Concrete Delivery Across Birmingham
Volumetric ready mix, batched at your kerb and metered at the chute — from £99/m³ +VAT. Minimum load 0.5m³, and you only pay for what you pour.
A Batching Plant on Wheels, Not a Drum on a Deadline
Most concrete delivery works like this: a plant across town mixes your load, a drum truck carries it through traffic, and whatever arrives is what you get. Ours doesn't. A volumetric truck is a mobile batching plant — separate sealed bins for stone, sand and cement, an onboard water tank and admixture tanks. Calibrated gates meter each material into a mixing auger, and the concrete is blended seconds before it leaves the chute.
That changes three things about your delivery:
- You pay for what you pour. The discharge is metered, so the bill reflects the concrete that actually went into the ground — not the round number you guessed when you ordered. Minimum load 0.5m³, no part-load penalty.
- The mix is fresh. Drum concrete is racing a clock from the moment it's batched; ours isn't batched until it's at your site.
- The reach is better. Drum mixers discharge around 2.4–2.75m from the rear. Our trucks carry extension chutes reaching around 5m — often the difference between pouring direct and paying to barrow or pump.
If you want the full story on mix-on-site — including the honest downsides — see volumetric concrete explained.
Our Published Prices Per Cubic Metre
Most suppliers make you phone around just to learn a number. Here are ours, in the open.
| Mix | Typical jobs | Guide price per m³ |
|---|---|---|
| C8/10 designed mix (the "GEN1" job) | Strip and trench-fill foundations in normal ground, oversite, mass fill, floors to be screeded | from £99 +VAT |
| C20 (C16/20) (the "GEN3" job) | Unreinforced shed, garage and workshop bases | from £105 +VAT |
| C25 | Reinforced foundations; the strength behind air-entrained driveway mixes | from £110 +VAT |
| C30 | Reinforced slabs and harder-working domestic concrete | from £115 +VAT |
| C35 | Reinforced garage floors, suspended floors and structural work to an engineer's spec | from £120 +VAT |
| C40 | Industrial floors, heavy-duty yards and wearing surfaces | from £128 +VAT |
All prices are per m³ and exclude VAT — add 20%. They're guide prices, confirmed when you book; Out-of-hours pours may carry a surcharge, also confirmed up front. What you won't find: part-load fees, returned-concrete charges, or a bill for the 0.3m³ you didn't use. For the market context behind these numbers, see our ready mix concrete prices guide.
The Grades We Supply — and What the Trade Names Mean
We supply concrete by strength class — C20, C25, C30, C35, C40 — as designed mixes batched to the strength and durability requirements of BS 8500 / BS EN 206. If your engineer's drawing names a class, we batch it. If it names a consistence, we hit that too: S3 is the general-purpose slump, S4 for trench fill.
You'll also hear trade names — GEN1, GEN3, PAV1 and the like. Those are "designated mixes", and the rules say they may only be supplied under those names by producers holding third-party certification such as QSRMC or the BSI Kitemark, which most volumetric operators — us included — don't currently hold. So we use the names educationally and sell honestly: what builders call GEN1 is a C8/10-strength general-purpose mix, and we batch an equivalent designed mix. Same job, straight label.
One honest caveat. Some specifications — NHBC requirements and National Highways work among them — strictly require certified designated concrete. If yours does, we'll tell you so and point you the right way rather than fudge the paperwork.
And because the batch happens at your kerb, we can change grade mid-visit: footings at one spec, oversite at another, off the same truck. For the plain-English walkthrough of every class, see concrete grades explained.
How Much Concrete Do You Need?
Length × width × depth, all in metres, gives cubic metres. Remember 100mm is 0.1m — so a 6m × 3m slab at 150mm is 6 × 3 × 0.15 = 2.7m³. Add 5–10% for uneven ground and spillage, and if it helps to picture it, 1m³ weighs about 2.4 tonnes.
Depth rules of thumb: paths and shed bases around 100mm; driveways and garage floors around 150mm.
Here's the part that matters with us: over-estimating costs you nothing. The truck arrives carrying more raw material than the job needs, and the meter stops when the pour does. Under-estimate and we simply batch more on the spot — no second delivery, no anxious phone call to the plant.
The concrete calculator does the arithmetic for you, contingency included.
