Is it ok to bury concrete rubble under my garden?

I'm knocking down a garage in my garden. The builder has broken up the concrete slab but is stating the it should be ok to bury the rubble.

I'm less certain. A broken up concrete slab will contain a lot of alkaline. I'm also concerned about drainage.

If left, the rubble will be ~ 40cm below ground level. Part of the buried area will be turfed, part will be planted with flower beds.

Advice appreciated!

 

With our present garden, we found that when we dug it over to create flower and shrub beds,
There was so much broken up concrete and half and complete bricks that we had to hire a small skip.The house is old but the garden had once been part of an airbase during the war.
The garden was all laid to lawn, and once we started digging we understood why!
Bit by bit we have done most of it now, but what an effort.
So, your answer is that you could do, but you are giving the next house owner a headache.

 

There's nothing to stop you following his advice but a sense of responsibility towards future owners and, as you spotted, the potential to pollute the soil should you want to plant calciphobe trees or shrubs. Ask the lazy devil to take it away!

 

Scrape topsoil off, dig a bloody great hole and bury it deep, put top soil back then hire a skip to take away the soil that wont go back into the hole.

Simple, or you could just hire a skip and put the concrete in it

 

Unless you have a specific use for the rubble for example a large well drained raised bed or the base of a decent sized greenhouse. I "lost" a large amount of rubble into these items. Then get taken away properly.

 

DON'T DO IT!!!!
No seriously, don't do it.

Let me tell you a story:

It started in a really calm and non alarming way. I was planning on planting my newly acquired trio of currants. Strong bushes, big as a man, I rescued from a colleague who didn't want them anymore because "they don't grow anything to harvest anymore" (figures, he never pruned them).
As my spade went into the ground I heard a clanking noise about 30cm deep. "Great,..." I thought as i was digging out an old brick. But what's that? It won't budge, and there's other right beside it? Turns out they used an excavator to draw a trench about 10 meters long and just dumped the remains of whatever they broke down right into that, covered it in soil and planted rhododendron on top.

I spent a whole weekend of my life (and the following week with back pain) digging up the rubble the previous home owner buried there.

Keep the ground clean and fertile. Your plants and your children will thank you In the future.

 

Get a skip .... and get rid or put on your local freebie list saying " free hardcore" ...

 

It's actually not a bad idea.
I remember a "demolition party" where some guys wanted to tear down an old barn. So they put an advertisement in the newspaper, asked for 10€ each, fired up their barbecue and lots of guys came to play with their tools. Ripping through walls, swinging away with sledgehammers and going full medieval on that building while he stood on the sidelines grilling some sausages and keeping the beers cold for hungry people doing all his work.