Giving Shotcrete a shot

Answering Ben's call, I declined to pump for him, initially.  Ben was from out of town, he was looking for a concrete pump but he was doing some shotcrete work, which I informed him, we don't do.  Shotcrete is where you attach compressed air to the concrete pump hose and forcefully blow the concrete where you need it, it has a lot of applications like vertical walls and intricate concrete formations that require next-level freehand skills, but a lot can go wrong and it can be hard on the pump.  Ben was persistent and reassuring, he gently asked why I wasn't interested and he gently coaxed me into accepting the opportunity to actually try out shotcreting.  Words fail me but I'll say, I am extremely grateful for Ben's softspoken demeanor and his patience with me, and for blessing us with the opportunity to experience the thrill of taking on this new challenge.  

Trying to explain to people who are unfamiliar with pumping concrete what our work consists of feels like Rutger Hauer’s monologue when he plays the role of Roy Batty, a "replicant" in the old movie "Blade Runner."  With depth and power, he exhibits incredible emotions as he describes the things he's seen and experienced, it remains one of the best scenes of all times.    

But I feel the same as Hauer's character, having pumped concrete in a multitude of unique situations.  We've pumped for the DOT on bridges and under them.  We've pumped concrete two stories underground inside of chemical factories where the corrosion all around was terrifying.  We've pumped six foot deep by four foot wide lightning rod tower bases 50 feet up in the air atop of a blast wall inside of military ammunition factory.  We've pumped the bases for Zipline courses in a National Park with 1600 foot deep canyon carved throughout.  It is simply hard to explain the emotions and feelings of pumping concrete when you experience the exhilaration from the danger and stress and the challenges of a high pressure industry like pumping concrete.  The scope of our work, the far places we travel to, the toil & struggles we encounter, the chaos and risks are incomprehensible, to say the least.  

I have pumped up seven stories on hotel floors, I have been in military facilities where I have to have background checks. I’ve been in nuclear facilities where I had to do retinal scans at several checkpoints along the corridors and pass through security with conveyor belts for our belongings to be X-rayed and body scanning equipment like TSA at the airports with a devise that tested our skin and clothing for explosives, all just to get to into the facility to pump concrete.  All of this to say, there is not much left to impress me.  

I am indifferent as to your opinion of the skater subculture, but I insist that if you were to absorb the immense amount of craftsmanship that is required to create a skate park, you would be overwhelmed by the artisan quality and precision concrete finishing skills required to handshape the features at the skatepark.  Having been around concrete my entire life and as a second generation concrete tradesmen, it is very hard to impress me at this point. There isn’t much that I haven’t seen or done, and frankly, it takes something very unique to raise the type of excitement that I experienced working at this skate park. 

Watching Ben and his crew in action I was totally enraptured, enthralled, enchanted, caught up and transfixed in the moment, transported and getting lost in the moment was reminiscence of when I was in the second grade and an adult read to us from the "Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" by CS Lewis, and I remember over 50 years later losing all sense of my soundings or my classmates and the entire room disappeared from my line of vision and magically I was inside the story, viewing only the story and losing my physical surrounding in an experience much like some sort of lucid dream.  The elegance of the artisan quality craftsmanship Ben and his crew possessed was like watching a master sculptor create a masterpiece, I was mesmerized the entire time by their work, it was amazing and the most interesting and exciting job we've been a part of in a very long time.  And on top of all of that, Ben was one of the most pleasant people I have worked for in a while, believe it or not there are some rough coldblooded ruthless ruffians out there pouring concrete who try to bully and push the pump guy around, not many but there are some tyrannical control freaks who like to use threats and are very demanding, complexly lacking any consideration, it comes with the territory.  

I'm sure a seasoned veteran pumper who's reading this will have a good chuckle over my novice ramblings, finding it humorous as I recount being initiated into the experience of shotcreting.  I just hope it rekindles the spark of joy of their introduction to doing shotcrete for their first time, after all we who pump concrete can become jaded, cynical, and critical as the years go by.  Surprisingly taking on this shotcrete job, which had always greatly intimated me previously, it completely boosted my self-confidence and encouraged me immensely, shockingly it felt like I was a kid taking the training wheels off, but instead of just riding a bicycle, now I was suddenly riding a 750cc motorcycle.  

I invite you to watch below, a couple videos from that job, and check out some pictures as well

Pressure

 

Not that being understood is the goal to pursue in life, but few people will ever understand the pressure of pumping concrete.  It's better to understand than to be understood, so pumpers know what I'm talking about.  How could the typical person wrap their mind around what we do, how could you explain it in a way they could possibly comprehend it and not sound insane?  

