foundations - moving concrete etc

[sm_jamieson]

I will be needing readymix concrete for my foundations, 3 sides of a

4x5m rear extension, average depth 1m (some a bit deeper towards sewer), about 8m3 of concrete in all. I understand this means 2 trucks. I have never seen convoys of trucks in the surrounding streets where extensions are being built, but never mind. Access is a narrowish (for a cement mixer !) rear entry which has gates to be unlocked, or a 4 foot wide side entry into the garden. What are my options / prices / suppliers for this ? In other words, what is standard practice for this type of job ? Cheers, Simon.

[Ian Stirling]

Barrowing 8m^3 is a large, but not huge job. Say it's what, 20 tons, at 100Kg/barrow, that's 200 trips. Or 6 hours at a minute per leg of the trip.

[Roger Mills]

By which time it will well and truly have gone off!

[Phil L]

who measured it at 8m3? - are you mass filling the footings?

One truck will follow the other, they won't both arrive at the same time, maybe even the same truck will come back.

You need to work out the shortest route from truck to site with a wheelbarrow that weighs about 250lbs, so no steps or steep inclines, considering you'll need to push about ten barrows per metre....you really need 3 or 4 barrows and bods to get it all in....expect it to take at least

1.5 hours per load. Make sure you've got access to water for washing down afterwards, barrows, spillages, roadside etc.

Unless it stipulates on the specs that it must be mass filled this way, you would be better off puting 150 - 200mm of concrete in and building up to damp with solid concrete blocks, much cheaper considering ready mixed is over £100 for the first metre and about £70 for each metre after...it's going to cost you almost £700 for concrete!!

[Guy King]

The message from Ian Stirling contains these words:

Get the rugby team in and it'll be done in an hour.

[Mungo]

Not to the same scale as your needs, but for my conservatory the lads building the base used "spotmix" where the truck arrives and it mixes the sand and cement to your specification and then discharges this into wheelbarrows that the crew wheel to your desired location. So it doesn't "go off" and there's less rush but I dunno about prices.

HTH

Mungo

[Cicero]

==================== Look for a company which can pump the concrete to your trenches. It's the modern way and almost effortless.

Try local 'Yellow Pages'

Cic.

Cic.

[Lobster]

How about looking into pumped concrete: eg

I know nothing about it. I don't think it's a particularly popular technique in the UK, compared with other countries.

David

[Ian Stirling]

Depends on the temperature, and how retarded it is.

[The Medway Handyman]

Don't know, but I would have thought that was a little OTT? These things pump at least a cubic metre a minute, so thats 8 minutes for the job.

Would they be interested in, what to them, must be a very small job?

I'd be interested to find out.

[Guy King]

The message from "The Medway Handyman" contains these words:

I think that's what the small specialist firms are for - doemstic situations where a smallish amount of concrete is needed but in a place which makes it a right sod to get to.

[sm_jamieson]

Yes, mass filling, This was suggested to me as easiest, since it reduces a lot of the brickwork. The plans have been passed like this. Maybe I should change the foundation design ? There must be quite a few people in this group who have built or had built extensions of my sort of size. How were these done ? Simon.

[fred]

In article , sm [e-mail] writes

I'm a bit out of date but here goes:

A full load from a standard truck (6cu m) dropped on your doorstep with no waiting, faffing or manoeuvring, 60quid a cube. Waiting is extra, part load (for your extra 2 cubes) is extra. A standard delivery will not wait while you fill barrows.

Alternatively 'spotmix' type operations are set up for your kind of job, they will barrow a reasonable distance and put it where you want it. You'll need to make their route easy by laying boards to all the pouring points with no big hills. They will probably be dropping a (large) barrowload into your founds every 30s so you need to be ready to spread it about (suggest

2people). Time is money again, so they won't want to hang about but they're defo more user friendly than a straight drop. Expect 100quid a cube and 50quid to the driver has been known to add immense good will to the proceedings.

As another has said, 8cubes is an awful lot, might be worth checking your calcs to see where you can reduce.

I have no experience of pumped concrete jobs but at a guess I'd say it would add at least a few hundred to the costs so probably more than you need to pay.

HTH

[fred]

In article , fred writes

BTW: the spotmix guys can change the mix on the spot which can be handy as I believe mass fill can be done at lower density than strip founds, this may save you a few bob on the mass fill & your builder/adviser/surveyor will be able to tell you which is reqd at which location.

[sm_jamieson]

Thanks, excellent link. A nice picture of some person doing a rear extension and the stuff being pumped through a side access. For some reasons google is very bad at finding sites about readymix concrete. No idea why ! Simon.

[cupra]

Have you seen the boom pump pics? That's how they poured our foundations - over the top of the house!

[adder1969]

it must be you :-)

[Cicero]

========================= This is the blurb from the first entry in my local Yellow Pages:

. Concrete Pumping Service . Covering The West Midlands . No Barrows.No Mess.No Waste . Ready Mixed Concrete Suppliers . Floor Screed . Over 50 Years In The Midlands

It seems to be directed partly at least at the small user. In any case I assume that the concrete is delivered in a conventional ready mix truck with an added pump so 8 Cubic metres would be well within their minimum delivery limits.

I suppose as usual the best thing is to ask - you might get a pleasant surprise.

Cic.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Truck as close as we could get it, a long chute and pour it in. Then massive and exhausting work with rakes to get it to flow to the far end...frankly barrowing it in would have probably been no harder.

If its your labour and its free, I'd definitely use blockwork as much as possible.

Otherwise a good irishman can barrow 30 tons in a day. I have done about

4-5 of gravel..exghausting..

[sm_jamieson]

One side will have to be mass concrete I think, since it's next to a party wall and I believe you usually overpour next doors by some. Also if I have to dig deeper than next door, I wouldn't want to be laying blocks in a trench like that for long. If pumping on a flexible hose, this could be directed better to the ends of the trench I guess. I think I'm stuck with trench fill ! Simon.