Readymix question

[Jonboy_t]

I'm just about to lay a base for something and need approx 1.08 m3 of the hard stuff. I am rough pricing at the moment, but it appears to work out only about £40 more expensive to have readymix delivered than it is to buy aggregate and mix it myself! For forty sheets, I'll save a backbreaker (and ass-hole!) of a job, so I'll more than happily pay that!

My question is, does anyone know if normal readymix trucks have hoses that would carry the mix about 15m round the back of my house? It's either this or offload into a wheelbarrow and do a few trips round the side, which isn't ideal as I gather they up their costs the longer they are there.

I'm going to phone them tomorrow to find out, but I'd put tonight in my diary to work out what I need to do tomorrow and over the weekend, so I'd love to get an answer now and they're all closed!

[PGM]

No you can only get it a few yards a pump will be needed for anything further.

Barrowing is no problem but the lorry drivers are notoriously difficult and will not be impressed when they turn up, be firm but polite with them or they can be very obstructive.

Make sure you have enough barrows to get it out within the 1/2 hour they allocate you.

If you are only having 1m3 you pay the cubic metre rate plus a part load charge of roughly £30 per cube not in the lorry. For example 1m3 concrete £70 plus 5 part load charges of £30, total £220.

[Jonboy_t]

Spot on, cheers bud. At least I have a better idea now - think I'm going to go readymix on this one! Even if it is £200 as opposed to £100 for aggregate, I'm not going to do my back in and I'll have it done in an hour (ish....)!

Cheers mate.

[PGM]

I agree, that's what I did!

[cpas]

I found a company who have a lorry which mixes it as it comes out - so you basically pay for exactly what you need. Therefore works out cheaper and the drive is quite happy to wait around but you really need 2 or 3 mates with barrows handy.

[Jonboy_t]

cpas said:

I found a company who have a lorry which mixes it as it comes out - so you basically pay for exactly what you need. Therefore works out cheaper and the drive is quite happy to wait around but you really need 2 or 3 mates with barrows handy.

Were they local to you or a national? Do you remember the name, I'll do some looking into that as it might be a bit better.

[Gav147]

As cpas posted try one of the ones that mix on site, used these guys before and they were pretty good, also pretty reasonable on cost and they even barrow it in for you.

Link : http://www.mixamate.co.uk/

[saleen836]

There are a few companies around that have a 'mini' mixer which holds approx half the amount of a normal size mixer lorry.

[VxDuncan]

I've used a mix on site company a couple of times. Works out cheaper for small loads and so much easier as you don't need to be too precise with your calcs. Okay for simple stuff but for odd shapped, stepped footings gets a bit of a nightmare. Worked out about £75/cube for 5m3 (brum). And yes they are grumpy and will do the minimum possible to get the money. Mine refused to reverse down the access road behind my property saying it was too narrow, until the boss managed to persuade him he'd reversed in a month earlier!

[pikeyboy]

cpas said:

I found a company who have a lorry which mixes it as it comes out - so you basically pay for exactly what you need. Therefore works out cheaper and the drive is quite happy to wait around but you really need 2 or 3 mates with barrows handy.

I did this when I did my garage base as i wasnt quite sure of the precise amount I needed, worked out very well for me and the amount was close to my intial calculation.

[cpas]

Jonboy_t said:

cpas said:

I found a company who have a lorry which mixes it as it comes out - so you basically pay for exactly what you need. Therefore works out cheaper and the drive is quite happy to wait around but you really need 2 or 3 mates with barrows handy.

Were they local to you or a national? Do you remember the name, I'll do some looking into that as it might be a bit better.

The one I used was Bennie but I think they are just local to Northamptonshire.

[C Lee Farquar]

I have a minimix lorry and would charge you £195 plus VAT for 1.1 metres of C20 if you were in my area (which I see you're not).

Material wise it's two tonnes of balast and 10 bags of cement. With two people on barrows you should comfortably have it off the lorry in less than half an hour.