Every day has the potential to destroy you in the world of concrete pumping, and not just physically.  From hidden hydraulic leaks to clogged hoses plugged with who knows what and who knows where, from recirculating hot loads while worrying about concrete flashing in your hopper to waiting on a balance/call back truck, from scheduling and rescheduling with contractors who are poor managers of their time and based off of their poor planning who think nothing of wasting your time, from trying to get to the second or third job on time, from dealing with extreme weather conditions, from finding the jobsite in the dark and then finding somewhere to washout and hoping you have enough water, to the actual physical exertion and strain on our bodies, we work under so much pressure it's no mystery why self-harm haunts our industry.  

Who else risks life and limb every time they walk out the front door the way we do?  Pumping can leave you bruised, bloodied, and broken on any given day, you'll learn quickly to respect the high pressure of the hoses long before you recognize the toll the pressure can take on you.  We operate expensive equipment that takes an immense amount of common sense and knowhow to run, and it is far from safe nor is it easy.  Learning to prime out, maintain, clean out, understanding mix designs, while managing the dangers of the job, and how to set up & break down your system efficiently and be effective is no easy task.

The responsibilities, problems, and challenges of pumping are wholistic, involving the entire mind, body, and soul.  It's a daily gamble that we take, hoping and praying that all will go well and we will return home at the end of the day just to hit the bed so we can get up early and work the crazy hours we do, all over again.  

Blowout to burgers: merging several loves

Early one morning on the way to pump concrete I had a blowout on the pump, the durable trailer tire is rated for 10,000 pounds and when I pulled over to look, the remaining tire looked like a shredded sunflower hanging on the rim.

More challenges immediately followed.  I had to drop the pump and run home to grab the spare, when I got back, I tried to start the pump so I could lower its outriggers to raise up the rear to change the flat.  My battery was dead on the pump.  I pulled the truck around to the pump to jump start the pump, either my cables were bad or the truck battery wasn't strong enough to start the pump.

I called the contractor I was pumping for, explained through my embarrassment the situation and asked if his crew could try with their work truck to jump the pump.  They drove from the jobsite to me quickly.  

A momentary victory was short-lived.  We succeeded in jumping our pump with their truck, changed the flat, but then on the way to their job the pump died again.  I apologized once more, pushed back concrete at the plant once again, and ran to the parts-store for a new battery, which was out of stock.  

I went to the next parts-store, who had our battery, and when it came time to remove the old battery, we couldn't budge it.  I called our salesman who talked me through it, it required loosing the cold air return lines, which I didn't tighten the rubber boots back properly after we reinstalled the battery and each time the pump switched strokes the return lines on the diesel motor whistled loudly.  I texted the mechanic at the pump factory in California and asked him about the whistling, he texted "That is bad, you have to fix that immediately!"  I wiggled the rubber boot that goes on the metal pipe of the cold air return and readjusted the clamps and solved that dilemma.  

Of course at this point, it had to rain  We were pumping three sets of footers on the same street on adjoining lots.  When I say rain, I don't mean sprinkle.  It was a deluge.

  In my haste to get loaded up and strap down the hoses, I forgot to pick up the wooden blocks I set under the outriggers, these blocks we have had on the truck since our second job, I know it sounds silly to be attached to theses scrap 4x4 blocks, but they held a special memory too, I salvaged those blocks the day we pumped the wrong mix and it took two hours to prime out and another 7 hours to beat out the plugged up hoses.  Lessons were learned that day!

I decided quickly that I would not waste the challenging experience of the day I had a major blowout.  You've heard the old saying, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."  When a concrete pumper has a major blowout that ruins the rim, instead of lemons to lemonade, I say "Blowouts to burgers!"  

This project is meaningful to me because it brings several of my loves together, woven like a quilt, first, the spare parts for making this grill are from the pump, namely the bent rim but the post for this grill is an old reducer.  For those who don't pump, the reducer attaches to the outlet on the pump where the concrete initially is discharged from the pump.    Concrete is what I set the grill in, in the backyard.

So far pumping and concrete, two of my great loves have been involved in creating a grill, and of course grilling is one of my loves, and then another love of mine is welding.  I took four years of welding in high school and had ambitions of welding as a career in my teens.

I can’t think of anything more rewarding than to recreate creatively taking ruin, salvaging the chaos and then utilize and cause something useful and productive from a discouraging situation.  I love this homemade grill that transformed an experience of being stranded to solving the solution of when we are starving!

A new addition to the homemade grill, a concrete table: