We moved in about 3 months ago and finally got around to planting new plants today in the front bed. Using a shovel, we hit a huge piece of cement. It goes all across but doesn't go up to the house itself. It's like 6 inches wide, so relatively skinny.

What could this be? Is it the slab foundation? Can I jack hammer it and get it out? Or best to not mess with it?

Finish digging around it to get an idea of the actual size then just pull it out by hand

It basically goes from end to end. Original owner definitely just planted around it (in front and behind it).

Strange that it doesn't go all the way up to the house.

The right side of the house has the same thing. Weird.

Also forgot to mention it's like 6 inches thick/deep so a pretty huge piece of cement to remove by hand

Old flower box foundation? Might see if you can see anything on old satellite pics.

If there isn't any steel in it, you should be able to bust it out fairly easily into smaller and manageable pieces. If it has steel in it, good luck.

It doesn't appear to be part of the foundation. It would be weird if it were. It's possible it has An electrical line or something encased in it, but you don't usually see that at residences. I'd dig along the entire thing and underneath it to see where it ends and how deep it is.

Are you in Houston?

If so does it show up on your non permeable area for water tax? I would remove them if you are in the Tine. The city updates their maps every so often and they will bill you for more concrete on your property!

Go buy a big rock from the mulch yard and put it over the problem area.

Was it meant as a break from water running off the roof to prevent erosion? Obviously gutters are a better idea but ...

Bleh, we just ended up planting around it
Just way too big of a piece of cement to deal with trying to break up and remove. Also would've had to dig up a bunch of the existing plants.

Similar story in Dallas recently...although there was a body buried under the slab in that story!

Good luck!

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Cement truck clean out truck next to the foundation?

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My thought too, also may have been the side they scraped the extra concrete off the top of foundation. If you do decide to remove it in the future, wear safety glasses and smack it with a sledge hamer (10 lb or up) in the same place, after about 5 wacks it will crumble or crack. This of course assumes there is no steel set in it.