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Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 7:19 pm
by Ian CHP
I recently saw a client with regards to pricing a sunken patio, the job would be an absolute corker for portfolio photo's etc, steps, patio, brickwork and pillars. The problem lies in that there is no rear access to the garden and the amount of spoil removal would be somewhere between 12 - 16 tonnes, then there would be about 2 cuM of concrete to go back 2 packs of bricks and blocks plus the paving and bedding etc. The customer is happy for everything to go through the house although having spent many years underpinning and mini piling in houses I know full well the extent of having to protect the interior. The front door and patio doors are almost in a straight line with a slight 'kink' near the front door. The only other option would be to use next doors side access, but there is no way of then getting to the clients drive unless I get scaffolders in to build a very elaborate ramp into the skip on the clients drive from the neighbours gate
Has any body used the spoil conveyors, if so how good are they? if they are and what sort of hire cost are they.
PS. If anyone in Cheshire area fancies 'subbing it' then you can have it with pleasure :p
Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 12:15 pm
by Tony McC
The mini-conveyors are fine if you have helluva lot of stuff to shift. 16 tonnes out and 16 tonnes in is bordeline, and I'm not sure you could justify the cost, which, from memory is summat like 30 quid per 3m section per week, plus 30 quid for the power unit. On top of that, you still need to sheet up indoors, as they spill stuff, and they always break down after 10 minutes work.
We first used them on a pub refurb about 20 years ago. We had to cast a 3x3x3m anchor block in the cellar of this pub - it would eventually carry a stanchion that would carry a mezzanine floor, the bedrooms, and the roof, hence the size.
Having to excavate 27m³ of clay and gravel, and get it all out via a ricketty flight of wooden stairs at a 60° incline, and then bring in 27m³ of piss-wet concrete was not my idea of fun, so we used what would have been one of the first lot of mini-veyors. They really, really struggled with the incline, and we ended up with a complicated z-ramp to get the spoil up to ground floor level, but once 'on the flat' they coped much better.
However, I reckon we must have shovelled an extra 10m³ back onto the belts when it spilled over, and because each section is individually powered, if one section breaks down, the rest carry on dumping stuff on to it until it's completely buried.
We used them to get the concrete down into the cellar, too. That was the first and very definitely the last time we would use them for wet concrete. Took bloody ages to clean them off and compared to the cost of a pump, it just wasn't worth it. Luckily, I was only a subbie, so it wasn't me paying for it all!