How To Pour A Cement Floor Slab With A Pump Truck | Building With Insulated Foam Panel Boards.

Today is an exciting day as we are pouring 47 yards / 35 cubic meters of concrete. But first, let me show you the type of materials we are using for construction. We are building with insulated foam panels, perfectly stitched to meet the strength and durability demands for a single structure. The panels will be 40% less expensive to construct the entire building, and it will be faster to install. This type of construction method is more affordable than all other building methods in Costa Rica. There is an instructional video, which is quite fascinating, and photos of the construction that you wouldn't believe is made from panels.

We had no issues with the concrete pump truck this time. The truck did not get stuck, and everything went very smoothly. We accommodated ourselves with an additional pump just in case the cement truck was unable to back in, but they did so without issues. The pump operator left after finishing.

We used a total of 4 trucks in total. Shout out to Roy and his crew, as you saw they were very effective and worked in sync, which was tremendous to see. If you are in the San Jose area, Roy and his crew are who to call. My engineer Enzest is doing a tremendous job supervising construction. Here in Costa Rica, everyone building needs an engineer to report to the College of Engineers to record each step of construction in the official construction logbook.

Marco from PanelCo commented on how professional my architectural plans are. He said he sent all the details to Enzest and everything is properly placed in the plans. He said this set of plans is one of the best he has seen.

Another thing to note is that using the concrete truck was about $2500 less than pouring it by hand with a regular portable cement mixer. So for a cubic meter, I paid 80,000 colones which is $153 for over 16 cubic meters. Anything less and the price would be different - somewhere in the range of 160,000 colones.

Using the truck was a smarter choice because of the integrity of the mix. It's all done at once so it dries evenly, unlike mixing by hand where the mix dries unevenly over a couple days to pour the whole floor. Again, if you are in Costa Rica and need more than 16 cubic meters of concrete for your project, use a cement truck.

For the plumbing in the construction, I decided to use PEX piping to run all the water lines in the structure. This is safer than PVC which risks cracking if someone accidentally steps on the joints as the concrete is expanding while drying. The people at Lugal Veiga are pleasant - I've spoken to the owner and she was quick to assist. I would recommend PEX if you're in a seismic area, since any shift can break PVC pipes. That's not a concern with Pex.
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