Bricks, Masonry, Asphalt and Concrete - help ripping out a cement slab

I have rented a jackhammer to rip out a cement slab. I have never used a jackhammer before and I assumed that when I used the concrete would just crack up. But it isn't the jackhammer is just making nice neet holes and the slab is not cracking up. Is there some secret that I am not seeing? Or will I have to jackhammer every square inch to get this slab out of here?

Start at an outside corner or along the edge. Drill a few holes in a straight line across a corner. Try about one square foot at a time. Gradually increase the size you are breaking off until you get the size chunks you want to handle. Sometimes a large chunk propped up off the ground with another smaller chunk will break easily with a sledge hammer. The ground acts as a cushion and absorbs the shock when the slab is flat against the ground. Good luck.

Ask if they've got a wider bit to use, preferably one that is like a 4 inch wide chisel. Sometimes concrete that is very thin or in very bad shape will act as you describe. It makes it a real pain in the butt to remove.

Pecos

Well I am done. It took about 12 hrs to do 200 sqft. The largest that the concrete would break were about football size. This was a lot harder than I thought it would be. But I am glad that I got it done! (Sorry I had to whine to someone about how hard it was).

Last summer I broke up 300 sq ft of garage floor, using a 10 lb sledge hammer. The concrete was 3.5" thick with no reinforcement. It broke up fairly easily, hauling it out was much more tedious.

At one point I rented an electiric jackhammer and tried it. We too found it tended just to drill holes and not really break up the slab. The wider bit would not bite and tended to skate around. The unit was very heavy and awkward to control; I'm not a big man and frankly I decided not to use it because I thought the risk of injury was too great.

Even using just a sledge hammer, it is important to WEAR EAR AND EYE PROTECTION!!!

I did this a couple weeks ago with a 20# sledge... some of the slab was 5-6" thick. Super fun.

The trick I learned was using a shovel to pry it up once the cracks formed. My giant prybar just dug into the ground.

I can now snap a football about 100 yards after snapping 2.6 tons into my trailer (and then off).

phew!