New garage time!

[civilian]

Pumper truck would be fantastic, but the price is $1357 per truck, 2 trucks means $2700 extra. And they're only 3 miles away.

Is he saying $1357 per truck, or per pour. On the basement poured walls, one pumper for three concrete delivery trucks. Basement floor same thing. Garage and work shop buildings were the same. Same pumper truck here for multiple concrete delivery trucks. But each pour was continuous by a crew of 6 to 8 guys. 3 floors poured (different days) with 3 experiened owners, the rest were hired employees, some were green. Basement floor 1700 sq ft, garage 1400 sq ft, workshop 2600 sq ft. Pumper trucks costed $800 per time. I think there were 6 pumper trucks. I lost track of how many concrete delivery trucks, mostly at at 10 yards each. Jon

 

[ovrszd]

It appears to me the problem and cause of the multiple charges is how he has the concrete trucks scheduled. 1st at 8a.m. 2nd at 11a.m. 3rd at 2p.m.

With a pumper truck that spacing isn't necessary. All three trucks can come spread apart about 15 minutes. Might need a slightly larger split between 2nd and last just so you can special order amount needed.

I'm nervous about having a six hour spread between trucks. That's simply not going to work. You will be finishing the pour and trying to trowel the beginning load at the same time.

I'm excited to see it done and am hoping it goes smoothly.

 

[dragoneggs]

I would be tempted to do some phoning/asking around.

I would be more than tempted! To me it’s not worth the risk, all things considered. You’ve saved quite a few nickels with the DIY so far but this is the critical stage. Thinking a few years from now the extra money spent will be mostly forgotten and you know the pumper will go so much smoother. Just my two cents.

 

[ovrszd]

I would be more than tempted! To me it’s not worth the risk, all things considered. You’ve saved quite a few nickels with the DIY so far but this is the critical stage. Thinking a few years from now the extra money spent will be mostly forgotten and you know the pumper will go so much smoother. Just my two cents.

Yep. Consolidate the delivery times and pay one pumper. Will take 15 minutes or less to unload a truck.

 

[MossRoad]

Pumper truck would be fantastic, but the price is $1357 per truck, 2 trucks means $2700 extra. And they're only 3 miles away.

That sounds really strange.

 

[aczlan]

That sounds really strange.

With what has been said about the schedule, it makes a whole lot more sense. The truck would mean to come and go several times or wash out between loads.
I agree that with a pumper you should be able to schedule the trucks one right after another and not have the big break between them.

Aaron Z

 

[MossRoad]

With what has been said about the schedule, it makes a whole lot more sense. The truck would mean to come and go several times or wash out between loads.
I agree that with a pumper you should be able to schedule the trucks one right after another and not have the big break between them.

Aaron Z

Yep. Don't know why the trucks are scheduled so far apart. I could see if it was 3 distinct areas. But if it's one continuous pour, you wouldn't want to stop between them, would you?

We just poured the first of three 8' x 24' by 5" sections of a 24' x 24' pad yesterday for our garage storage addition. I'm doing it in 3 pours because we don't have the skill or strength to do more than that at a time. The truck can't get back to the area because of abandoned septic tank and soft soil, so I had to bucket the cement back there 1/3 yard at a time with my machine. Wife, daughter and future son in law raked, spread and screeded while I delivered. It took nearly 1 hour from start to finish and then didn't have much time to float before it was hardening up too much to do anything to. Definitely couldn't have waited 2 more hours for the next load.

So I can see how a pumper would have to be cleaned out if they were waiting a couple hours between loads, based on my experience yesterday. Concrete: it gets hard.

 

[Wobblin-Goblin]

Can you offer tips, hints on what the OP should do here? Thanks.

I already told him that putting the PEX near the top of the slab was not smart. I don't care who says what, it's a dumb move that has no basis in reality. There's no good reason to put in near the surface but plenty of bad ones.

As far as pouring goes, I have 20" steel pins that I drive into the base. They have small holes drilled into them that I can slide a nail into at different heights. I typically will set the pins so the nails are 1/2" above the final grade. I've gotten where I can have up to about 12' in between pins/chalk lines on walls, but suspect most people can't do more than eight feet.

I simply get it as close as I can while pouring and then "darby" or "puddle" the concrete to level it more. Puddling consists of a 2x4 that's about 8-9' long with handles that come up high enough so I don't have to bend over. Sometimes I bullfloat the surface. Finally, I power trowel almost all my flatwork.

 

[pmsmechanic]

I would be more than tempted! To me it’s not worth the risk, all things considered. You’ve saved quite a few nickels with the DIY so far but this is the critical stage. Thinking a few years from now the extra money spent will be mostly forgotten and you know the pumper will go so much smoother. Just my two cents.

I'm willing to up this to .04 cents!

 

[EddieWalker]

...The pour crew will likely be 2 guys 60+ who have been doing it for 40 years and 4 guys who are younger. First truck at 8am, 2nd truck at 11am, cleanup truck at 2pm. What day still not sure, it came down in sheets today. Hoping for next Saturday.

While I agree that a pumper truck would make the job a little easier, I don't think it's going to make it that much easier for this size of a pour. There are only a few areas that the cement trucks wont be able to reach with their chutes, and even with a pumper truck, pulling concrete is still required. Even if the pumper was $500 for the day, if it was my project, I would not hire a pumper truck. There isn't any real reason for having it.

Scheduling the trucks so far apart is a huge mistake. They need to be there half an hour apart. If you are spending more time then that unloading the mud, you are dealing with hard concrete. This entire pour, with all of it spread and screed and floated needs to be done in a couple of hours. That's all the time you have. Then you can power trowel if for another couple of hours.

If your guys really have 40 years experience, they will tell you to have the trucks there a 8 am, 830 am and 9 am. 6 guys is enough, but more would be better. Just be sure that everyone knows what their job is beforehand. Who is pulling mud. What tool are you using to do this? I forget the name of it, but Home Depot sells a tool for doing this that looks like an over sized how that's wider then a rake. You need at least 2 of these, and 4 would be better. The guys with the experience need to be working the screed, but one of them will probably be the boss and work the chute. So you will have a rookie on the screed. then you need a guy with a shovel to get mud to the low areas, or get it away from the front of the screed so they can work it properly. A seventh guy with a hoe will make it go foster and easier, and allow for dealing with surprises. There is no visiting, no talking, no debating once the trucks arrive. The clock is ticking and there is only one speed that everyone has to be moving.

You might need somebody to deal with the concrete trucks too. Getting them into position once the first one is done can take away from working the mud. Where will they wash out the trucks? Will there be any extra mud in the truck when the last one is done? where will you dump it? he wont take it back with him. How close is your order? Are you allowing for low spots and needing extra?