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Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2013 7:35 am
by GB_Groundworks
yeah but i cant magic men up and good reliable lads who you dont have to remote control are hard to find, weve got 15 lads on across 5 jobs at mo, dads away on a jolly in france fun times, gotta make teh best of what you can ive been pulling 16 hour days on this one to keeps us on track.
i could bring some of my mates but i have a feeling theyd be useless and dangerous!
Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2013 7:47 am
by lutonlagerlout
sean is right again
when i watched the youtubes of big American pours they seem to have at least gangs of 6-10
I have done pumped pours with 3 of us and it caused a problem through lack of manpower
you need someone with the *drawing* head on him to be able to oversee whats going on
regarding techniques,each to his own but all the donegal floor screeders in luton know they have till 50 years old max on their knees and its over for them
my wife's cousin has just had to chuck it at 44 as his knees have gone
LLL
Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2013 9:53 am
by TheRockConcreting
The 'modern' ways of screeding a slab are a lot like that giant road block paver someone posted about just the other day in a different thread. The main advantage it saves your back, but as a result the blocks are laid crap. That is the same for hand screeds vs. 'magic screeds' there is nothing magic about them.
I have been involved with some very large scale pours 8,000m2 over 2 weeks, pouring 1000m2 a day in 6-7 hours with a 8m3 load 12 truck turn around total cube for the day being 240m3+ with 1 pump running at full bore 160m3/h, other 1000m2 pours with 2 pumps 2 plants and room to double back the loads on the pump so non stop pumping 300m3 in 4 hours (this job was in oz) you wont get service like that in england!
All done with hand screeds, it is the only way to get a true flat slab. There is no other way i've tryed.
Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2013 6:20 pm
by GB_Groundworks
This is what all the big American crews are using
Or small in the Crete units
Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2013 6:43 pm
by msh paving
my mate has just bought a somero laserscreed like that small pic,
brilliant m/c flat leval screed every time, cost 18k but worth every penny MSH 
Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2013 10:27 pm
by seanandruby
with 3 men i reckon your on a loser. Concrete is very unforgiving. You lose a man to the pokering, trowelling the edges etc; one to backing in lorries, cleaning up and running around like an headless chicken, that leaves one to do the finishing, powerfloating. Sooner have a few deadmen around when six metres of excitement turns up myself.
Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2013 10:53 pm
by GB_Groundworks
we'll do it in 2 or 3 pours rather than 1 110m3 pour, we'll pump it in, vibe it, screed it then get to power floating it, the pump guy will deal with the wagons got a big bitmac hgv yard for them
poured 80m3 with 2 men before not ideal but two good men yeah its a busy day, got a request in to lads to get some of the other jobs done to get us some more hands on, im all for more i'd like 6 lads but life aint always that easy
had a request today to have a polished finish, got some quotes from 36/m to 100/m said to the top man be upto £54,000 on top for the polished finish think they wont go for it
Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 12:15 am
by Brucieboy
Giles - just noticed that you're power floating. Was the C2 (CEM II) with 28% fly ash specified by you or the engineer? Most of the p/f contractors we supply don't like using anything other than CEMI, particularly in the colder months, because they want to get on and finish the slab as soon as possible. However, they occasionally ask for 10 or 15% ggbs or fly ash replacement in the summer just to hold the set back a bit.
I know you haven't mentioned it in your spec, but most of the p/f contractors generally don't like using a lignosulphonate-based WRA (water reducing admixture) either because it can retard the set, particularly in the colder months.
Not trying to tell you your job as you may have used fly ash and/or WRA successfully in the past for power floating or you may well be aware of their limitations - it's just an observation and comment based on my experience.
Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 12:36 am
by GB_Groundworks
engineer specd it happy for any advice, its in a factory thats at about 20 degrees celcius constant
Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 7:18 pm
by GB_Groundworks
ive subbed the job out to a firm with a somero laser screed and ride on power floats leave it to the pros as its sm2 spec, has to be within 2mm haha no thaks dont want that stress on pour day
Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 8:04 pm
by cookiewales
now that takes the pain away must have been cost affetive :p
Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 8:16 pm
by GB_Groundworks
more cost effective than going back and breaking it out.....
Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 8:31 pm
by TheRockConcreting
£1000 a day!
Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 10:38 pm
by GB_Groundworks
I wish haha, fixed price on under certain meterage per metre on big pours
Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2013 6:05 am
by Dave_L
TheRockConcreting wrote:£1000 a day!
.......and that would be cheap!