Concrete pumping in Cork and Kerry

A concrete boom pump is a truck carrying a pump and a folding arm, the boom, with a pipeline along it. The lorry discharges concrete into the pump's hopper, and the pump pushes it along the boom to a hose at the end. Euro Concrete Services runs a Sany boom pump with its operator across Cork and Kerry.

The boom unfolds in sections, so the operator can reach up over a roof, out across a yard or down into a tank from one spot. The truck stands on outriggers, steel legs that spread its weight while the boom is out. The other kind is a line pump, a smaller pump that pushes concrete through hoses laid along the ground, used for small pours with a long, narrow way in. A boom pump needs no hoses laid across the site.

A concrete pump is used to place concrete where the lorry cannot discharge straight into the pour: behind a house, across a yard, over a wall or up onto a floor slab. Euro Concrete Services pumps slabs, foundations, cast walls, shed floors and slatted tanks for builders, farmers and self-builders.

On a building site the pump takes concrete to strip and raft foundations, ground-floor slabs and suspended floors. On a farm it fills the walls and floor of a slatted tank or slurry store, and the slab of a new shed, with the truck standing on the yard. On the coast it places concrete for piers and jetties from the quayside or the shore. On a large pour the lorries discharge one after another into the hopper, and the concrete goes straight to where the crew is working. Our own shuttering crew forms walls and tanks for pumped pours in West Cork.

Yes. A boom pump reaches over a house to a pour at the back, so the concrete never comes through the building. Euro Concrete Services sets the truck up at the front, and the boom carries the concrete over the roof to the foundation, slab or patio behind.

The other way is barrows: the lorry tips at the front and a crew wheels the concrete through the hall or down a side passage, one load at a time. In a finished house that means boards over the floors, concrete on boots, and doors and walls knocked on the way through. A pumped pour keeps all of that out of the house, and the concrete arrives at the back as fast as the lorry can discharge it. Ring with a photo of the front of the house and a rough measurement to the back of the pour.

A boom pump bridges the gap between where the lorry can stop and where the concrete is needed. Euro Concrete Services sets the pump up on firm ground at the road or yard, and the boom takes the concrete across walls, ditches, soft ground or other buildings to the pour.

Sites like this include a plot behind an existing building, a field with no hard track in, a narrow lane the lorry cannot turn in, and ground too soft for a loaded lorry after rain. The truck has to stand on firm, level ground with its outriggers down, and the lorry needs room to pull up beside it. From there the boom reaches the pour without any vehicle crossing the site. Send a photo or a rough sketch on WhatsApp, marking where the lorry can stop and where the pour is, and we will check the reach.

The Sany boom pump run by Euro Concrete Services reaches 36.5 metres straight up and 31.8 metres out from the truck. That covers upper-floor slabs on houses and apartment blocks, and pours across a site from one position, measured from where the truck stands.

Those are the maker's figures for the boom at full stretch. The usable reach on a job is less, because the boom has to rise over anything in the way and then come down to the pour, and the further out the pour sits, the lower the end of the boom can get. For an upper floor, the deciding measurements are the height of the slab and its distance from where the truck can stand. Tall city buildings are poured with fixed pumps built into the job. Send the drawings, or the height and distance, and we will check the reach before the pour is booked.

The price of concrete pumping from Euro Concrete Services depends on the volume of concrete, the time the pump spends on site and the travel to the job. Ring us on 087 108 0825 with the site, the cubic metres and the access, and we'll give you a price.

The pump is priced separately from the concrete, which you order from your supplier. The time on site is set by how quickly the lorries arrive, because the pump places each load as it discharges, so lorries booked close together keep the job short. Allow for setting up the boom at the start and washing out the pump at the end. Finishing by our own crew, where it is agreed, is priced with the pumping. Give the volume and the number of lorries the supplier is sending when you ring, so the time on site can be judged before the day.

No. Euro Concrete Services pumps and places the concrete, and does not sell it. You order the concrete from a ready-mix supplier, and we can recommend suppliers in Cork and Kerry to suit the type of job, from a house foundation to a slatted tank.

Tell the supplier the concrete is going through a pump, so the mix is made to pump; the supplier sets the mix for the job. Book the lorries for the same time as the pump, with the loads spaced so the next lorry arrives as the last one empties. Ask the supplier how many lorries the pour needs and how far apart they will arrive, and pass that on to us when you book the pump. Concrete suppliers and contractors who need a pump for their own customers can book it directly with us.

Euro Concrete Services sends its concrete pump out from bases in Cork city and Skibbereen to jobs in Cork and Kerry. In Kerry the pump covers Tralee, Killarney, Killorglin and Kenmare. In Cork it covers the city and harbour, the towns east to Youghal, North Cork through Mallow, Kanturk and Mitchelstown, and Mid and West Cork out to Schull.

The pump travels on its own truck, so a job in Kerry is booked the same way as one close to the yard: ring with the site and the volume. Give the Eircode when you ring and we will confirm the route and the arrival time. Tell us about the road in as well: a narrow lane, a low bridge or a tight gateway changes where the truck can stand, and the boom makes up the distance from there. For anywhere else in Kerry, ring us to check.