Concrete washout facilities

[flanagaj]

To date, the bricklayers and myself included have simply washed mixers out and discarded the washout water onto the ground.  I am curious as to what others do as most of the options available for capturing washout are for large sites where they can have dedicated washout bins and recycle the water.  For a domestic self build, that approach is not obviously not viable.

We don't have any water courses / drains in the vicinity and water table is 60ft below.   

[Mr Punter]

For concrete I use a sheet of 18mm OSB and some 4 x 2 to form a tray, lined with polythene.  Let the concrete go off, then break it up and use it as hardcore.

[flanagaj]

36 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

For concrete I use a sheet of 18mm OSB and some 4 x 2 to form a tray, lined with polythene.  Let the concrete go off, then break it up and use it as hardcore.

Ok, thanks.  What about washout water from mixers and concrete readymix trucks?

[Mr Punter]

Just now, flanagaj said:

Ok, thanks.  What about washout water from mixers and concrete readymix trucks?

 

Just get them to hover over your tray and crap the contents out.  It is a bit messy but it will be fine.  Water dries up, concrete sets and can be broken up.

[Conor]

I made sure the washout area was a spot that would be later paved / concreted over. Each time there was a dump of concrete or cement, I'd rake it out flat and level. Ended up covering a good 20m²+ and 100mm+ thick by the time we were done. Concrete pumps produce a lot of waste!

[JohnMo]

We had huge pumping lorry 4 times, so a lot of wash water and unused concrete. Basically got it dumped on our driveway, then broke up before it fully set where it was bit thick. All of it is under our drive way.

[ToughButterCup]

Washout is useful. Now, 5 years later, I find myself wishing we had more.

 

We built a 10 by 8 , and 6 inch deep lined pit. The resulting washout area became a useful base for all sorts of things during the build after concreting. And then, when broken up it was piled up out of the way.

 

We found a use for very last bit of it. 

[saveasteading]

2 hours ago, ToughButterCup said:

We found a use for very last bit of it. 

You are a manager. You had space too?

[Gone West]

We just used bulk bags, which all the excess concrete and washout went into. Excess water drained out of the bottom.

[saveasteading]

18 minutes ago, Gone West said:

bulk bags,

Great idea. Did you deliberately make the leftovers ultra wet to avoid  a solid lump?

[Gone West]

Just now, saveasteading said:

Did you deliberately make the leftovers ultra wet to avoid  a solid lump?

No, the team laying the concrete asked where they could put the excess and washout, and we had bulk bags lying around. There wasn't that much really.