Capability
Line pumping and track-mounted placing booms that reach the places other plant can't, on sites with tight access, height or live constraints.
The work
Pumping is often the difference between a job being possible and not. Our line pumps and placing booms move concrete and screed accurately over distance, around obstacles and up to height.
We run our own pumping alongside our flooring and screeding teams, so the placing method is planned as part of the works, not bolted on. That is the whole proposition on this page, and it is worth being clear about why it matters commercially rather than just technically.
When placing is subcontracted, the pour depends on somebody else's day. When it is ours, the pour depends on ours.
Most flooring and screeding subcontractors hire in a pump. It works fine on an easy site. On a difficult one it produces three problems that end up on your desk.
Our price includes the placing, because our plant is doing it. There is no provisional sum that grows later.
Worth separating, because the terms get used loosely at tender.
Line pumps push concrete through pipeline laid along the ground and through the building. They go through doorways, around corners, up stairs, over walls and through gaps that no vehicle can reach. Reach is a matter of how much line you run and what the mix will take. They are the answer to horizontal access problems.
Placing booms are articulated arms that place concrete accurately at a point, at height, without a pipeline being hand-laid to get there. Ours are track-mounted, which means they move themselves across a site and set up without a crane. They are the answer to vertical and awkward access problems.
We run two track-mounted placing booms, which are two of only three in the country, plus our own line pumps. That combination is the reason we take on floors and screeds that other subcontractors decline.
Can ready-mix reach the pour face? If it can, direct discharge is cheapest. If it cannot, pumping is not an upgrade, it is the only method.
Horizontal problem or vertical problem? Distance through a building is a line pump job. Height and accurate placing at a point is a boom job. Some pours are both.
What is the set-up space, and what will it carry? Plant has to stand somewhere, and on a suspended deck or a finished yard, what it stands on matters. Outrigger loadings need checking against the structure.
Is the site live? Pumping keeps concrete inside a pipeline instead of moving it across a site in barrows and dumpers. On a working building that is a safety and cleanliness argument as much as a productivity one.
Where does wash-out go? Every pumped pour produces washings, and on constrained or sensitive sites this needs agreeing before mobilisation rather than solving on the day.
Concrete for in-situ floors, including ground-bearing slabs, suspended slabs and external hardstandings.
Flowing, liquid and self-compacting screeds, including onto precast plank and hollowcore decks at height. See screeds on precast planks.
Placing for our own works is the priority, and it is how the plant earns its keep. Pumping is a capability inside the flooring and screeding offer rather than a separate hire business.
This is where the plant earns its cost.
Placing is planned before it is priced. For each pour we agree:
That goes into the RAMS, agreed before we mobilise, and the pour records at handover cover date, area, volume, mix and conditions.
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FAQs
Send us the drawings and the specification, and we'll tell you straight whether we can deliver it, and how.
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