How do we assure the quality of Ready Mix Concrete

before using for Construction work ?

quora.com/How-do-we-assure-the-quality-of-Ready-Mix-Concrete-before-using-for-Construction-work

Krishna Mohan, Civil Engineer

Answered Mar 4 2016 · Author has 704 answers and 1.2m answer views
Ready Mix concrete available with suppliers are Like the Food made in Hotel and
Site Mix Concrete is Like the Food from Our Home.

( 1 )Advantages of using Ready Mix Concrete .

Works can be completed in fast track mode and Ready Mix is a solution for work sites
having less open area to store materials to prepare Site Mix Concrete. For the Projects
near the roads having Heavy Traffic and don't have sufficient space for Storage of
Materials and Equipment required for lifting concrete, it is better to go for Ready Mix. Doing
concrete work in late night will clear the problem of heavy traffic and non availability of
space .That is the main reason of using Ready Mix for Fly Over, Over Bridge & Metro rail
Bridges. If we are using Site Mix Concrete of 100 Cum
quantity, it will take 16 hours to complete the work . But with ready mix we can complete it
within 8 to 9hours.For transporting 100Cum of Concrete 17 nos of Ready Mix transporting
Trucks will come ( Each Truck will bring 6 Cum of concrete ,
Concrete made with 40 bags of Cement )

( 2 )Quality Checking of Ready Mix Concrete

In any type of Concrete ( Ready Mix or Site Mix ) there should be 50% to 60% of
20mm size Stone aggregate. Remaining 50% to 40% Stone aggregate can be 20mm
down size to get the Designed Strength mentioned in the books of Bureau of Indian
Standards ( I.S Code& national Building Code Book). But all Ready Mix companies are
using only a maximum of 30% 20mm size Stone aggregate to safe guard their
Concrete Pump from Chocking. They all are adding more water than the required
quantity to speed up the Concrete
Pumping . This Excess water and Less quantity of 20mm size Stone will reduce the
Design Strength & actual strength of Concrete used.

Precautions to get Good Quality Ready Mix Concrete.

( A) Check the Quality of River sand / Robo Sand / Rock sand used in concrete.

( B) Check the Quality & Quantity of 20mm & 20mm down size Stone aggregate.**

(C) Chemical added in concrete to delay the setting time to reach the project sites far from
Mixing Plant.

( D ) Chemical added in concrete to increase workability .

1/4
( E ) Quality of Cement used in Concrete. Only OPC 33grade, OPC 43 grade and OPC
53 grade should be used for all works of High Rise Buildings except flooring PCC
and Plastering . Fly Ash based cement can be used for Flooring ,PCC and Plastering

(F ) The distance from project site to Ready Mix Plant.

( G) Whenever we are receiving the Ready mix concrete, Stop it near the Entry Gate
for Checking the water content through Slump Test and Keep one of our Man in the
mixing plant to verify the quality of all materials using. We can reject the trucks carrying
concrete failed in Our Field Testing.

( H )Manipulations Methods in Ready Mix Supply

I ordered for 57 Cum of Ready Mix Concrete for Slab Concrete to the Marketing
executive of Ready Mix supply company owned by One of the Largest Cement
Manufacturer in our country. After 10 pm we started the Slab concrete by pumping to 5th
floor height . By 3 am we consumed concrete came in Ten Trucks. But the funny thing is
that the Slab Concrete is not complete and we found 7 Cum more required to
complete the work . Each truck will be carrying 6 Cum of Ready Mix Concrete and
total quantity received from Ten Trucks is 10nos x 6 Cum = 60 Cum. So I verified the
Delivery Challan received me ,when I signed one copy for them. 7 nos DC I signed and
given to themand the quantity of concrete received was also correct, as I verified the area
of Slab Concrete . Problem started from the 8th truck . The site concrete In-charge called
three more Trucks from their Mixing Plant. Three empty trucks were washing the vehicles in
out Township Site . By Sensing the Foul Play I immediately informed Our security
Guards to Close the gate and not to allow any Vehicle out from Out Project Site. By
the time Three Trucks with concrete Reached the gate . We allowed them inside and
completed the slab concrete. But Delivery Challan for the 8th Truck to 13th Truck is not
given and All Vehicles are kept in Our Site up to arrival of their team of Engineers and
quality control In-Charge at 11 am .I informed my company office and as per my
instruction only the team from Ready Mix Supplier came. I asked them to take the site
measurement , where the Slab Concrete is done and prove the Quantity of Concrete
Supplied. According to them they supplied 13nos Trucks x 6 Cum = 72 Cum of concrete.
But my requirement was only 57 Cum concrete. Finally they agreed the mistake happened.
From 3.30am to 4,30am concrete mixing plat will be Shut Down for daily Periodical
Maintenance . So the balance concrete from other sites will be diverted to the next nearest
site where concrete required with a DC written in the vehicle for a quantity of 6 Cum. I was
aware of these practice through the experience from other Ready Mix Concrete Suppliers .
First 7nos Trucks came directly from Mixing Plant & Other 6nos of Vehicles are diverted
with small quantity of concrete. First their team tried to threatened me by telling " You dont
have any authority to detain Vehicles " and " We will file Case in Police Station". My
firm stand was that "you prove the quantity supplied and give an official letter to my
company or I will call the Police / Media !!!!!!.

