Our yard is in SM6. So is Wallington. King Concrete Pumping is on Beddington Lane, which runs straight into the town, making this the shortest delivery run we do. Ready mix, volumetric and screed, pumped into position where access needs it. Call 0330 016 1060.
Wallington is the nearest town to our yard. Beddington Lane runs into Wallington, so a load leaving us is on site in minutes rather than the better part of an hour. That is worth more than it sounds. Concrete has a working window once it is batched. The trade commonly works to a 90 minute rule of thumb for discharging a load, and BS 8500 sets two hours as the normal limit unless something else is agreed. A supplier running out from central London or the far side of Surrey burns a chunk of that window getting to you. We barely touch it. The practical effect is that the concrete arrives workable with time in hand, and that we can be flexible when a pour slips because the groundworks ran late. That happens on most jobs and it is a lot easier to absorb when the yard is up the road.
Ready mix concrete batched to a specified grade and delivered ready to pour. Volumetric concrete mixed on site, which covers staged or awkward pours and means you pay for what you use rather than for a part load. Floor screed, supplied and pumped where the job calls for it. Boom and ground line pumps when a mixer cannot reach the pour. We work for homeowners, builders, groundworkers, developers and commercial contractors, from a single extension footing through to a full commercial slab.
Length times width times depth, everything converted to metres first, which is where most people trip up. A slab four by three metres at 100mm is not 4 x 3 x 100, it is 4 x 3 x 0.1, and the answer is 1.2 cubic metres. The calculator on our homepage handles the conversion if you would rather not. Always round up. Sub bases are never perfectly level, and the cost of an extra half metre is small next to the cost of a cold joint through the middle of your slab.
| Job | Typical Size | Depth | Usual Grade | Roughly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shed or garden room base | 3m x 3m | 100mm | C20 | 0.9m3 |
| Garage base | 5m x 3m | 100mm | C20 to C25 | 1.5m3 |
| Two car driveway | 5m x 5m | 100mm | C30 | 2.5m3 |
| Single storey extension footing | 12m of trench, 600mm wide | 600mm | C25 | 4.3m3 |
| Commercial slab | Per drawing | Per engineer | C35 | Per drawing |
Those volumes are straight arithmetic from the sizes shown, so check them against your own measurements rather than ordering off the table. Building control or your structural engineer will specify the grade for anything structural. For everything else, tell us what the concrete is going under and we will point you at the right mix rather than selling you a stronger one than the job needs.
Wallington Green and the roads off Manor Road have the usual mix of Victorian terraces and interwar semis, so side access varies house by house. Where a mixer cannot reach, a ground line pump moves concrete through a hose around the property. Send a photo with your enquiry and we will tell you what will work
There are large concrete plants within a few miles of Wallington and they are perfectly good at what they do, which is batching and delivering concrete in volume. What they are less good at is the small awkward job. A part load to a terrace with no access, a pour that slipped two hours because building control turned up late, a customer who is not sure whether they need C20 or C25 and wants someone to just tell them. That work does not suit a plant running to a schedule, and it is most of what we do.
We are family-run, we answer our own phone, and the person you speak to when you book is the person who knows whether the lorry is running late. That is the whole difference, and for a lot of jobs it is the one that matters.
Being five minutes away only helps if the site is ready when we get there. Most delays on domestic jobs are not the supplier. The commonest is shuttering that is not finished or not braced properly. Wet concrete pushes hard, and shuttering that moves during a pour turns a morning into a week. The second is not enough people. One person cannot place, level and tamp a slab arriving at any speed, and concrete does not pause while you find help. The third is access nobody checked. A gate that turns out to be too narrow for a barrow, or a side return with a step in it, gets discovered at the worst possible moment. This is why we ask for a photo rather than a description. The fourth is the weather. Heavy rain during a pour damages the surface, and hard frost stops it curing properly. Neither is anyone’s fault, but both are easier to plan around than to react to. Tell us about anything unusual when you book. A pour that goes to plan is nearly always one where the awkward bit was flagged in advance.
Across the trade, ready mix is normally booked 24 to 48 hours ahead, with same day possible when a slot opens up. Wallington is the shortest run we do, so short notice is more realistic here than anywhere else we cover. Call with your date and we will tell you honestly what we can do rather than promising something we cannot hold to.
The 90 minute rule is a widely used guideline that concrete should be discharged within 90 minutes of being batched, before it starts to set and loses workability. BS 8500 sets the normal limit at two hours unless otherwise agreed, so 90 minutes is the cautious working figure. Being on Beddington Lane means Wallington deliveries use very little of it.
Expect roughly £100 to £200 per cubic metre for the material, plus £120 to £200 delivery, on Yell’s published ranges for this area. Small loads carry a higher rate per cubic metre because the delivery cost is spread across less material, which is why a 1m3 shed base rarely costs a third of a 3m3 driveway. Ring 0330 016 1060 and we will price your volume.
C30 is the usual specification for a domestic driveway, giving 30 N/mm2 at 28 days. If it will carry anything heavier than cars, say so when you order, because the grade should go up.
Yes. SM6 takes in Wallington and Beddington, and our yard sits inside it on Beddington Lane, so the whole postcode is effectively local to us.
As a rule of thumb, once you are above about half a cubic metre, yes. Mixing by hand means buying cement, aggregate and sand separately, hiring a mixer, and paying for the labour and the time it eats. Below that, bagged concrete from a merchant usually wins.
Light rain is usually manageable if the surface is covered as it goes off. Heavy rain during or just after a pour damages the finish and can weaken the top layer, so it is better to move the date. Hard frost is the other one to avoid, because concrete needs above freezing conditions to cure properly.
Typically around 24 to 48 hours for foot traffic, depending on the mix, the depth and the weather, and considerably longer before it takes any real load. Your groundworker will tell you what applies to your slab.
We are up the road, so ring 0330 016 1060 and tell us what you are pouring and when. If the date is tight, say so, because Wallington is the one place we can often work around it. Email enquiries@kingconcretepumping.co.uk if you would rather put it in writing.
We also cover Carshalton, Croydon and Epsom.
