Pumping concrete is easily one of the most efficient delivery methods, ensuring access to difficult locations with minimal mess and fuss. But that doesn’t mean it’s always a straightforward process – especially in London, where we know space of any kind is a rarity!
Difficult Pours & Tight Areas
If you’ve ever driven through London, you’ll know it is not a traffic-friendly place, so trying to manoeuvre a concrete mixer and a concrete pump into position in a narrow London side street can be quite a feat.
The team at EasyMix operate throughout London and have experience working around the obstacles presented by the traditional London residential terraces, as well as the more traffic-heavy modern and commercial areas.
Parking Space
Parking space in London is at a premium, so it can be difficult for our team to find a convenient location nearby a pour site, especially if the space needs to accommodate our concrete mixer and a pump!
The mixers are around 3 metres wide and 10 metres long, and we’ll need extra space to accommodate the concrete pump – for both vehicles, the space needs to be around 20 meters, or 4 cars in length.
But, don’t forget, a ground line pump can reach over 150 meters, so we might not have to park right outside your front door. With years of experience navigating tricky properties in London, we can usually find a solution. For example, we can check the back of your house for access – if your garden backs on to another street or access route, there may be space to park our vehicles there rather than cause an obstruction at the front.
To make sure there are no problems on the day, you could also try speaking to your neighbours so we can arrange your delivery for a time of day when there will be fewer cars on the street.
Site Preparation
If we’re using a ground line pump, we must be able to lay the pipes in a fairly straight line – again, you might have to negotiate a suitable parking space with your neighbours to ensure this. If this isn’t possible, we might suggest using a boom pump instead.
We recommend that you prepare the pathway for our pipes by laying dust sheets and padding to protect any door frames, garden walls, etc. This will help our team get on with the task at hand on arrival and speed up the whole process.
We’d also recommend having a tarpaulin available to place underneath the concrete mixer’s auger chute and the pump, to catch any spills.
If we’re using a boom pump to reach up and over an obstacle, such as your house, you won’t need to prepare as much, but we might ask you to check for power or phone cables that could cause a problem on the day.
Setting up the Pipeline & Starting the Pump
Once our team arrive, you can leave the set up to us – we’ll just ask you to keep the route clear from traffic and people.
To start the concrete pumping, the pump operator will need to communicate with the people laying the concrete, so they know everything is ready to go – if there’s no direct line of sight between the pump operator and the pour site, a radio may be the best option.
The operator will then lubricate the pipeline by pumping a bucketful of cement and water mix through it. We recommend that you provide x2 bags of cement for every 20m of pipeline required.
During the Pumping
Concrete is pumped at around 1m³ per minute, so your workers will need to focus on laying and leveling the concrete.
As the concrete is pumped into the space it must be pushed into all corners of the footings and formwork. It will need tamping down with a wooden beam, and then a straight beam can be used to level the surface. You can also use a trowel to move the concrete around for a smoother finish.
Cleanup
Once the concrete pump has finished the operator will pack away and wash down the equipment. We endeavour to leave every site in the same condition we arrived to. All of our vehicles have on-board jet sprays to help with cleanup and we recommend that you lay down a tarpaulin under the pump to prevent any migration of material.
The End
Once the concrete is delivered and the wash out is complete, EasyMix will leave, ensuring your site is left clean and tidy!
To find out more about the benefits of concrete pumping, and why hiring a concrete pump from the team at EasyMix could be the perfect time-saving solution for your project – simply have a look through out pumping FAQs or give us a call today.