What to do with Old Concrete Slabs

Whether you’re completely landscaping your back yard or simply digging up an old patio, the question of what to do with old concrete slabs comes up often and usually ends up with the slabs in question leaning against your shed or your fence. If you’re wondering what to do with old concrete slabs, then Clearabee’s waste clearance services are here to help.

If that’s all you need to hear, then book your Man and Van clearance or get in touch with us and we’ll give you a buzz back. Otherwise, let’s see how you can responsibly get rid of old paving slabs.

If you’re making your garden more child-friendly, thinking about getting on board with the decking trend or if you’re pulling up patios to make more room for foliage, then you’ll no doubt be left with unwanted paving slabs that can be awkward to move and difficult to dispose of. Luckily, there are a few options open to you. Bur firstly, if you’re moving the slabs yourself you should make sure that you follow manual handling procedures and use personal protective equipment such as thick gloves and steel toe-capped boots.

Reduce, reuse, recycle

In order to protect our environment, it’s important to observe the waste hierarchy and choose to reduce, reuse or recycle wherever possible. In some cases, neighbours who are doing their own renovations on their gardens might be happy to take some of the slabs off your hands for you, particularly if you’re living on a new build where everyone has the same garden fixtures.

The only problem in this situation is that it’s an unreliable solution. Neighbours might not want all of the slabs, leaving you with a few still to get rid of or you could end up having to transport them yourself. The latter might not be too much trouble if they live next door, but if you’re having to move them to the end of the street, then it will take a considerable amount of labour and a vehicle.

Websites such as Facebook, Freecycle or Gumtree give you the opportunity to pass on unwanted slabs or even sell them to someone else who might be able to make use of them. However, this option comes with all of the risks and uncertainty of connecting with strangers on the internet and in some cases, letting them into your house, so the utmost care should be taken.

There are also plenty of ideas online for reusing slabs, such as breaking them up and using them as jigsaw-style paths, fixing them together as makeshift plant pots or using them as BBQ borders (depending on the size). However, if they have to go, then Clearabee can help you with that.

Concrete slab removal with Clearabee

By far the most convenient method of getting rid of your old patio slabs is by Clearabee’s ‘Man and Van Clearance service. Slabs are deceptively heavy and difficult to manoeuvre with the very real possibility of injury, which is why you’re best served by the professional services that Clearabee offers. Our waste operatives can clear the slabs (as well as any other unwanted garden waste) from either the front or the back of your property as long as it is safe to do so. All of which means that you don’t have to do the heavy lifting.

As registered, reputable waste carriers, we’ll make sure that your unwated items are removed responsibly and you’ll receive a digital Waste Transfer Note for your records as evidence of this. This note will let you know which local Waste Transfer Station your items have been transferred to as well as the percentage rate of landfill diversion, which with Clearabee is at least 95% on average.

In most cases, bricks, slabs and rubble are usually crushed and used again as hard-core for building roads or used as construction aggregate. You can find out more about Clearabee’s environmental credentials here, which includes more on our landfill diversion rates as well as our carbon-neutral service and reforestation projects.

Waste Calculator

Clearabee’s unique waste calculator can help you to work out how much clearing your garden can cost as well as presenting you with the most suitable option. We’ve taken the average slab weight as 5kg and you can put as many of these into your virtual basket as you wish before receiving your quote and clearance service. For example, a modestly sized patio made up of 20 paving slabs amounts to 100kg and approximately 2 cubic yards and can be removed in the following ways: £109.99 by a ‘Man and Van’ service, £173.25 by a 4-yard skip and £219.99 by a 4.5-yard skip.

In this instance, not only is the ‘Man and Van’ service the most cost-effective option, but it’s also the most convenient. Our waste operatives can often attend your property to remove your unwanted items on the very same day as your order and 30 minutes of reasonable labour is included in the cost. If you decide to go down the skip or Skip Bag route, you’ll have to wait for a next-day delivery and then you’ll have to do all of the lifting yourself before having the skip or Skip Bag collected. Of course, this does mean that you can fill up the skip or Skip Bag with any other garden waste that you want to get rid of (up until the level load line and weight restriction) but for convenience, you can’t beat the ‘Man and Van’ clearance service.

Now you know what to do with your old concrete slabs, follow this link to book your Man and Van rubbish removal so you can get back to enjoying your garden.

Removing rubbish. It’s what we do.

All prices featured in this article were correct at the time of publishing.