Site report: Grade II* Listed St Michael’s Church Linby near Nottingham

Renowned for their technical expertise in concrete pumping locally, Camfaud was approached to pump concrete into the beautiful St Michael’s Church, Linby near Nottingham to provide the Grade II* Listed building with a new floor. The first thought was to boom to the church porch and then run a pipeline into the church. However, the setup position would not allow this as the pump had to be set up on a narrow lane and the churchyard was bounded by ancient trees, each with a tree preservation order!

It was not possible to thread the concrete boom through the trees for fear of damaging them or the hydraulic pipes running along the boom. It was not possible to sit back from the trees and boom over the top of them as this would mean blocking the lane which was needed for access.

The solution was to run a pipeline from the back of the mobile concrete pump all the way to the church porch and then into the building as per the original scheme. The concrete placing boom was raised off the rear support to allow the mixer access to the hopper. The pump pipeline was diverted from the boom to a ground line which was then laid out alongside the pump, through the church gate and up the path to the porch. A 45 degree bend took the pipeline into the church and with two end placing hoses the contractor was ready for the concrete.

Once the job was completed, the pump and pipeline had to be cleaned out. This job was made easier by placing polythene sheets under the pump hopper and underneath the pipeline. Any concrete spillages were thus contained and could simply be cleaned up afterwards.

As there was no suitable place to wash the pump out at the end of the job, the contractor simply constructed a box 2 meters by 2 meters using scaffold boards and lined this with polythene. The pump operator was then able to wash out into this box and leave the area clean and tidy. Once the pump had left the site the contractor was able to dispose of the concrete washout.

• Pump: M34

• Customer: Lafarge Readymix

• Site: St Michael’s Church, Linby

• Concrete Supplier: Lafarge Readymix

• Date: July 2005