Hello all, so in preparation for another summer coming our way, I'm nearly certain at least once that we will have a close call in the boom party department. Whether be ready mix company giving us hot loads or plain old operator error. For example last year with one of our six boom pumps, the operator just just finished an exposed rear patio slab and swung over to his hopper to start sucking a ball (FYI up in alberta we suck a ball nearly every job) and by then it was too late 37z wouldnt pump forward or reverse due to concrete setting up. No chance to sugar even. Now dont get me wrong usually this is operators mis judging concrete setting up but it happens. As an owner my first thoughts are to fold up go somewhere safer and try to push a ball thru with air. But to be honest without owning an 210cfm type compressor we try to sneak by with truck compressor but after 20minutes i usually give and head to the shop for a boom party. We start by taking elbows off and make-ups and getting a long pressure washer wand and lots of elbow grease with pry bars to get her going again. I have seen setup where high pressure water cutting can be used but with that comes a fair amount of cost to rig up. So here I am wondering if anyone has "farmered" together some sort of water boring type tool to clean out an entire section at a time of boom or to hear stories and examples of what has worked for you to clear 70%-80% setup concrete out of a boom.

Come on, 21 people have read and no one can chip in? Must be scared lol

14 guys take boom pipe off

14 guys clean out boom pipe

14 guys put boom pipe back on

14 guys go eat pizza and drink beer

We have used high pressure water from a pressure washer hooked up to an air/water can and pushed day old concrete out of our boom. Worked good. I think the psi was about 3500. There is no explosion when your log breaks thru, just a bunch of water.Gaskets and stuff have to be good on the sections, or just take them off and do one pipe at a time.

Can't say we are experts at this type of thing. :-)

Ck this out.!!!

it is just plain not paying attention to your job. it takes 100% of your attention the hole time. just talking for five minutes will be the difference in cleaning out or not. you really have to pay attention to everything.

Prevention ?  Or after the fact ? Prevention is knowing when there is a problem and washing out to aviod the 14 guys that like pizza and the pressure washer.

All great advice and damn straight would love a 40000psi waterjet but think that might be a lil over my budget lol. Same goes for the 14 guys. Definitely prevention is always key in our industry. I dont really wanna get into a spitting match about oh we never have this happen etc. If I get the call it might just be too late and need a solid solution were a couple guys can get a truckl going in a hr type thing. I usually dont have the man power cause the guys are out working and so far have only used the pressure washer and fire hose and pry bars to get her hammered out. Usually feel like dying after but it works. What kind of air water setup works?

The safest thing to do is use a pressure washer it does not need to be a fancy one with a long tip, 3500 psi pressure washer is fine.  Just make a cap with a pressure washer fitting.  Hook up pressure washer and turn it on.  If concrete is at an early stage of being green it might push around elbows.  If not remove elbows and do one section at a time.  If concrete is really hard you may have to remove all the pipes and do one by one.

Note - This works well with single wall pipe.  With dual wall pipe you must start this process asap, if the concrete has glued to the inner liner then the pressure washer will simply push out the inner line of the pipe and the pipe is garbage.

It is also recommended to order a high pressure 2 bolt clamp from Con Forms to connect the blow out cap to pipeline.  The pressure will blow apart normal boom snap clamps.

We did this with 8000 psi concrete that had been left in a stationary pipeline for 6 years.  Most pipes were able to be saved.

Good luck!

Indeed pressure washer to blowout cap and push. Only works if the pipes are full so you build up pressure. I think if you are early enough you can just take off the bends and take the straight lines in your boom. Only works with dry concrete, not with rock pack. Be carefull because the pressure washer will give 130-170 BAR so much more than your pump is designed for. You could actualy do dammage to your equipment/pump system..

The pressure washer trick is definitely where I think I'd like to head with this. If others have tried this, I would be interested in hearing your procedures. We have a little 1500 psi pressure washer and not sure however if it has the mustard the push a big slug out like that, even if you just did straight runs. Actually in all honestly id be interested in only doing straight runs anyways from a comfort level stand point. But for those who have tried to do a whole boom what sort of pressure would you shut her down with single wall for example (if you had a liquid filled gauge to monitor pressure washer outputs).

boom party prevention is really an experience and awareness thing. But if you are looking for ways to clean up a "learning experience", i can give you some tips from my many trainwrecks:

don't ty to pressure washer a sponge thru elbows, cuz its too much pressure for the clamps

if its really hard, take elbows off and put the section vertical and pressurewash upward, all the rocks fall out

if you are taking it all apart, mark all your sections, may as well turn your pipe while you are at it!

I had a guy rockpack in the turret pulling a sponge once, and the kid took a shopvac and sucked the rocks out of the vertical tube down to the elbow, then sucked a sponge thru after. smart kid

A tiny pressure washer is just fine. The smalest ones already give 120 bar or so. Only straight runs is the best.. I wouldn't go for a whole boom. You don't need to use a ball, the water will go straight through it anyway.. Good thing is with the straight runs the water will go through and on the sides of the concrete. You might see water comming out on the other end before you see movement in the concrete.. It will work like a kind of lubrication. Damm I'm giving away to many secrets here...

If you use a small pressure washer and only straight parts I'm quite sure your clamps will hold. But you can take some distance just in case ;-)

Thanks alot everyone for your input. I know its tough to give away trade secrets but I've been thinking about this alot recently. I'd love for nothing better to be prepared in advance for such situation. So this is what I'm thinking.

1500psi pressure washer, blanking plate, 4 way 2000psi "tee" , one branch has 2000psi liquid filled gauge, other branch has 2000psi ball valve to bleed off, one branch into plate and last branch is supply from pressure washer and ball valve to isolate. Thinking of maybe even having another washer hose between plate and this whole 4 way tee setup so that it can be monitored and controled from a distance to make sure guys stay away from boom during procedure.

Lastly I know this is gonna be a loaded question but what sort of hardware pipe wise should a guy rig up to act as a catcher for when the mud lets go? I know water under pressure aint half as scary as compressed air but no the less still scary or once movement is acheived it can be gently pushed out with the regulation of a ball valve kinda deal. We often get day where the mud shows up on site a balmy 25c and can get bit pretty quickly.

its not hard to let this not happen.. lets say ya waiting on mudd one-be sure ya have a full hopper bump it every 15 mins or drag ya line to the hopper or if ya in a boom swing ya tip to the hopper and let the water run in the hopper while ya pump it in the hopper and that will save for a boom party