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Can You Build a Home Extension with Very Little Access?

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Are you building a sizeable extension onto the back of your home but have very little access? Maybe you live in a semi-detached house but there is barely enough room to walk between your property and the next, and you have no access whatsoever from the back. You know that this is going to be a challenge, but you are particularly worried about concrete delivery, as this needs to be carefully staged if it is to set properly. How will the contractor get the correct equipment into place and could this be a deal-breaker for your project?

Pump and Pipe

The good news is that, in the vast majority of cases, concrete can be delivered to a remote location using a series of pumps and pipes. In your case, the delivery vehicle may be able to access the front of the house, but the contractor will then set up a system to move the concrete from the mixer to the worksite with high levels of efficiency.

Special Considerations

This does require a concerted effort, however, to make sure that both the concrete mix and the piping structure can cope with the extra demand. The mixture itself has to be proportioned correctly so that it will flow easily and predictably through the pipeline, no matter how complex the configuration. Typically, the diameter of the pipe will have to be several times larger than the aggregate size of the concrete in order to avoid any blockage.

The concrete mixture must also be consistent so that it can continue to move readily through the pump and the pipeline. If the mixture is incorrect, then it may segregate and lead to deposits in the pump or pipeline, resulting in a weaker mixture at the end.

It may be necessary to introduce reducers and bends to the pipeline in order to pump the concrete efficiently from the mixer to the worksite. This may require additional pressure or an upgraded pump, as the mixture must be as cohesive and dense as possible within the given parameters. The interior of the pipe wall has to be correctly lubricated as well, using a layer of water, cement and sand to keep everything flowing along nicely.

Getting Help

When you work with experienced and competent contractors, they will take care of all of these details for you. Schedule a site inspection first so that they can draw it all up and present you with a proposal.

For more information, reach out to a company that handles concrete pumping.


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