Concrete pumping: things you didn't know about concrete

Concrete has been around for thousands of years

Our favourite building material is no modern-day invention. Early versions of concrete were used by the Romans to construct roads, buildings and even bridges. Concrete pumping came a little later.

Basic concrete has four main ingredients

Sand, stone, water and cement—simple really. This mix is modified and refined to produce different types of concrete for different uses, but even the most sophisticated concrete pumping methods are based on this recipe.

Concrete pumping allows the material to be mixed on site or delivered ready-made

You don't need to have your own specialised equipment to use concrete. You can hire a wide range of mixers and other equipment, or have your concrete premixed and delivered to your site by a contractor. You can even mix your own concrete in a wheelbarrow, but make sure you get the mix right.

For bigger jobs, truck-mounted boom concrete pumping will allow the concrete—in liquid form—to be placed accurately on-site. For smaller jobs, such as house extensions, trailer-mounted concrete pumping can be organised through hire specialists.

Concrete and concrete pumping are more environmentally friendly than you think

It might not always look too pretty, but concrete and concrete pumping have a far less damaging effect on the planet than some other building materials.

Wide-scale recycling and its inherent thermal mass properties in use makes concrete one of the most environmentally sustainable of all building products. Only a very small proportion of dismantled concrete finds its way to landfill sites these days, and concrete pumping is helping as its accurate placing of concrete on-site means even less waste.

Concrete is top of the class

Concrete and concrete pumping are enjoying a resurgence in the market, and it's not hard to see why:

• concrete provides better fire resistance than any other building material
• when used and protected properly, concrete will last longer than any other building material
• concrete is the most widely-used man-made material on the planet
• concrete pumping methods means that concrete can be pinpointed to where it is needed on a site efficiently and accurately, causing little mess to be cleared up