Help removing a sleeper?(4"x6") from a concrete garage floor

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Hi
I have just moved here (Dorsert) and this garage is to be my new shop. However the garage has a piece of wood, 4"x6"x6ft approx screwed to the floor (a 'bump stop' for bad car drivers), which I need to remove. Needless to say that with the best tools I have these have defied all attempts at removal in the normal manner. Its driving me mad because everything I have tried has failed. The screws holding it are long, small diameter (I would guess 5 or 6 mm) cross head. These are sunk into the wood about 2" below the surface. The threads in the screw appear to have threaded the wood and then pass into what I presume is a rawplug or alternate concrete fixing. So even though I have removed the head from one of then the timber remains securely locked in place by it. I then tried using a hole saw but that will only reach to within 1" of the concrete floor, before the top of the screw prevents further cutting. 

My next plan is to use a torch on the top of the screw in the hope that this will either burn the wood in contact with it easing removal, or melt the plastic of the rawplug allowing it to be pulled out (assuming the fixing is a rawplug and plastic). However the fire and smell will doubtless attract unwelcome attention from my SO, who is already troubled by the amount of decoration/renovation going on.

Any offerings of advice most welcome ~ its a piece of wood for heavens sake, how hard can it be 

Many thanks

in desperation

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[awemawson]

Can you get a flat ended crow bar driven under the wood between it and the concrete, and lever the wood upwards either snapping the screws or dragging them out of their rawlplugs? (Use a block of wood as a fulcrum for the bar to preserve the concrete)

A few taps with a sledge hammer at the front and back of the baulk to rock it would help this process.

[modeng200023]

Just split the wood through the screw holes.

[edward]

Big crow-bar and a sledge hammer. Lever it up. I have a couple of 5' putlog scaffold tubes that are excellent for this type of stuff.

[PekkaNF]

I have made quite long holes with hole saw by chiseling out the core. Two inches deep screw heads? do you have resipicating saw saw and a good metal blade? Cut V to weaken the treewood and cut most of the screw out. That kind of screws are often pretty hard and resist pliers and hand tools successfully. Angle grinder would do the trick in no time, but we don't want to burn that garage.

Anyway, weaken the bugger with any means necessary and then prong it up as Andrew says. I would have lost my temper early on, put old chain on my chainsaw, open the garage door asked miss to have a coffee/shopping break and made cuts just centimeter away from the screw both sides. Then mallet to beat the bugger into submission.

Main thing is not too loose cool and swear profusely and slip the mallet out of sweaty hands trough the wall, hedge, and BMW next door.

Pekka

[wheeltapper]

Get a bad car driver to drive into it, HARD.

Roy.

[picclock]

Hi PekkaNF

>>Main thing is not too loose cool and swear profusely and slip the mallet out of sweaty hands trough the wall, hedge, and BMW next door.

Was that from personal experience ??   

Had a screwdriver and then a crowbar under one end. Jumped on crowbar but apart from a few cracking noises nothing gave. Then spent about 20 mins hitting the crowbar with a lump hammer trying to get it out. Alas no longer have my chainsaw which would be the best tool by far. I have another older crowbar which has the curled end broken off. Will try that with some scaffolding pipe as leveridge. From earlier result it just seems to crush the wood fibres in contact with the crowbar but the actual piece of wood does not seem to move. I generally favour brute force on this kind of thing because even if it doesn't work out as planned it will normally change things enough to allow an alternate solution to work.

Kind of reminds me of the three men in a boat (Jerome K Jerome) trying to open a tin of pineapple:

http://www.cleavebooks.co.uk/grol/jerome/3men12.htm

about 3/4 way down.

Will get serious with more brute force.

Many thanks

Best Regards

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[lordedmond]

now don't take this to heart

but if hitting it with a hammer won't do it you need a bigger hammer ,if that don't  do it hammer is still not big enough when you get to a 28 pound sledge and it still won't move , call in Blaster Bates he should shift it , but it may be still there and the workshop may be gone.   


a decent crow bar would do it
a mix of saltpetre sulphur and charcoal packed round it apply a ignition source  , opps that would be a bit dodgy



Stuart

[picclock]

So I weakened an area across the width by chain drilling 22mm holes either side of the screw, hammered my trusty Wickes screwdriver in the end, then hammered in crowbar with 8lb hammer. So I hear this ringing, going higher and higher in pitch every time I hit it, but I'm in the groove with this thing and carry on. Then plinck, and its all over. the screw has given up, and my closely drilled holes, weakening the wood are still perfectly intact  . I'm not sure what this wood is, but its pretty darn tough. Still now I have the methodology its should be a slam dunk.

Thanks for the good advice (basically hit it harder)

Best Regards

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[nrml]

Drill holes close to and around the screws. Pour some sulphuric acid in and leave it to work on the screws. Neutralise with something suitable,  clean up the area, drill the holes deeper into the wood to expose more metal and treat with acid again. Repeat until you get it has dissolved away completely.

Keep the area well ventilated and have something suitable to neutralise the acid handy in.case of an emergency. You could even try hooking it up to a battery and making the screw a sacrificial anode if working with acid doesn't appeal.

Edit:
I didn't realise you had already got it sorted. Brute force always wins.

[picclock]

So I finally managed to remove this chunk of wood - on the face of it not a difficult task. However, after I removed it I realised why things had been so difficult. It had been bonded to the concrete. I now have a piece of wood with concrete attached at various places, and a concrete floor with pieces of wood attached that have been ripped from the timber. I remember puzzling at the time how a few screws could fix something so well  .

So at last I can get on with getting the floor sorted and finally unpacking my stuff.

Many thx for the good advice

Best Regards

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[SwarfnStuff]

At a guess I would say you need not visit the Gym for a week or two. Thanks for the interesting and fun read.
John B