304m3 concrete pour for piling for basement project in Chiswick - Rapid ReadyMix - Concrete mix suppliers in London and South East England

Our Client

As the cost of property in London and across the UK has skyrocketed in recent years, many homeowners are turning to home improvements like building basements to add space to their existing home, rather than moving to a bigger house. The Rapid Readymix team was recently asked to supply concrete for a piling contractor for a basement project in the Chiswick area of London. Our client was building a basement, using concrete piling to form a strong and stable foundation, to improve the value of the property and increase the living space available inside. The home is based on a public road with a walkway outside it.

Our Client’s Needs

As the project was located on a public road, we needed to ensure an alternative walkway was provided so that passers-by could be kept safe. The client also required the project to be completed with a quick turnaround, so we had to ensure that there was always one mixer ready to go while the other was pouring. Our client’s concrete requirements were quite specific – we needed to pour 304m3 of concrete, with a specification of C35/40 DC-2. As we run our mixers with seperate, high quality materials, we are able to precisely control the concrete mix, resulting in a consistent concrete pour. Our client also needed us to add a water-reducing agent to the readymix, which increases the workability of the concrete.

Challenges

As our client required a quick turnaround for their concrete delivery, we arranged to have two mixers on site at all times. By doing so, we could constantly have one pouring and one waiting, so that there were no lulls in the delivery of the readymix concrete. We fully prepared and briefed our drivers for the high-demand day ahead, and we set up all the equipment in advance. In the yard we ran two loaders allowing us to load up and turnaround our mixers as efficiently as possible. We also ensured that we had more than enough materials on site with us so that we could keep up with demand and make sure the day ran like clockwork.

Techniques

As well as using our volumetric mixer to batch our client’s concrete at a fast rate, we also had two mixers on site at any time to make sure concrete was constantly being poured. The actual concrete pour was carried out using a CFA piling rig and concrete pump, pumping our concrete from straight through the piling system and into the pile as it was installed.