how many operators out there have to do "off site wash-outs"?  off site being a 1/2 hour drive or more

to me this is bulls%!t.  when did the leftover mud become the pumps responsibility?  the pump is a delivery system which came to the custumer 'Clean'.  Why is that pump leaving with a full hopper? Yes the custumer is charged for the 'off site wash-out', but now its the Pump outfit that has to deal with the disposal of the concrete and contaminated water.  Another overhead cost.  To deal with both is to much for a PUMPing outfit.

there needs to be a compromise between the Pump and the contractor.  he can have HIS mud that HE payed for  **with no water added** and i'll head home with a scraped out hopper.

Add to that ticket the time that will be needed to clean the hopper after returning to the yard. After that charge it is still not fair.

Try showing up at that job with a hopper full of chemically ‘dead’ three hour old concrete and see what happens then. See what Mr. “I don’t have a place for you to clean out” thinks when he is the recipient of that policy and not the ‘giver’ he is so used to being.

Just tell him the last guy was just like him. ;~)

by the time you pick up the hoses, bill the customer and get to the next job an hour has gone by, but my buddy does it and primes the pump. back to work ha ha

In U.K. it`s illegal to carry concrete in hopper on road as concrete is classed as good`s,Mobile Pumps are not Taxed to carry good`s so can be prosecuted,also what happens iff you have front puncture / breakdown etc, our opperators carry polythene sheet from site to drop hopper onto and use very little water,then finnish washout a.s.a.p.,it`s our rep`s job to inform site what pump requires,firm level ground, somewhere to wash out, water supply etc,the usual one is to take it back to ready mix plant that supplied concrete for job,then find out that they have all gone home.the site pay for concrete it`s there`s,they should find somewhere to drop it on job.

I like offsites, just more money for the company.  There is a compromise between the pump company and the contractor, it's called the offsite clean up charge.  You can make some decent money if you have a good system.

I dont mind doing it to a dagree some costomers have had lots of room on the site they just dont want the mess i have to explain to them its up to them to find a place to dump it bye the time im done or it stays on the job they change there tune fast . If realy no place to dump on site  i will take it with me 1.5 hrs plus $50. off site wash fee my only worry is brake downs or accident then your screwed

try washing out at RM plant they cant be that far away drop a bag of delay set in and run. booms clean that main concern itake off site washout anytime its just money in your pocket. i get paid by hour just tell custuomer you have to add time to ticket or i wash on site. try using bags they work to a certain degree.

It's called sugar people.  Pour some in your hopper and some in your boom ahead of the ball and suck it back. If you can't do that then water wash into the mixer if they will let you.

My7 solution is .....I just water wash into the ready mix truck,Then you can drive 2 days away for a spot to wash out.I HATE to leave the site with anything in the hopper BUT....I have done it,I found that if you get in good with the R-M saleman he will always make sure you have a spot to wash out at the plant!!!...Other than that ECO-PAN!!!!

Try this next time (only if you dont have a local "ECO-PAN" office) have the contractor send a guy to Wal-Matr or some place similar and pick up one of those plastic "Kiddie pools" they slide right under the hopper and they are big enough to was out in

I do agree It is NOT our responsibility

Who??-

I've washed into a Mr Turtle poole...good times.  When finished washing, the contractor* (see below) asked how we were going to load the pool onto the pump...no kidding!!

If I can't wash on-site, I just deal with it with a smile on my face.  There are a few other companies in town that pump concrete and would love to get the business.  I just mark my time and we charge accordingly. 

I agree with you guys...the contractor should be forward thinking enough to prepare for his pours.  It shouldn't be a 'surprize' at the end of the pour that there's no washout.  That way we're prepared for it before we get there.

*Contractor: home-owner who's nephew works construction and is finishing the slab-- but  he has no experience either; he's a plumber apprentice.

We had a guy who rang up 6 mnths later asking who from the company was going to come and pick his rubbish bin up since it had gone hard and he didnt know what to do with it (the muppet had filled it with the washout!!) The shipper explained it was not our responsibility and suggested he paint stripes on it and use it as a traffic bollard!!!

No problem in taking the washout if your goin to cause a disaster, if say your next to a river/watercourse, but remember the readymix companies charge 3 times the price to take it away as to deliver it, so do the same. (then if you can without paying, take it to the readymix co.!!)

I could have sworn I heard somewhere the batch plants charging to wash out there.Gotta love the off site wash outs.I can only imagine what the west coast guys go through.

Why don´t you use some kind of retarder , like "slowwillie" I have tested it and after 3 hour i had the same slump as I had from the begining . I use it when i dont get to washout and have a second job....

You can put that concrete with retarder in the formwork , not the one with sugar !

But the fist customer have to pay fore the concrete and cleaning and that 10 times higher than the cost of the retarder....And if i dont washout on the secondjob , he have to pay the washout to !

I only use sugar when I am going home to washout , sugar destroy the mud completely

thx for the replies!  the problem is not traveling.  slowwillie is great stuff, sugar is the best.  i lost count of how many times i primed the boom with old/dead/killed concrete from the hopper thats been there for more time then i care to addmit.

the problem is 'Disposal'.  R-M plant refuse to allow pump washouts.  eco-pan are a good solution but what do you do with the contaminated water?  thats the big problem.  there are ways to deal with it, but it cost alot of money to put in such a system in place and thats after you through with the permit office.

if there is a field where an off site can be done, life is good and it a money maker.  when surrounded by city, fields are a little hard to come by.

I dont have that problem , the pump belong to a RM-plant but We are not allowed to drive with mud in the hopper (the law) , but it happends...