Concrete Services
Concrete Pumping in the Southwest Twin Cities
Backyards, basements, walkouts and anywhere a ready mix truck cannot back up to. Line pumping so the concrete reaches the form instead of the wheelbarrow.
Backyards, basements, walkouts and anywhere a ready mix truck cannot back up to. Line pumping so the concrete reaches the form instead of the wheelbarrow.
Most concrete problems on a residential site are not about the concrete. They are about getting it from the street to the form. A ready mix truck can only chute so far, and the moment the pour is behind a fence, down a walkout, on the far side of a septic field or up a hill, the chute stops being an option. At that point you either move it by wheelbarrow, which is slow and hard on the pour, or you pump it.
Minnesota Valley Concrete runs a trailer mounted line pump out of Carver, across the southwest Twin Cities metro. We pump our own flatwork and foundation work, and we pump for other contractors and for homeowners doing their own project who just need the concrete placed where they cannot get a truck.
Pumping is not an upgrade on a hard site. It is usually the answer that costs you the least trouble once you count the labor, the time, the risk of a pour going stiff halfway through, and what a loaded mixer does to a lawn or a new driveway when somebody decides to drive it around back.
What we run is a trailer mounted line pump. The ready mix truck discharges into the hopper at the street or the driveway, and the pump pushes the concrete through hose laid along the ground to wherever the form is. There is no arm and nothing goes over the roof. The hose goes around the house, through the gate, down the walkout, along the side of the garage or in through a window opening, and more hose gets added when the work is farther off.
That is a real limit and it is worth stating plainly, because it changes what we can take. Hose has to have a route. If there is a way to walk from the truck to the form, we can almost always run line to it. If the only way in is straight up and over the house, that is a boom pump job and we will tell you to call an outfit that runs one rather than waste your morning.
What hose gives up in reach it makes back in places a big machine cannot go. A line pump sets up small, it does not need a street closed or a setup pad the size of a truck, and it will fit down a side yard a truck could never use. On a tight lot in an older neighborhood that is usually the difference between a pour happening and a pour getting quoted by somebody else.
The classic case. A fenced backyard with a gate, no truck access, and several yards of concrete that has to get back there today. Hose through the gate, or around the side of the house.
Hose run down a walkout, through a window opening or down the stairs, so an interior slab gets placed without a bucket brigade and without driving equipment through the house.
Placing into wall forms cleanly and in lifts, which is easier to control from a pump than from a chute, especially on a tight lot or where the hole cannot be approached from every side.
Sloped sites where a truck cannot safely get near the work, which describes a lot of the ground southwest of the metro along the river valley and the lakes.
Anywhere driving a loaded truck would risk a drainfield, a well head, a sprinkler system or finished landscaping. Running hose around it beats repairing it.
We pump for builders, remodelers, landscapers and homeowners running their own project. You order the concrete, we place it.
We walk the route from the street to the form and measure it: gate widths, corners, steps, slope, soft ground, and where the ready mix truck can actually sit to discharge into the hopper. Hose length and how many bends are in it decide how hard the pump has to work, so that gets settled before anybody schedules a truck.
Pumped concrete has to be ordered to pump. Aggregate size, slump and mix design all matter, especially through a line pump, and we work that out with the ready mix supplier so the pour does not plug.
If the job involves digging, utility locates through Gopher State One Call happen first. That is state law and it is also just the sensible order of operations.
The pump gets positioned on firm ground where the truck can reach the hopper, hose is laid and clamped, the line is primed with slurry, and the crew and the finishers are in place before the first truck backs in, because once concrete is moving you do not want to be looking for a tool.
Concrete goes in where the finishers want it and at the rate they can handle it. When the pour is done, the line and the pump get washed out in a spot we agree on ahead of time, not wherever is convenient.
A clear, level place to set the pump where the mixer truck can back up to it, and a walkable route for the hose from there to the form. Gates that come off their hinges, a section of fence that lifts out, a bed we can lay hose across, all of that is worth mentioning before pour day rather than on it.
Water access, and a place to wash out. Every pump job produces washout, and it has to go somewhere that is not a storm drain, a wetland or your neighbor's yard. We would rather agree on that spot in the morning than negotiate it with a full hopper.
Enough hands to handle the concrete once it lands. A pump can deliver faster than a short crew can finish, which is a good problem on a foundation wall and a bad one on a stamped patio. If we are pumping for you and you are placing it, we will tell you what kind of crew the pour needs.
We pump out of Carver, across the southwest Twin Cities metro and the communities around it. That covers the river valley towns, the western and southwestern suburbs and into Minneapolis, and it takes in a lot of the lake and hillside lots where access is the whole problem.
Pump work follows the same season as everything else we do, March to mid-October, and pump days book around pour days. If you are a contractor working a schedule, earlier notice gets you the morning slot you actually want.
Yes. We pump for builders, remodelers, landscapers and homeowners running their own pour. You handle the ready mix order and the placing crew, we bring the pump and put the concrete where you need it. Tell us the access, the volume and the mix and we will tell you whether line will reach it.
Farther than most people expect, and it depends on the route rather than on a single number. What decides it is where the mixer truck can sit, how many corners the hose has to turn, whether it is running uphill, and what the mix is. We walk the route before quoting a pump rather than guessing at it over the phone.
The pump is a trailer, not a truck, and it stays parked in one spot at the street or the driveway. That is the whole point: one small machine sitting still instead of a loaded mixer driven across your yard. The hose lays on the ground and comes back up at the end of the day. If your driveway is new or the ground is soft, tell us and we will plan the setup around it.
Yes, and it is one of the more common line pump jobs. Hose gets run down a walkout, through a window opening or down the stairs, and the concrete is placed inside without driving equipment through the house or moving it by bucket.
It depends on the pump the site needs, the volume, and how long the pump is on site, so we quote it per job. The comparison worth making is not pump versus no pump, it is pump versus the labor hours, the extra time and the risk of moving that same concrete by hand.
Not always. If a truck can chute directly to the form, chute it. A pump earns its cost when the concrete has to travel, when the pour is large enough that speed matters, or when driving a truck to the work would damage something expensive. We will tell you when you do not need one.
No. We run a trailer mounted line pump, and that is the honest answer rather than a maybe. Line reaches most residential work, including backyards, walkouts and basements, because hose can go anywhere a person can walk. If your pour genuinely has to be placed over a roof or a stand of mature trees, that is a boom job and you want an outfit that owns one.
Foundation walls, footings and frost walls for new builds, additions and garages, formed and poured to the depth Minnesota code requires.
Learn moreStamped patios in the patterns and colors you actually want, poured with the base, jointing and sealer that keep them looking right season after season.
Learn moreNew driveways and full tear out and replacement. Proper base, proper thickness, joints cut where they belong, so it does not crack the way the last one did.
Learn moreTell us what you are planning, a patio, a driveway, a foundation or a pour you cannot reach. We will look at the site, explain what it actually needs, and give you a free written estimate.