Do I need a concrete pump?
Having concrete delivered to your site represents a crucial stage in your construction or landscaping project, and it’s one you want to get right. Getting it from the mixer to where it’s needed has to be done relatively quickly and preferably without losing any on the way.
One traditional method has been to use wheelbarrows, but you might find that the whole process could be a lot easier and smoother if you use a concrete pump instead. A pump will take your concrete mix straight from the mixer to your site without the need for messing about with barrows.
Here are four everyday construction situations which could be made considerably easier by using a concrete pump.
Benefits of hiring a concrete pump
Useful for large volumes of concrete
If you’re having large quantities of concrete delivered that you need to shift from truck to site, it’s going to be far quicker using a pump than a fleet of workers each ferrying wheelbarrows backwards and forwards. That can be a significant consideration if you’re time-limited – something that’s not uncommon in the construction business!
Ease of application
Getting all that concrete from truck to wheelbarrow and from wheelbarrow to site can be a fraught business, and one that could be subject to all kinds of accidents on the way, especially if it needs to travel over uneven ground.
Meanwhile, tipping it out of a barrow into the site is hardly the most precise operation! If you’re only paying for the concrete you actually use, every spill and accidentally upended wheelbarrow could cost you.
A pump takes the concrete straight from the truck and allows you to pour it directly into the site without losing a drop on the way.
Requires less manpower
If you take too long to get your concrete from the truck to the site, you’ll find that it starts to become unworkable – so if there aren’t many of you on site to move it, that can introduce a level of stress you don’t want at such a key stage.
Moving it with a pump makes it far easier and doesn’t need the same available manpower to get it done quickly.
There are also cost considerations here, as it will nearly always be cheaper to hire a pump to move the concrete than it would be to pay people to do it instead.
Helps with hard to reach locations
Not every site where concrete needs to be laid is easy to get to. Perhaps there are restrictions on the site that mean the truck can’t get very close in the first place, while in between there could be any number of obstacles that need to be circumvented.
Or perhaps the site isn’t even on ground level, so that getting a heavy wheelbarrow to the right place becomes an even more difficult task.
Concrete boom pumps can raise pipes above the ground and can extend to up to 72 metres, making many of these access issues quick and easy to overcome.
At Stewart Brothers, we’ve been supplying concrete to commercial and domestic customers across Ashford and Kent for over 35 years. We have a wide range of grades available, all at competitive prices, with modern boom pumps and ground line pumps always available to make laying your concrete easier, faster and much more accurate.
Contact us now to find out more.