Customer Reviews

Dexpan Non Explosive Controlled Demolition Agent (44lb box) for Concrete Cutting, Rock Breaking, Excavating, Quarrying, Mining by Silent Cracking. Alternative to Blasting, Jackhammer, Diamond Blade Concrete Saw, Rock Drill, Demolition Hammer Breaker

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I used this material to crack a 18" wide by 6'long wall that was buried in my front yard from a building that burn down years before. I dug 2' down on all sides and made 1.5" x 18" deep holes evey 8" down the middle of the wall. I mixed 3 bags of Dexpan (may have been able to do it with two) and filled the holes. Wihtin 4 hours parts of the wall began to crack and by the next morning the entire top could be scraped off with a loader/backhoe. I was sure easier to drill holes rather than run a 60# hammer all morning.

Purchased this item to break a 1 foot thick concrete retaining wall. Bored 1 1/2" holes as prescribed, mixed and poured the Dexpan. Thought it was useless after waiting 6 hour for it to starting breaking the wall, on the 7th hour cracks developed, the next day the entire wall had broken up. Be patient, this stuff works, sure beats renting an air compressor/jack hammer.. so much easier. With a 90lb jack hammer this wall would have taken a day to demolish. Pre drill with a 1" bit, then with a 1 1/2", drilling took 4 hours for about 60 holes. Follow the instructions, great stuff
Paul Meiners

Like the other reviews I am thrilled with the results! I just wanted to add that you have to be patient and sometimes wait a little longer. I'm presently breaking some very very old foundations that are 2 ft. square. Several of the sections took 72 hours to crack. The quickest has been 30 hours. The neat thing is after the cracking, it just keeps expanding and increases the size of the cracks. I believe my increased time is a result of restraint, mix, and age of the concrete. Cracking always first goes to the free surface (dirt side) and finally cracks transverse which is the more restrained direction. I have been pretty careful with the mix. The point I wanted to make is don't give up if you don't see any cracking after a couple days. Sometimes it takes longer. I've used this stuff in the rain with no problems. To crack through my 2 ft. foundation I've gotten by with two holes. I prefer to drill five holes in a diamond pattern across the foundation, i.e., four corners and one center. That gives me lots of cracking to easily break out with a jackhammer and then cut rebar. I'd recommend you place the Dexpan about a week before your you start hammering. Also if you are new to drilling large concrete holes (1 1/2 in.) it is my opinion that pilot holes are pretty useless. To large a hole and the larger bit wanders and you get binding. Both drills will tend to follow different paths as they hit different hardness of aggregate. If your drill binds you can avoid injury to your wrist by not holding the D handle of your drill with an opposing thumb. Keep your thumb on the same side of the handle as your fingers. Then the drill will twist out of your hand and not twist your wrist.

I bought some Dexpan locally after reading about it online, and it is the bee's knees for sure! After my chimney was demolished (on purpose...) I was left with what turned out to be a 9.5" thick concrete slab. And it's 50 years old, so extremely tough and strong. After my contractors spent half a day with their jackhammer more or less bouncing off this thing, I went and got some Dexpan.

One note of caution: be sure you follow the directions precisely for best results. I didn't realize at the time that my contractors drilled only 1" holes. Dexpan really wants 1-1/2 to 2" diameter holes. And it doesn't hurt to put them closer together than the max listed 12". It just uses a little more Dexpan, but the product works much faster. Even with 1" holes spaced 12", I still got cracking, but it took 30 hours to get all the way through. For my second batch with 1-1/2" holes spaced more like 10" apart it worked in 12-18 hours.

Absolutely effective and safe product, and miles better than jackhammering something this big.

This stuff was awsome, I used it to break apart the old base to my fire place inside of my house a 4 foot x 4 foot cube. one box was enough to do the job. I was unable to rent a hammer drill bit as large as the recommended size so I moved the holes closer together, about 12 inches on center. It took a little longer so I waited over night and when I got up in the morning it was all broken up nicely. be cautious of blowouts, cover the holes with a piece of plywood for safety you will be glad you did. Note: holes with blowouts will still do there job so dont get discouraged.

I had an extremely thick front and back porch to demolish, and the big electric jack hammer was getting nowhere fast. A more powerful one would probably have damaged the house from vibration. I am an engineer, and I have long believed that if it seems to good to be true, it usually is. We drilled the holes....we poured in the slurry...and about 24 hours later I awoke to severe cracking, much to my astonishment. It worked just like they said. Honestly, if I hadn't seen it myself I would still be skeptical. Even an experienced concrete finisher had never heard of this stuff and thought we were crazy....until he saw it himself.

Tip: In some cases they drilled too deep and the hole leaked out the bottom and wouldn't hold the slurry. So what we did was to crumple up some notebook paper and shove it down to the bottom of the hole and then use some of that expanding foam insulation to make it leak tight. It worked. We had an even better idea later that we never tried....a condom....fill it with the slurry and suspend it from the top of the hole. You just need to hold it in the hole long enough for it to dry and not run out the bottom. I am not sure if it helped, but I also was worried that it might not have been working because it was getting too dried out, so I occasionally poured a bit of water on top of the dry mixture while it was working in the hole...it obviously didn't hurt...although I'm not sure if it helped either. The key is patience....for a long while it looks as if nothing at all is happening...and then suddenly....there are the cracks....and once the cracks start, they open up a lot fairly quickly.

Dexpan is a good company to deal with and their products work exactly as described. Their packaging in homeowner sized quantities is an additional benefit to many users.

My project involved removal of a concrete step from a patio slab but I wanted to retain the edge of the slab for support of a wood deck. It took some creative drilling on my part but the project was very successful and far easier to do than jackhammering. In addition, this method saved the cost and hassle of pouring a new section of the slab as I would have had to with jackhammering. I had to rent a large hammer drill for the Dexpan holes but the smaller holes for the fracture lines were drilled with my Bosch hammer drill. Total drill time was about an hour and a half for the large holes and about the same for the smaller fracture line holes. Holes were about 14" deep, horizontally under the step, top of slab. I glued PVC pipe elbows into the openings to allow complete filling of the holes which is critical in horizontal applications.

Dexpan works like a very slow motion explosive so it could be tagged as an 'expansive'. I poured the Dexpan at about 3:00 PM and the breaks were complete when I returned the next morning.

AMAZING STUFF - follow the directions and make littler rocks out of big rocks or take an end off a huge rock or split it right down the middle. I works, it works, it works - AMAZING

This stuff works as advertised. Make sure you get the correct temp rating and drill 1.5" holes no more than 12" apart. The toughest part for me was getting rid of all the scrap concrete!