When a developer in Croydon asked us to pour 200m³ of foundation concrete across three adjoining plots in a single day, the question wasn't whether we could supply the material — it was whether we could keep the pour continuous through a 6m-wide access lane shared with a primary school drop-off.
The brief
- 200m³ of C32/40 mix, fibre-reinforced
- Continuous pour required — no cold joints
- Single access lane, shared with school traffic 08:30–09:15 and 15:00–15:45
- Pump line of 42m to reach the rear of the site
How we sequenced it
We staged five volumetric mixers in a relay pattern, starting at 09:30 to clear the morning school window. Two trucks on site at any given moment — one pouring, one queued — with a 20-minute swap cadence. The 42m boom pump primed on the first load, then ran continuously until 14:45, deliberately ending before the afternoon school pickup.
The result
200m³ poured, no joints, no waste, no disruption to the school. The developer was off the critical path by lunchtime and the slab was ready for steel fixers the next morning.
"We've used ready mix on every previous phase. The volumetric approach saved us a full day of programme and we'll be specifying it on the rest of the development."
