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Had a concrete pump hose blowout on me last Tuesday, what a mess
I was working on a slab pour for a new warehouse out near San Antonio. The pump was running fine for about 40 minutes when the hose just let go right at the coupling. Concrete sprayed everywhere, all over the rebar, the forms, and my crew's boots. We had to stop the pour immediately and call the rental company for a replacement hose. Took us nearly 2 hours to clean up the spill with shovels and wheelbarrows before we could restart. The slab ended up taking 3 extra hours and we had to pay overtime for 4 guys. The concrete supplier wouldn't give us a discount on the load we lost either. Has anyone else had a hose failure like this and found a way to check for weak spots before a big pour?
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logan_schmidt5d ago
Man that's a rough one. I've noticed this kinda thing happens more often when you're pushing equipment hard during a long pour, like the hoses just get fatigued and let go right at the worst moment. There's always a pattern with these failures, they never seem to happen during a small test or at the start of a slow day. I started walking the whole hose line before every big pour, looking for any bulges or stiff spots near the couplings where the rubber gets worked the most. Doesn't catch everything but saved my ass twice now, once when I found a section that felt like it had a bubble under the outer layer.
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