Above mentioned incident is happened in Hyderabad during the construction of 38

nos Buildings in our Township having 1539 nos Luxury Flats. The same Ready Mix
company supplied concrete for Our Shopping Mall in Banjara Hills Road-1. In that building

2/4
One slab is found weak after concreting and the Ready Mix Company engaged
Expert Agency to Strengthen the Slab at their Cost.

Your feedback is private.

Is this answer still relevant and up to date?

Related QuestionsMore Answers Below

Sania Baker, Blogger
Answered Jun 5 2017 · Author has 289 answers and 174.2k answer views
The slump test and compression test are two of the most common types of tests used for
checking the quality of ready mix concrete. While a slump test is conducted on the site, a
compression test is done in a laboratory. The slump test is conducted by a supervisor
before the concrete is about to be placed in the formwork. However, if during the concrete
laying process if the supervisor finds that the green concrete is getting dry or if the concrete
placement is interrupted, the remaining concrete is tested again.

The compression test is conducted for determining the characteristic strength of concrete.
The result of this test is important for accepting in-situ concrete work as it determines the
concrete's strength. Historical slump and strength data are also taken into consideration.
Moreover, for large projects trial mixes are often required.

Once the quality is tested, only then the concrete is added to a concrete pump which is
now generally used for most small and large scale construction projects. Due to the high
cost of new concrete pumps, several contractors rely on companies like Concrete Pump
Depot for buying high-quality used concrete pumps.

Bargav Kashyap
Answered May 24 2017
Let me bring you one of the biggest known, doubted, yet unspoken scam in the Ready Mix
Concrete Industry all over India. The Batching slips that we receive at the site are
absolutely fake Batch slips and are just mere excel printouts with mix design and Quantity
manipulated as per what clients wishes to see. Else the Supplier comfortably plays around
with the mix-design, reduces cement Quantity and increases the GGBS quantity hence
making a good savings there. Also reduces 0.3-o.5 Cum in each vehicle (out of
6Cum/8cum vehicle) and saves further more money. All this at the cost of Clients money
(loss of Rs.200–300 per cum), Projects life and Client’s invaluable brand name. As you
were wondering how the Actual Quantity crossed the estimated quantity every Customer
does yet has no point to prove. hence stays silent. Here in Bangalore procuring through
www.buildbuy.in Builders are getting Genuine Batch slips and avoiding this heavy pilferage
of money which is solving the problem.

Ronit Thapar
Answered Aug 25 2017 · Author has 61 answers and 48.4k answer views
RMC is designed by an engineer which is generally known as concrete mix design of a
specific grade viz M25, M30 etc.. the design reports shows the proportions of different
ingredients(coarse and fine aggregates, cement, water, sometimes fly ash, admixture) of
concrete based on the trial mix conducted in lab for a specific grade. Now The batching
3/4
plant uses the same proportions of the ingredients of concrete( the source of supply of
aggregates should be same) for mixing. The batching plant is calibrated and after the mix is
prepared , the plant generates a report showing proportions of different constituents of
concrete. It should match with the design mix report. This way you have managed a quality
control on preparation of concrete mix. After the concrete reaches site you can go for
slump test which shows degree of workability of concrete. You also have to take test cubes
of the concrete mix to ascertain he strength of concrete mix after 7 days and 28 days.

David Wilmshurst, Technical Manager - Materials Consultancy and Lab (1985-present)

Answered Apr 30 2017 · Author has 3.8k answers and 1.1m answer views
Ask to see historical strength and slump data

On a big job, require trial mixes.

Before concrete from a truck is used, ensure that slump is competently tested, and honestly
reported, and specimens for compressive strength (and other parameters, if of interest) are
taken. Then watch like a hawk to ensure that no more water is added prior to discharge.

Make sure that the specimens are not substituted between manufacture and testing.

Use an accredited laboratory with a proven record of honest and accurate results.

Nasir Ayaz, Ph.D Structural Engineering & Concrete and Cement, University of Engineering
and Technology, Taxila (2019)
Answered Aug 20 2017
You must have already designed a mix e.g 1:2:4 for 40 MPA concrete .. and u have already
checked the slump and strength of concrete by making the standard specimens … so u will
have no problem in finding your concrete mix before pouring

Jassmeet Chauhan
Answered Jan 16 · Author has 117 answers and 109.3k answer views
Ready Mix plaster for wall surfaces helps save time and effort. You can use them for
concrete blocks, bare brick walls, R.C.C. ceilings, and concrete columns. You can check
the quality by actual testing and see if it meets the building standards. It must have bulk
density at least 1000 kg/m2 and give a coverage of 20 square feet (25kg bag). The setting
time must be 25-30 minutes and the compressive strength must be at least 60 kg/cm2. You
can get your supply from the largest manufacturer of POP in India, Kaya Maya Industries
an ISO 9001:2008 certified company. They market their building material under the brand
name of Trimurti Products.

Mohith Jain Rathore, Digital Marketing Specialist (2017-present)

Answered Aug 15 2017 · Author has 180 answers and 9.8k answer views
Quality of ready mix is bit hard to find out as there are many types of concrete and few
people mix illagal things to make the concrete good and they sell for cheap price. SCC (sri
chowadeshwari concrete) provides the best ready mix concrete suppliers, they are trust
worthy and i brought my building materials from scc group

4/4