Emergency Concrete Cutting and Sawing

What we normally get called out for

Emergency cutting is rarely a planned line on a program. It is usually one of these five.

• Services strike. A conduit or a live service has been hit and the surrounding concrete has to come out cleanly so the trade can repair it.
• Structural make safe. A cracked or spalled element has to be cut back to sound concrete before an engineer will sign off reoccupation.
• Access for plant or rescue. A new penetration is needed through a slab or a wall so equipment, a lift or emergency services can get through.
• Failed pour or misplaced set out. Something has gone in the wrong place and it has to be removed before the follow on trade loses their window.
• Flood, fire or impact damage. Damaged slabs and walls need to be cut out and removed so the rebuild can start.

A job that ran last month, start to finish

A builder called at 4:40pm on a Thursday. An excavator had clipped a stormwater line under a suspended slab in an occupied commercial building. The plumber could not reach the damaged section without removing about four square metres of 250mm slab, and the tenant was trading again at 7am.

4:55pm. We took the details over the phone. Slab thickness, reinforcement, access, whether the building was live, and whether power and water were available at the work face.

5:20pm. Price and SWMS sent by email. The builder approved it from his phone in the car.

7:15pm. Crew on site with a hydraulic wall saw and a wet vac setup. Scanned the cut lines first to confirm where the bottom reinforcement and the post tension cables sat, then adjusted the cut by 180mm to miss a tendon.

11:40pm. Panels cut, lifted, removed to the loading dock, slurry contained and the area left dry and swept. The plumber started at midnight.

6:50am. Tenant opened on time. Total cutting time was under five hours. The part that saved the job was the scan, not the saw.

What we bring

Every emergency truck carries enough to finish the job without a second trip.

• Hydraulic wall saw for clean vertical and overhead cuts up to around 600mm deep
• Wire saw for thick sections, large beams and anywhere a blade cannot fit
• Road saw for slabs on ground and pavement, cutting to roughly 450mm
• Ring saw and hand saw for small penetrations, tight corners and finishing cuts
• Core drills from 25mm up to 1000mm diameter
• Slurry containment and vacuum recovery so the water does not become a second problem
• Concrete scanning before any cut in a structural element, every time

Why we scan before we cut

Cutting a post tension cable is the most expensive mistake in this trade. Remediation of a single severed tendon can run into six figures and it can shut a floor down for weeks. Our operators scan the cut line, mark the reinforcement and the tendon zones, and move the cut if the drawing and the scan disagree. It takes twenty minutes. We have never regretted spending them.

What we need from you to price it fast

You do not need drawings. A photo and four answers get you a number.

• Roughly how thick is the concrete, and is it a slab, a wall or a beam
• How big is the opening or how long is the cut
• Is the building live, and can we work after hours
• How do we get plant to the work face, and is there power and water

Where we work

Sydney metro and the Central Coast, Newcastle and Wollongong out of our New South Wales base. Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast out of Queensland. For shutdowns and plant work we travel anywhere in Australia, and we have done so for clients who needed one crew that already knew the site.

Common questions

How quickly can you actually be there?

In metro Sydney and Brisbane we are usually on site within three to five hours of approval during business hours, and the same evening for after hours calls. Regional work depends on travel, and we will tell you a real time rather than a hopeful one.

Do you work in occupied buildings?

Constantly. Hospitals, shopping centres, office towers and operating plants. We work to the building manager rules, contain slurry, manage noise windows and clean as we go.

Can you remove the concrete as well as cut it?

Yes. Cutting, lifting, removal and disposal can all sit under one price so you are not chasing a second contractor at midnight.

Are you licensed and insured for this?

Yes, and we send the paperwork with the quote rather than after you ask. Public liability, workers compensation, SWMS and operator tickets.