Concrete Boom Pump Hire for Multi Storey Offices and Residential Blocks

You have 70 cubic metres of concrete going into a suspended slab on the fourth floor of a residential block. The site frontage is 12 metres wide, the tower crane is booked out until Thursday, and the first mixer arrives at 7am.

Barrowing is not realistic at that volume. A crane and skip would eat the whole day and still leave cold joints across the slab. This is the job a concrete boom pump exists for.

Boom Pump Hire for Multi Storey Offices

Easypump Concrete Ltd provides concrete boom pump hire across London, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex and Northampton, with trained operators and the option to supply the concrete on the same booking.

What Is a Concrete Boom Pump?

A concrete boom pump is a truck mounted pump with a hydraulic, multi section arm carrying a steel pipeline along its length. Concrete goes from the mixer into the pump hopper, travels through the pipeline, and comes out of a flexible hose at the tip of the boom.

The operator positions the boom by remote control, usually within a metre of where the concrete needs to land. One person guides the hose on the deck while the rest of the crew levels and finishes.

How It Differs From a Line Pump

A line pump runs hoses along the ground and needs people to physically drag and reposition them as the pour moves. That works well on ground floor slabs, basements and jobs with genuinely tight access.

Once concrete has to go above head height, the boom does the lifting instead of your crew. Easypump offers both, and the choice usually comes down to floor level, volume and how much space there is at street level.

Why Multi Storey Projects Need a Boom Pump

On most office frames and residential blocks the tower crane is the bottleneck. Every skip lift takes it away from steel, formwork and materials, so a boom pump typically frees several hours of crane time on pour day.

The bigger gain is slab quality. Skip pours are stop start by nature, and every gap between loads risks a cold joint where fresh concrete meets partly set concrete. A boom places continuously, so the slab goes in as one monolithic pour.

The main advantages on multi storey work:

• Crane stays free for the rest of the programme while concrete is placed independently
• Smaller pour crew, typically one operator plus two or three finishers instead of a full barrow gang
• Continuous placement, which means fewer cold joints and better bond between loads
• Reach over obstacles such as hoardings, scaffolding, retained facades and neighbouring roofs
• Predictable output, making it far easier to programme a pour to a fixed window

Typical Multi Storey Applications

Easypump works across the full frame on both commercial and residential builds. Boom pumps handle upward reach and downward reach equally well, which matters on sites where basement and superstructure pours overlap.

Common uses include:

• Suspended floor slabs on reinforced concrete and composite metal deck frames
• Core walls and lift shafts, dropping concrete into deep, narrow shutters
• Podium decks built over basement or ground level parking
• Balcony and terrace pours on the outer edge of residential blocks
• Basement rafts and capping beams
• Screeds and structural toppings on upper floors once the frame is topped out
• Columns and shear walls, using a reduced boom position for controlled placement

Choosing the Right Boom Size

Boom reach is advertised as maximum vertical reach, but the number that decides your job is horizontal reach at the height you actually need. As the boom rises, its horizontal span shortens, so a 32 metre boom will not give you 32 metres across a fourth floor deck.

Scaffolding, retained facades and overhead cables all eat into usable reach on real sites. Easypump advises on boom size at quote stage, and a photo of the street frontage is usually enough to confirm it.

As a working guide:

• 20 to 24 metre boom suits three to four storey residential blocks and podium decks with good street access
• 28 to 36 metre boom covers six to nine storeys and most mid rise commercial frames, including deeper plots set back from the road
• 42 metre and above is for high rise work and sites where the pump has to stand well back from the building

Planning a Multi Storey Pour

Getting the pump on site is the straightforward part. What decides whether the pour runs to programme is everything agreed in the two weeks before it.

Permits are the most common cause of a delayed pour. Most London boroughs and many Hertfordshire and Essex councils require a parking suspension or road closure for a boom pump standing on the public highway, and lead times of one to two weeks are normal.

Work through this before the booking is confirmed:

1. Set up area and ground bearing. Outrigger loads are heavily concentrated, so use spreader pads over made ground, service trenches or basement lids.
2. Overhead clearance. Check power lines, tram wires, tree canopies and building overhangs before the boom size is fixed.
3. Permits and traffic management. Apply early and confirm the exact standing position with the council.
4. Mixer access and turnaround. The pump only runs as fast as concrete arrives, so agree where trucks queue, turn and discharge.
5. Pour sequence. Set bay order, construction joint positions and where the boom will reposition.
6. Wash out point. Nominate it in advance, since washing out into a gully or drain is a pollution offence.
7. Mix design and slump. Pumped concrete needs adequate fines and a workable slump. A harsh, low slump mix will block the line.
8. Deck labour ready. Poker vibrators, levelling kit and finishers in place before the first truck arrives.

How Long a Multi Storey Pour Actually Takes

A boom pump on a clean slab pour places roughly 40 to 90 cubic metres per hour, but the real rate is set by whichever step is slowest. On most jobs that is concrete delivery, not the pump.

Take a 60 cubic metre fourth floor slab. With 8 cubic metre mixers arriving every 20 minutes you are supplying around 24 cubic metres per hour, so allow roughly 45 minutes for set up, two and a half to three hours placing, and another 30 to 45 minutes for wash down and folding the boom.

Things that stretch that timeline:

• Repositioning the boom between bays
• Traffic delays on the mixer run, which is routine on London jobs
• A finishing crew too small to keep pace with the pump
• Congested reinforcement slowing hose movement across the deck

What Affects the Price

Boom pump hire is not a single flat rate. Easypump prices each job on boom size, pumped volume, time on site, distance from the Hatfield depot, access complexity and whether permits or extra pipeline are needed.

Waiting time is worth watching. If concrete supply falls behind, the pump sits idle on your bill, which is one of the strongest arguments for booking the concrete and the pump together. Easypump also operates a price match guarantee, so a like for like competing quote can be matched.

One Supplier for Concrete and Pump

Booking concrete from one company and the pump from another creates a gap nobody owns. When the mix turns out to be unpumpable or trucks run late, you end up between two suppliers while the pump stands waiting.

Easypump Concrete Ltd supplies ready mix, volumetric and onsite mixed concrete alongside boom pump hire and a trained operator. Volumetric and onsite mixed concrete suit multi storey work particularly well, since the mix is batched on site and quantities can be adjusted as the pour progresses instead of leaving you short or paying for surplus.

Areas Easypump Covers

Easypump Concrete Ltd is based at Hatfield and works regularly across London, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex and Northampton. Larger projects further afield can often be covered, so it is worth asking.

Same day and next day bookings are frequently possible, though morning slots on multi storey pours fill quickly and should be reserved as early as you can.

Book Your Boom Pump

Call Easypump on 01582 550287 or 07894 989118, or email admin@easypump.co.uk. Sharing a few details up front means you get an accurate quote first time rather than a rough figure.

Have this ready:

• Site address and postcode
• Floor level and estimated concrete volume
• Date and preferred start time
• Photos or a short video of the street frontage and access route
• Whether you need Easypump to supply the concrete as well

Frequently Asked Questions