We are having a new concrete floor poured in our basement. There are two small rooms divided by block walls which are not bearing walls. The excavator told me that if these walls are filled with cement it would be painstakingly hard to demolish them. So I would like to know how I could quickly determine if they are hollow or filled.
Most likely they are not. You can drill a couple of holes to make sure.
Drill holes through one of the blocks. If they are filled, you will have to work hard all the way through. If not, you will feel the drill go from the block to fresh air, then back into the block. Drill one fairly low down the wall to start with. It's less noticeable if you then decide to leave the wall in place, and drill holes can be easily patched with cement. Even if the blocks have had concrete poured in, if you are prepared to do a bit of work, hire yourself a SDS drill, or similar, and attack the joints. They will soon give way. If you take the wall down a couple or 3 courses at a time, the blocks will break up as they hit the floor. Please double check the wall is not load bearing before you start any demolition!
tap on the blocks with a hammer. if they sound hollow then they have not been filled with concrete. if the have a dead sound then you are going to have your work cut out for you
