Hi team. Does anyone have any experience of alternatives to, or easy ways to pump cement grouts for filling pressed metal fire door frames in concrete/block walls? We’ve been asked to quote fitting and back filling of about 120 frames. Each frame has a 300x60mm section size and will take about 90 litres (18 gallons) of grout. I would be happy to buy a pump for afew grand but theres nothing suitable on the market here under $16,000 AD. (about $10,000 us)
What is the norm for this type of installation in your part of the world?
Theres got to be a better way!
Replies
Normally we grout them as the wall is built- the mason fills the cavity with mud as he sets the blocks against the frame. Is there something I'm missing here?
We had about had about 65 doors to grout one time. We rented a couple manual pumps and an electric mortar mixer. Put the pumps on a baker scaffold one guy pumps, one guy fills the pump and one person mixing grout for the pumps. Local rental place doesn't carry electric pumps thats why we didn't use them. One word of advice use the finest sand you can buy, all purpose sand and play sand clogged are pumps. Some how the pump pushed everything through the pump membrane except the coarse sand. Hope this helps.
I worked for a large commercial contractor years ago that used a manual pump. The pump usually was slower than pouring the frames by hand. If the mix is wet ( about 8" slump) it goes fairly quick. Depending on how much headroom you have, anything from coffee cans to small buckets can be used with a funnel or trougth.
The frame must be properly braced or the wet mix will bulge the frame. I found the best way to do this was to take a sheet of 1/2" cdx plywood and cut it to exact dimensions of openings. Then cut square openings top and bottom , bottom opening is for access to other side, top can be smaller or not cut at all. Both sides of the opening must be braced so the frame does not twist. Following day the plywood can be tapped out. I had two laborers on this daily, they usually could do three openings a day. Consequently we made only three sets of braces for 36" openings.
The pump had a tendency to clog up, when it worked it worked well. Concrete and masonry accessory suppliers probably carry the pump.
mike