Why hump it? We can pump it!

 

It was concrete day at WMD HQ as the footings for the conservatory rebuild went in. And I like the philosophy of these guys! Indeed 'Why hump it? We can pump it!'. The 6 cubic metres of concrete needed for the footings would mean that 75 trips with an average builders wheelbarrow would be required to take the concrete from the front of the house to the rear. That's an awful lot of work even if I am not doing it. As the builders were still getting over flu no doubt even they would have struggled to wheel that lot and at one trip every 5 minutes, with two of them barrowing it would take just over three hours of continuous work. As it poured with rain they would have probably shrunk with all that water too.

The pumper and concrete mixer arrived at 8.30am. 

By 9am they had laid the pipes and the water in the footings was pumped out as the builders and pumper and mixer operatives enjoyed my hot drinks and bacon cobs. Well I think they did unless they threw them in the trench before the concrete went in! 

The machinery is amazing. The mixer mixes on site and carries enough materials in separate compartments to mix 10 cubic metres of concrete and the pumper can pump as quickly as it is mixed.

At the other end of the pipe the concrete flowed and it found its own level without much pushing or shoveling which pleased certain builders!

By just before 10am the pumper, mixer and builders were gone but the concrete stayed! Certainly pumping it rather than humping it paid dividends! 

It should set in a couple of days although I suspect I will still have a moat although shallow one until the brick work starts. 

Unfortunately there is no model making equivalent of a concrete pumper which would speed up my glacial speed of producing things