Concrete base for summer house and sheds - Lots of annoying issues

[DNgroundworks]

Oh and definatley get it delivered next time volumetric or ready mix, could not be assed shoveling all that out into barrows!!!

[Forestboy1978]

OR is there such a thing as a cheap mobile concrete pump?

the hatch idea is complete lunacy

cheap concrete pumps do not exist AFAIK
TBH you would have been better to use a volumetric concrete company,we did an oversite Friday with 2 pushing barrows and me leveling and it took us an hour to lay 2.6m3 including a 30 M push
cheers LLL

What is volumetric?

Is that where they turn up and just pump it down a tube for you? What sort of distance can those tubes reach?

And my final question lol

Why is it lunacy? I mean I'm not saying it aint but what could possibly go wrong do you think?

Cheers and yes for sure I will never be picking up the concrete again. If I can 't find an easier way of doing it then I'm not doing it! It was hell!

[Forestboy1978]

By the way for a 7 by 3meter by 5" base with dpm and 4" of type 1 and all the digging etc, no disposal cos the spoil could be left on site we charged £1150 and to be honest didn't make a lot of money at all but now own some formwork.

Is that a fair price. The whole thing was at ground level too as in 9inch of earth had to be displaced. I honestly wouldn't ever want to charge less than that I don't think so I hope we were competatively priced.

[Forestboy1978]

Does he mean like on a tarmac wagon, where it pours out into barrows? Also does the concrete not puddle transporting around on the back of a tipper?

Yes that's exactly what I mean and yes the concrete did puddle in the truck. I laid a membrane down and up the sides. It was messy and a right pain in the ass!

[DNgroundworks]

Yea no good transporting it like that, for a dry mix for kerbing say, then the shute/hatch would be ok i reckon.

Volumetric is where they land up on site with a wagon full of ballast and cement, and a mixer attached to the back, they then mix however much you need, and barrow it for you.

I reckon thats a fair price, maybe a bit to cheap, id of rounded it up to £1300.00

[Forestboy1978]

Cheers I'll look into volumetric prices next time before I do my quote.

[lutonlagerlout]

on 2.6 m 3 they charged us £125 per cube plus VAT
if you have bigger loads it gets cheaper
around £95 a cube for 6 and above
LLL

[Forestboy1978]

ok thanks. That's very reasonable.

I would guess then that if the spoil didn't have to be taken off site and I owned my own digger etc then a 3m3 could be laid in about day and a half.

Without hire costs that's pretty good money to be made!

[lutonlagerlout]

its difficult to make money on jobs that take a day or two because you need a lot of them booked in
the amount of times i have heard blokes saying "made 600 quid in 3 days!" but then sat at home for the next week
plus whenever there is digging to be done there are always unforeseens
this one may have worked well but wait till you hit a sewer ,or such
not trying to be a jonah ,but you have to be a realist with any type of excavation work
LLL

[DNgroundworks]

Yep ^^^ first proper day on the 8 tonne kubota today, ripped the access pipe to a stopcock straight out the ground in around 2 minutes. Great

[Forestboy1978]

Yeah I hear ya!

I do fencing and hedges, turfing, patios, driveways (not tarmac) and a "little" tree control work and gardening etc too so the more things I can do the more likely of me and my bro keeping our workload full, or as full as we like it. Winter is the only time we're struggling a bit so concrete bases along with fences of course is a good alternative!

Aren't you guys insured for the pitfulls of working under ground? We are but I haven't had to claim yet thankfully so is it that it would just bump up the excess too much or the hassle or what? Obviously I'm a newbie to alot of this. Only been self employed 18 months.