Tear-out is where concrete jobs lose money. The pour is skilled work you're paid well for. Breaking up the old slab, hauling the rubble out, and prepping the base is unskilled labor that eats hours and bodies, and it's almost always in a place a dump truck can't back up to.
A mini skid steer with a hydraulic breaker changes that phase from a two-day labor problem into a machine problem. It breaks, it loads, it hauls the spoils out, and it comes back with base gravel — on tracks that fit through the gate and don't crack what you're keeping.
Yellow Jacket builds that machine on 25 hp Kubota diesel.
The Jobs You'll Actually Use It For
- Breaking out slabs, sidewalks, patios, and driveways with a hydraulic breaker
- Hauling broken concrete out to the trailer or dumpster
- Excavating and grading base for new pours
- Hauling and spreading base gravel
- Compacting base with a plate compactor attachment
- Getting mix to pours the truck can't reach
- Moving forms, rebar, mesh, and bagged material
- Backfilling along new slabs and footings
- Digging small footings and thickened edges
- Breaking out stem walls and small foundations
- Site cleanup and final grading around the pour
- Loading and unloading material at the shop
The Breaker Is the Whole Argument
Everything else on this page is useful. The breaker is why you buy the machine.
Tear-out done with jackhammers and sledgehammers is the most expensive labor on the job — physically brutal, slow, and increasingly hard to staff. A hydraulic breaker on a mini skid steer does that work continuously, and the same machine then loads and hauls the rubble, which is the other half of the labor problem.
The spec that determines whether it works is hydraulic flow and pressure, not engine horsepower. Every breaker has a minimum flow requirement. Run it under-fed and you get weak blows, heat in the system, and premature wear on both the tool and the machine.
The formula nobody prints:
Hydraulic HP = (GPM × PSI) ÷ 1,714
Check the breaker's requirement against the machine's published auxiliary flow and relief pressure before buying either one. If a manufacturer won't publish both numbers, that tells you something worth knowing.
Which Yellow Jacket Fits a Concrete Crew
YJ1000 — the concrete standard
25 hp Kubota diesel with the capacity to run a breaker and handle loaded buckets of rubble. For most flatwork contractors this is the right machine.
YJ1200 — wide track, more stability
The wider undercarriage helps when you're carrying heavy loads of broken concrete across uneven, torn-up ground. Worth the step up on commercial work and heavier tear-out volume.
YJ2000 — for heavy demo
50 hp Yanmar diesel. If tear-out is a core service line rather than a phase of your pour work, the additional hydraulic capacity is what keeps a breaker running productively all day.
Attachments That Earn Their Keep in Concrete Work
Hydraulic breaker — the reason you're buying the machine. Match the flow requirement to the machine.
Bucket — rubble out, base gravel in. Comes standard and does most of the volume.
Grapple bucket — broken concrete with rebar in it. A bucket spills it; a grapple holds it.
Leveler / grading attachment — base prep to consistent depth. Cuts screed and rake time significantly.
Plate compactor — base compaction, including along edges and in corners a walk-behind can't reach efficiently.
Pallet forks — bagged material, block, forms, rebar bundles.
Concrete mixer bowl — for pours the truck genuinely can't reach.
Yellow Jacket ships an industry-standard universal quick-attach plate as standard equipment, so a breaker you already own bolts on.
What It Replaces
Jackhammer labor on tear-out. The single largest labor line on most replacement jobs. This is where the machine pays for itself.
Subbed-out demolition. Contractors who sub the tear-out phase are handing margin to someone else and waiting on their schedule. Own it and both stay with you.
Wheelbarrow hours on base and spoils. Ten to twenty tons of material in and out on a typical driveway replacement. By hand that's days.
Rental. Machine plus breaker attachment rental runs steep per day. Any contractor with regular tear-out volume reaches purchase math quickly.
Jobs you're pricing defensively. Tear-out-heavy replacement work is high-margin if you're equipped for it and a money pit if you're not.
Why Concrete Contractors Choose Yellow Jacket
Hydraulic capacity where the breaker needs it. Published flow and pressure figures so you can check the math yourself.
Kubota diesel serviced anywhere. D1105 parts at Kubota dealers and engine shops nationwide.
Parts stocked in Ohio, shipped same-day. Concrete season is compressed. Downtime in July is a job you don't reschedule.
Universal quick-attach standard. Your breaker fits.
Priced so the breaker pays for itself in a season.
Concrete Contractor FAQ
How thick a slab can it break?
That's a function of the breaker's rated energy class and how well the machine feeds it, not the machine alone. Typical residential flatwork — four-inch driveways, sidewalks, patios — is well within range for a properly matched breaker on these machines. Heavy structural concrete, thick reinforced slabs, and footings above a certain size need a larger machine and a bigger breaker. Tell us what you tear out and we'll tell you honestly whether it's a fit.
Will heavy rebar stop it?
Reinforcement changes the job significantly. Breakers handle mesh and light rebar; heavy mat reinforcement means slower going and usually saw-cutting first. That's true of any breaker in this size class.
Can it haul wet mix?
With a bucket, short distances, for small pours — many contractors do it. With a mixer bowl attachment it's a proper solution for inaccessible pours. Either way, clean it out immediately; cured concrete in a bucket is a permanent problem.
Will it damage the concrete I'm keeping?
Track machines are much gentler on finished surfaces than tires, and these are light relative to a CTL. Be conscious of counter-rotating on a finished surface — that's what scuffs. Verify operating weight against any engineered slab's design loading.
What about dust and containment?
Breaking concrete generates silica dust, and OSHA's respirable crystalline silica standard applies regardless of what machine you're using. Water suppression on the breaker and appropriate respiratory protection for the crew are requirements, not options. Worth planning into the job rather than discovering on it.
Will it fit through a gate to a backyard patio?
Backyard patio tear-out is one of the best applications for this machine class, and gate width is the constraint. Measure your narrowest typical gate and call us for the straight answer on which models clear it.
Do I need the YJ1000, or is the YJ1000 enough?
If you're running a breaker regularly, the YJ1000 or larger. Under-feeding a breaker is how you damage the attachment and get poor production. If you're mostly hauling and prepping base, the YJ1000 is plenty.
Do you offer financing?
Get Concrete Contractor Pricing
Tell us your typical tear-out — thickness, reinforcement, access — and we'll spec the machine and breaker package honestly. Same-day quote response.
Request pricing · Call (330) 825-2307