This pour was a bit of a challenge at first because of the hose selection, a 3 inch hose with a bit of a curve on the end. That presents a tall task to the hose man, who has to muscle with two hands to point the hose into the wall rather than to easily guide the hose with one hand. It's especially key to make sure the proper selection is made when you have more dangerous scaffolding applications, like the tall wall setting here. It's just as important to make sure that the pump driver is on the same page. It is no fun to be 15 feet in the air with a boom shifting around while trying to point a curved hose in the proper direction. Once the 3-inch hose was replaced with a 2.5 inch one that was clearly more straight and flexible, life got exceedingly easier for the entire crew.
Because of the hose selection, and the subsequent delays in process, there were several close calls with the concrete truck "on deck" (to borrow a term from baseball) potentially needing to be sent back to the plant.
Manning the 3-inch hose required much harder work.
Going up gables required more coordination as the hose needed to be past from one worker to another on different sections of scaffolding.
Pump drivers need a delicate touch. Just millimeters on the joystick can mean feet at the end of the hose. It's easy to tell a good driver from a not-so-good one. ICF experience is a most helpful asset, and it's not a great idea for an inexperienced one to learn on a project this size.
People, professionals and laypersons alike, often question the capability of shaping wet concrete in sloped applications. These gables are on a 12/12 pitch, a full 45 degree angle, and as you can see, there was no problem troweling the mix to the peak.
The third story of ICFs fully complete, the project awaits masonry and hollow core planks before the final stretch of 4th story walls are assembled. Once again, the ICF crew of 10 workers has outpaced other trades. Who doesn't want a more complete system that goes up faster with less people and less subs?
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