What to do with a backyard that has hidden concrete
Digging up buried concrete and crusher dust is too daunting, and it blocks people from extending their grass or putting in a rain garden. Dealing with hidden obstacles and poor drainage leaves the yard pooling with water and no clear way forward.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Smashing out the concrete with a sledgehammer
- 2Turning the concrete area into a seating space with loungers and a water feature
- 3Planting shade-tolerant understory trees and shrubs
- 4Remove the cracked concrete completely using a pickaxe or jackhammer along with a rented dumpster or junk removal crew
- 5Regrade the yard or install a French drain
- 6Dig a lower area to the side of the path to act as a rain garden and divert water
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I’m looking for suggestions for this space. There was a swingset that’s been dismantled. Some of the area has concrete underneath the dirt and bark. I would have liked to extend out the grass but not sure if it’s possible due to the concrete.”source ↗
“There’s random spots of concrete throughout, there also appears to be blue steel or crusher dust underneath the dirt and bark as well.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2How to level a sloped backyard for a shed entrance
- 3Cracked polymeric sand and weeds in a new paver patio
- 2How to grow grass over shallow rocks or bedrock
- 5How to prep a garden bed after removing weeds and gravel
- 3How to prep a weed and mulch area for laying sod
- 4How to fill a wide gap between garage floor and driveway