Same-Day and Weekend Delivery
Same-day slots are often available — because the truck carries raw materials rather than a pre-batched load, we don't have to wait on a plant's schedule to fit you in. Call before mid-morning for the best chance.
We work seven days a week, 7am–5pm. Out-of-hours pours may carry a surcharge — we'll confirm the exact figure when you book, before you commit, not on the invoice.
Straight Talk About Access
A loaded concrete truck is a serious vehicle: roughly 8.5–9.5m long, about 2.55m wide — call it 3.1m with mirrors — around 4m tall and up to 32 tonnes. As a rule of thumb we need about 3m of clear width, 4–4.5m of overhead clearance, and ground that will take a heavy lorry; soft ground needs boards or plates. Tell us about soft verges, manhole covers and block-paved drives when you book — we plan around them rather than discover them.
From where the truck stands, our extension chute reaches around 5m. When that's not enough, two options:
- Wheelbarrows. Reckon on about 20 barrow loads per m³, at 100kg-plus a barrow, and plan at least one barrow and one able adult per m³ to keep pace. Our drivers discharge into barrows — they don't push them.
- A pump. Beyond a couple of cubic metres of barrowing, a pump usually wins: pumps move roughly 1m³ a minute, and line pumps reach hundreds of metres horizontally. See concrete pump hire — we supply the pump and the concrete in one booking.
The right call depends on access and volume together, never one alone. Describe the job — or better, send a photo — and we'll tell you straight. There's more in our guide to preparing for a concrete delivery.
We Take the Washout Away
Rinsing concrete kit produces washwater with a pH of 11–13 — caustic stuff, and putting it down a drain or into a watercourse is a criminal offence. Birmingham has more canal than most cities to protect.
Some suppliers ask you to build a lined washout box before they'll attend. We don't. Washout is contained on every job and carried away on the truck — nothing goes down a drain, a gully or a canal, and there's no crusty grey puddle on your drive after we've gone.
Concrete Delivery FAQs
What is the minimum load for concrete delivery?
0.5m³ — and there's no part-load penalty on top. Because the truck batches on site and meters the discharge, you pay the per-m³ rate for what's actually poured, whether that's half a cube or nine.
Can you supply GEN1 concrete?
We batch the equivalent designed mix. GEN1 is a designated-mix name that may only be supplied under that name by producers holding third-party certification such as QSRMC or the BSI Kitemark. What builders call GEN1 is a C8/10-strength general-purpose mix — we batch an equivalent designed mix to the requirements of BS 8500, which is exactly what most footings and oversite jobs need. If your specification strictly requires certified designated concrete — NHBC and National Highways specs do — we'll say so plainly and advise, rather than supply the wrong paperwork.
Will you add water on site to loosen the mix?
No — and you shouldn't want us to. Unauthorised water invalidates the performance of the mix and weakens it. The volumetric advantage is that we don't need the bodge: workability is adjusted properly at the point of batching, so if you need a wetter mix we batch a wetter mix. Any water added at a customer's insistence is recorded on the batch ticket.
Can you deliver concrete same day in Birmingham?
Often, yes — same-day slots are frequently available. Call early in the day and we'll tell you honestly whether we can get to you. We deliver seven days a week, 7am–5pm.
Do your prices include VAT?
No — all prices on this site are quoted ex VAT, so add 20%. They're guide prices, confirmed when you book. The from-rates start at £99/m³ for a C8/10-strength general-purpose mix and run to £128/m³ for C40.
What if the truck can't get near the pour?
It usually gets closer than you'd think — our extension chutes reach around 5m, roughly double a drum mixer's reach. Beyond that it's wheelbarrows (about 20 barrow loads per m³) or a pump, and we supply both the concrete and the pump. Send a photo of the access with your enquiry and we'll quote the right method first time.
Do I get proof of what was delivered?
Every load comes with a batch ticket from the truck's calibrated metering: mix and strength class, consistence, aggregate size, cement type, batch time and the metered volume you're billed for. If you need cubes for identity testing, we'll fill cube moulds on request and point you to UKAS-accredited labs.
Ready to Book a Pour?
Tell us the job, the postcode and roughly how much — we'll confirm the grade, the price and the slot in one call. 7 days a week, 7am–5pm.