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Pavement Breakers

Pavement Breakers / Jack Hammers / Demolition Hammers
When you are determining the right tool for the job you need to ask yourself a few simple questions. What is the material you are working with? What kind of time frame are you looking to do the job in? How often do you plan on using the tool? All of these questions are very helpful. This Guide is not to be considered to be the "bible" and is only meant to be in a generally speaking format. There are plenty of exceptions to the rule but this guide should help you in determining which kind of tool you should be using for your specific job.

Generally speaking all pavement breakers and jack hammers are considered to be a certain weight class tool. The weight class of a hammer is like determining the size of the hammer. As far as hand-held pneumatic hammers go, the weight classes are typically as follows: Jack Hammers: 80-90 lb, 60 lb, and 35-40 lb.

Note: 90 80 60 40 30 class is only a general tool weight term it does not represent the actual weight of the tool.

80-90 lb class pavement breakers are generally used on highways and streets, busting up hotel foundations, commercial building foundations, and industrial complexes where large construction equipment cannot get into or reach. Concrete or rock is generally 6” thick or more. This class tool generally takes 1 ¼” Hex X 6 or 1 1/8” Hex X 6 bits.

60-80 lb class pavement breakers are generally used for standard residential driveways, sidewalks, streets, and some highway use but mostly where concrete is somewhat 4 to 6” thick. This class tool is also used for breaking up some basements in the Midwest and they are also good for post driving dock poles and small sea walls in the marine industry.

This class tool generally takes 1 1/8” Hex X 6 or 1 ¼” Hex X 6 bits

35-40 lb class pavement breakers are used for small jobs such as removing single 4 X 4 ft. squares and 3 X 3 ft squares of sidewalk that are 2 to 4 inches thick. They are also used for getting into cornered areas and cleaning up edges of broken concrete where a 60 or 80 lb class tool has already been. They are also used to get in between rebar and other tight areas. This class tool can also double as pneumatic shovel to dig into hard clay or around small trees there are spade bits that can be purchased for these tools to do the job.

This class tool generally takes two size bits, 7/8” Hex X 3 ¼ or 1” Hex X 4 ¼ bits. (some tools will take 7/8” Hex X 4 ¼ bits but seem to be rare)

Bit Sizes for Pavement Breakers

While there are many different sizes and shapes to bits the ones mentioned above are the most common. The measurement of bits are generally taken this way for example; a standard 1 ¼” Hex X 6 bit means that the hexagonal end of the bit is 1 1/4 inches from one side of the flat to the opposite side of the flat. The “6” stands for the 6 inches of length from the collar on the bit to the short end of the bit in inches.

Myth: {1 ¼” Hex bits hit better than 1 1/8” hex bits or 1” hex bits hit better than 7/8” Hex bits.} The tool controls the hit. The larger bit may just last a little longer down the road. Most tools can be set up or “bushed” to accept either size if you already own a specific size bit and would like to keep all of your tools using the same size bits.