Location: an industrial warehouse and storage yard at Seven Hills NSW. Scope: staged saw cutting, breaking out and removal of a large reinforced concrete hardstand, bay by bay, down to subgrade, with the broken concrete loaded out and sent for recycling so the new slab could go in behind us.
The yard stayed in use the whole time. Warehouses, loading docks and container storage sat right beside the work, so the job was run as a series of fenced bays. Each bay was cut, broken, stripped and handed back before the next one opened up, and the rest of the yard kept working around it.
What the job involved
- Saw cutting of the hardstand into bays and panels with a road saw, including a clean straight cut wherever the existing slab was staying
- Silt socks around every stormwater pit before any cutting, so the slurry stayed on the slab
- Breaking out the reinforced slab with excavators on a hydraulic hammer, ripper and buckets, with water on the break the whole time as part of our demolition work
- Saw cut panels lifted out whole wherever they came up clean, and the rest broken down and sorted from the steel
- Bays stripped back to subgrade and shaped ready for the new slab, using the same machines and methods as our detailed excavation work
- Broken concrete stockpiled on the bay, then loaded out in batches by ten wheeler and sent to concrete recyclers, through our demolition waste removal service
- Excavators brought in and taken out on low loaders as the stages needed them
What made it hard
A hardstand looks simple. This one was big, reinforced and sitting in a yard that could not stop. Every bay had warehouse doors, stored containers or a working lane beside it, so the fenced work zone had to be kept tight, the machines had to stay inside it, and the broken slab could not spread out across the yard.
The steel in the slab makes a mess of a job like this if you just hammer it. The broken concrete tangles in the mesh, the loads get dirty and recyclers want clean concrete. And wherever the existing slab was staying, the edge had to finish straight and undamaged for the new slab to join to, which you do not get if a hammer is working right up against it.
How it was run
Each bay ran the same way. The pits were protected, the bay was set out and saw cut into panels, and the cut line along any retained slab went in first. Then one excavator went on the hammer, with water on the break, while the second lifted the loose panels, sorted concrete from steel and stacked the broken slab ready for the trucks.
The loadout was run in batches rather than a truck at a time. The broken slab was stockpiled on the bay, then the trucks were lined up and loaded one after another. On the busiest day of the first stage the site diary records 21 ten wheeler loads of concrete rubble out of the yard. Over the job, more than sixty ten wheeler loads of broken concrete went to concrete recyclers, plus bin loads for the smaller stages later in the programme.
Once a bay was clear it was stripped to subgrade, shaped and handed back so the new slab could be poured, and the fence moved on to the next bay.
Lessons learned on this job
Every job teaches the crew something. These are the ones from Seven Hills that we now carry onto every hardstand and slab removal job.
What worked
- Cut before you break. Saw cutting the slab into panels, and cutting the retained edge first, kept the edge straight and let a lot of panels come out whole instead of being hammered
- Know the slab before the machines arrive. A saw cut block out of the slab shows the real depth and the steel, and that decides the attachments and the truck numbers
- Protect the pits before the saw starts. Silt socks around every stormwater grate kept the cutting slurry on the slab and out of the drains
- Two machines on one bay. One on the hammer, one sorting and loading, means the break never waits for the loader and the steel comes out before the load goes on the truck
- Stockpile, then run the trucks in batches. Lining the trucks up against a ready stockpile moved far more concrete in a day than loading as you break
What was difficult
- Mesh in the broken slab. Reinforced concrete has to be separated from its steel before it goes to the recycler, and that sorting time needs to be in the programme
- Working beside a yard that never stops. Keeping plant, stockpiles and trucks inside a tight fenced zone takes planning every morning, not just on day one
- Wet weather on stripped subgrade. Once a bay is back to subgrade, rain sits on it, so bays are best opened only as fast as they can be handed back
- Tracking over the slab that stays. Machines and trucks crossing retained slab to reach a bay need a planned route so the good concrete is not damaged on the way
How it went
The hardstand came out in stages between April and August 2026, bay by bay, with the yard working around the fenced zone the whole time. Every bay was handed back stripped to subgrade with a straight retained edge, and the broken concrete went to recyclers rather than landfill.
If you have something similar
Hardstand, slab and pavement removal in working industrial and logistics yards, staged around the business that is still running: that is work Perfect Strip Out and Demolition does for builders and remediation contractors across Sydney. See our demolition, demolition waste removal and detailed excavation pages, or get in touch.
Need a slab or hardstand taken out?
Perfect Stripout & Demolition acknowledges the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as Traditional Custodians of the country on which we live and work. We pay our respects to the Traditional Custodians and Elders past, present and future, and honour their connection to the land and ongoing contribution to society.