There is a short window in the building calendar that experienced tradespeople guard carefully: the six or so weeks between mid-August and the end of September. The ground is dry, the days are still long, and concrete cures predictably. Once October arrives, every outdoor pour becomes a gamble with the forecast, and every trench dug in Devon clay starts collecting water. If you have a base to lay, a path to concrete, footings to dig or a driveway to finish, now is the time to get it done — and we have the kit to make it a one-weekend job rather than a three-weekend one.
Why late summer is prime concreting weather
Concrete does not like extremes. In high summer heat it can cure too fast and crack; in cold, damp conditions it cures slowly and weakly, and anything below about five degrees is asking for trouble. Late August and September in South Devon usually sit in the sweet spot: warm enough for a reliable cure, past the fiercest heat, and — most years — before the serious rain sets in.
The same logic applies to groundwork. Digging footings or drainage runs in dry ground is faster, cleaner and safer than fighting waterlogged clay in November. Spoil is lighter when it is dry, trench sides hold better, and your site does not turn into a mud bath the moment you open it up.
The mixing kit
For most domestic jobs — shed bases, fence posts, a few metres of path — an Electric Cement Mixer (from £20 excl. VAT) does everything you need and runs quietly off a household supply. Working somewhere without power, or on a bigger pour? The Petrol Cement Mixer (from £22.50) gives you the same capacity anywhere, and for site work we also carry a Diesel Site Mixer.
For screeds, self-levelling compound, renders and tile adhesive, a drum mixer is the wrong tool — a Paddle Mixer (from £15) mixes smaller batches to a much more consistent consistency, straight in the bucket.
Moving muck and getting it flat
The hardest part of most groundwork jobs is not the digging — it is moving what you have dug. If there is any real distance between the hole and the skip, a 3 Ton Dumper (from £95) will save your back and hours of barrow runs. For the digging itself, our 2 Ton Excavator (from £110) fits through most domestic access and will out-dig a team with shovels many times over. Tighter budget or narrower access? Have a look at the full Excavators and Diggers range and our tracked and four-wheel-drive barrows.
Before anything gets poured, the sub-base needs compacting properly — skip this step and the best concrete in the world will still crack. Our Compacting Equipment range covers wacker plates and trench rammers for exactly this.
The mistakes that cost people their weekend
After years behind the counter, we see the same handful of avoidable problems every season. The first is under-ordering: work out your volume properly (length × width × depth, then add ten per cent) before you buy ballast and cement, because a Sunday afternoon dash for two more bags when everything is shut has ruined plenty of pours. The second is skipping the compaction — a wacker plate pass over the sub-base takes twenty minutes and is the difference between a slab that lasts twenty years and one that cracks in two.
The third is ignoring the cure. Concrete does not finish when you level it; it needs to stay damp for the first few days to reach full strength. In warm late-summer weather, cover a fresh pour with polythene or damp hessian so it does not dry out too fast. And keep an eye on the overnight forecast from late September onwards — one early frost on green concrete will scar the surface permanently. A sheet of insulation or old carpet over the pour is a crude fix that works.
A realistic weekend plan
A typical shed base or small patio sub-base works well as a two-day hire: excavate and cart away on Saturday morning, compact hardcore Saturday afternoon, then mix and pour Sunday while the weather holds. Collect the kit Friday afternoon or first thing Saturday — we are open from 7:30am — and have it back Monday morning. One hire period, job done.
For anything much over a couple of cubic metres, it is worth doing the sums on ready-mix delivery versus mixing your own — and if you do go ready-mix, that is exactly when the dumper earns its money, because a wagon on the road and a pour at the back of the house need something fast in between. Either way, have your barrow runs, boards and rakes planned before the concrete arrives. Concrete waits for nobody.
If you would rather not tow a mixer or dumper yourself, we deliver across Newton Abbot, Torbay, Totnes and the surrounding areas, charged by distance and timed around your start, not ours.
Book it while the sun is still doing its bit
Every autumn we take calls from people who nearly finished their concreting in September. Do not be one of them. Ring us on 01626 333823, email hire@olympustoolhire.co.uk, or browse the full Plant Hire and Tool Hire ranges — and if you are not sure what the job needs, describe it to us and we will tell you exactly what we would use.