A concrete delivery is the one part of a build you cannot pause. Once the truck is batching, the material is going somewhere. Half an hour of preparation the evening before is what separates a tidy pour from a driver waiting on the road while somebody drives to the builders' merchant for shuttering pins.
Access: width, height, weight
A volumetric mixer is a large rigid truck. Allow roughly 3m of width and 4m of headroom along the whole route in, not just at the gate. The things that catch people out are overhanging branches, a low carport, a narrow bridge over a ditch, and parked cars on a residential street at 8am. If you are on a tight lane in one of the villages around Effingham or Bookham, tell us at the point of order and we will send the right vehicle.
Weight matters as much as size. A loaded truck is heavy. Keep it off block paving, manhole covers, private drainage runs, soakaways and newly backfilled trenches. If the only route crosses something fragile, put boards or road plates down before we arrive.
The chute reaches about 3m from the back of the truck and discharges under gravity, so the truck needs to reverse to within that of the pour. Where it cannot, your options are barrows, a dumper or a pump. That decision is much cheaper made in advance.
3m wide, 4m high, firm ground, 3m chute reach
Send us a photo of the access and the pour if you are unsure. It takes a minute and it has saved a lot of wasted journeys.
Ground and sub-base
Concrete needs something solid underneath it. For a slab that means compacted hardcore, whacked down in layers, blinded with sand or a thin C8 layer so the mix does not drain into the voids. Much of Surrey sits on clay, which holds water and moves, so a proper sub-base is not optional.
Check the excavation the day before, not the morning of. Trenches collapse overnight after rain. Standing water in the bottom of a footing has to be pumped out before the pour, because concrete placed into water loses strength where it matters most.
Formwork that holds
Wet concrete pushes hard. Shuttering that looks fine empty will bow or burst under a couple of cubic metres if it is not pegged and braced properly. Peg at about 600mm centres, brace the corners, and drive the pegs below the top of the form so you can screed across them.
Set your levels before the truck arrives. Mark the finished height on the inside of the formwork or run a string line, and check the fall if the slab needs to drain. Getting the fall right is much easier with a pencil than with a float.
If mesh or rebar is going in, have it cut, tied and sitting on spacers beforehand. Steel lifted into place after the pour starts ends up in the wrong position and does nothing.
Enough hands, and the right tools
Two people can handle a small base if the truck discharges straight into the formwork. The moment concrete has to be barrowed, the maths changes. A barrow holds under 0.1m³, so moving 3m³ any distance is a genuine morning's work for two or three people. Allow one barrowing and one placing and levelling for every 2m³ an hour you want to shift.
Gloves and boots as well. Wet concrete is alkaline and will burn skin given long enough, and the burns creep up on you because they are not painful at first.
Timing and weather
Book the morning if you can. It gives you daylight to finish the surface and a buffer if the job runs long. Allow 30 to 60 minutes on site for a domestic pour of a few cubic metres, including setting up, batching and washing down.
In hot weather the surface stiffens fast, so keep the slab covered and damp and have your finishing crew ready rather than arriving later. In cold weather avoid pouring onto frozen ground or below about 3°C, and cover the slab overnight. Heavy rain washes cement out of the surface and leaves it dusty; light rain is manageable with covering.
We give a two-hour delivery window and the driver calls ahead. If something slips on our side you hear about it before the slot, not after. Where you need concrete at short notice, call us and we will endeavour to pour the same day.
What a volumetric delivery changes on site
Tell us the access and we will tell you what fits
Volume, grade, postcode and a photo of the route in if it is tight. We will confirm the price and a two-hour window on the call. Same and next-day delivery across Surrey and the surrounding areas.
Quick answers
How much access does the truck need?
About 3m of width and 4m of headroom on firm ground, with space to reverse. The chute reaches roughly 3m from the back.
Can you park on the road and barrow in?
Often yes, where it is safe and legal to stand the truck. Tell us the distance so you can plan enough hands, and check whether the road needs a permit.
Who cleans up?
The driver washes the chute down, which needs a spot on site away from drains and watercourses. Placing and finishing the concrete is your side of the job.
What if it rains on the day?
Light rain is workable with covering. For heavy rain or frost, call us and we will move the slot rather than pour into bad conditions.
How quickly can you deliver?
Same and next-day delivery across Surrey and the surrounding areas. Ring in the morning and we will endeavour to pour the same day.
Drivers who have seen your site before
Surex Concrete works out of Effingham, between Leatherhead and Guildford, so the lanes, the clay and the parking are familiar. Our drivers place concrete every day and will tell you straight if the access looks wrong, before anyone commits to a pour that cannot be finished.
Groundworkers, builders and landscapers across Surrey book with us week after week, mostly because the truck arrives in the window. Concrete supplied by specialists within the construction industry, from 1m³, with business accounts available for regular orders.