New pool question about pumping concrete

[damien.warner]

We moved into a new house just outside Atlanta, GA in March. It has an inground liner pool and we want to rip it out and replace with gunite. We had a gunite pool installed in our old home and were very happy with it. But, the new house sits 800 feet off the road and the driveway is owned by our neighbor. We do have an easement to use the driveway, but I am concerned with the cost of replacing the driveway after a cement truck drives on it.

Our pool builder has offered two different options to reduce driveway wear and tear.

1) Have the concrete truck remain down on street and setup two different pump trucks to get the gunite back to the pool. I have heard pumping the concrete this far is very risky and it may not set properly when shot into the pool. Does anyone have experience with pumping this far?

2) Have the concrete company send several trucks with smaller loads. This obviously adds to the expense, but cuts down on the weight. Does anyone know if most of the weight is the truck itself or the concrete?

Thanks.

Damien

 

[Jimrahbe]

Damien,

I do not have an answer to your question, but "gunite" does not become gunite until it hits the end of the hose where the dry cement is mixed with water... Because of this I am not sure pumping it that far would be an issue.. My guess is that the dry mix trucks are not near as heavy as an actual concrete truck.. but I do not know that for sure..









Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[NCMike]

I have a 1400ft concrete driveway plus another 200ft around the house to where the pool was. so I feel your pain.

You have 3 different phases where heavy trucks will be needed.

1. Gunite, these trucks are the ones pictured above. Not has heavy as regular concrete trucks. But if they are offering to leave them at the road and pump I would do it. The gunite is sprayed on then formed/trowled into place. As long as the mix is correct at the tip where they spray it you should be fine.

2. Plaster, I had 1 heavy truck that had the equipment on it such as the mixer, air compressor, water tanks, pallet of paster mix, etc... This truck they physically mixed my plaster at the truck them pumped it over to the pool. I have seen threads on here where this was also done poolside with mixer and also instead of a pump I have seen wheel barrows used. I had no choice but allow this truck up my driveway. Don't know the weight of it.

3. Decking, If you need any concrete work done on the deck or if you are replacing the decking with brushed or stamped concrete, this is where the regular heavy concrete trucks would be used. This is where the half loads of concrete comes into play. I opted for this when I did mine. They recommended against pumping it that distance.

What kind of driveway do you have? I'm assuming concrete or asphalt if your worried about it. First thing is to talk to the neighbor that owns the driveway and see what they think. Ask what is the heaviest vehicle that has been down it? For me I had a large firetruck down mine because of a 911 call a few years ago. I called the fire department and asked for the weight.(small town) The guy ended up giving me the weight of the truck and of each axle so that gave me a baseline of what was "safe" Another option I considered was to make a temp driveway entrance with a few pieces of tile in the ditch and some gravel.

Good Luck!