Screed pump clogging up, help!??

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charlotte23

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Hi,

Yesterday we started a screed job and instead of getting ready mixed in, we decided to hire a screed pump (self mixing) as we have a lot of screeding coming up and wanted to try and reduce material costs. My husband and a couple employees started off fine, pumped half of what we needed into second floor of a newbuild block of flats, then the hose got clogged up and we ended up having to remove everything that had gone in and now going to do it with readymix tomorrow and we are left with 10 tonnes of sand on site! Not happy.

Can anyone help with regards to why it was clogging up, we hired the pump from A Plant and it's a Turbosol Transmat 27.45. My husband suggested that when you put first load the sand in each time, it finds it's way into the hole where it gets fed through, and instead of mixing in with the cement and water it is going through the hose on it's own and getting stuck, if this is the case then the machine is obviously a complete piece of crap as it can't do it's job, however I find this hard to believe. If anybody has any experience/suggestions with this it would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Charlotte
 
Hi,

Yesterday we started a screed job and instead of getting ready mixed in, we decided to hire a screed pump (self mixing) as we have a lot of screeding coming up and wanted to try and reduce material costs. My husband and a couple employees started off fine, pumped half of what we needed into second floor of a newbuild block of flats, then the hose got clogged up and we ended up having to remove everything that had gone in and now going to do it with readymix tomorrow and we are left with 10 tonnes of sand on site! Not happy.

Can anyone help with regards to why it was clogging up, we hired the pump from A Plant and it's a Turbosol Transmat 27.45. My husband suggested that when you put first load the sand in each time, it finds it's way into the hole where it gets fed through, and instead of mixing in with the cement and water it is going through the hose on it's own and getting stuck, if this is the case then the machine is obviously a complete piece of crap as it can't do it's job, however I find this hard to believe. If anybody has any experience/suggestions with this it would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Charlotte

What was the mix ratio
 
Not cheap, minimum weeks hire and that's £650 with delivery etc. No we didn't prime it before use but would have imagined it would turn up from the hire company ready to go, it had been in the workshop over the weekend after coming back in a bit of a mess from previous user, but it was a pretty new machine. It's annoying because we had planned to use it a lot on upcoming jobs, which I have priced on the basis of using this and not readymix, now obviously we are reluctant to try again as it's not something you can just have a play with if it's gonna happen again half way through doing a floor!
 
Thanks for tagging us, area of expertise is limited in this area. Sorry.

Best to get in touch with who you hired from. I will ask a few questions and see if I can advise anything


I'm using The Plasterers Forum Mobile App
 
we often use screed pumps. the sand must have a lot of grit in it so that the air can get behind the material to pump. not to dry as the air can push the water along as well.
on the first pipe from the pump place a fiffty gallon tank under the pipe, to lift the pipe up, this helps the pumping. when they block up usually on a joint, or if you can see a pipe swelling give it a good clout with a club hammer. if you cannot see the blockage walk on the pipe as soon as it goes soft you have found the blockage.
i do not like pumping ready mix as the sand is usually on the soft side of sharp. if you do order ready mix inform the company that you want to put the mix through a screed pump. then if it will not pump you may have call back on the ready mix company.
 
I imagine most people using a machine for the first time will have problems wether pumping render or screeds,I did for sure!!
Did you have training?without proper training anyone will struggle.
 
ring a screeder who uses a pump. with a bit of luck he can spend a day training or perhaps you can operate his pump for a day under his tuition.
 
its difficult to say where your going wrong without seeing how your operating it.
are all the pipes clean before you started, a little bit of solid gear will build up over an hour or so like an archery with fat, over time it gets clogged and if your not pumping at the right bar, you get a blockage.
did you try putting it on reverse to try and dis lodge it.
 
Thanks everyone for your help. Yeah we were using sharp sand, and it was really rough, now got 10 tonnes of the stuff on site and it's too rough even for scratching so gonna have to get it taken away. Nope first time using a pump and think we will definitely go for a days training, trouble is down here in the sticks (Cornwall!) there isn't much perhaps will have to send a couple of the lads away to do it. Malc thanks very much for your tips.
 
what is the distance are you trying to pump? is the engine flat out when pumping?
make sure that you have gentle bend on the pipes not 90 degree. we put some red deisel in the chamber before we start,so when we come to clean out the chamber is comes off easy.
if you cannot unblock the pipe with a good knock with the hammer, then take the pipe off , hang it up on the scaffolding, and put the hose through it, do not leave it blocked as this will be charge against you.
 
what is the distance are you trying to pump? is the engine flat out when pumping?
make sure that you have gentle bend on the pipes not 90 degree. we put some red deisel in the chamber before we start,so when we come to clean out the chamber is comes off easy.
if you cannot unblock the pipe with a good knock with the hammer, then take the pipe off , hang it up on the scaffolding, and put the hose through it, do not leave it blocked as this will be charge against you.

sound advice
 
what about practising with just sand. maybe pumping that 10 ton back onto a lorry or skip. Plenty of screed pumps on youtube to pick up tips
 
if the screed has set solid in the pipe, lay the pipe straight out on an area of concrete and run a lorry or digger along the pipe a couple of times.
 
one of the major faults on a screed pump is the down pipe on the outside of the pump attaches to the outlet to pump air in to the screed hose have had hired pumps myself where this was full of screed from previous hire it must be checked every day cause if you block the hose maybe cos of a dry mix the the hose blocks and the mix left in the chamber starts to get sucked up the down pipe meaning the only pressure getting into the vessell is from 1 pressure pipe
 
What makes you think getting ready mix will solve the problem. Cheaper with Sand and Cement.
You still need to shovel it in the pump. How you getting rid of ready mix if you end up blocking the pump again.
 
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