If you've never hired a concrete pump before, the first fork in the road is the big one: line pump or boom pump? Choose right and pour day is smooth and cheap. Choose wrong and you're either paying for reach you didn't need, or watching a boom truck fail to squeeze into a street it was never going to fit down.
Here's the practical version of how we make that call at MetroFlow, hundreds of times a year.
What each pump actually is
A line pump (also called a trailer pump or ground pump) is a pump unit that stays at the street or driveway. Concrete travels from the agitator truck through a pipeline — steel and rubber hose, roughly 100mm across — that we lay by hand from the pump to wherever the pour is. The concrete comes out of the end of the hose exactly where your concreters want it.
A boom pump is a truck with a folding hydraulic arm. The truck parks, spreads its outriggers, unfolds the boom over the site, and places concrete anywhere within the boom's radius via a remote-controlled arm. There's no line to lay and no re-setting between sections — the boom just moves.
When a line pump wins
Line pumps dominate residential work, and for good reason:
- Tight access. If the pour is behind the house, down a battle-axe driveway, or over a fence, a line pump gets there and a boom often can't. Hose goes anywhere a person can walk.
- Smaller volumes. For pours under roughly 30–40 cubic metres — most house slabs, driveways, paths and pool surrounds — a line pump's output is plenty.
- Cost. Line pump hire is meaningfully cheaper than a boom for the same small-to-medium pour. If reach isn't the constraint, the line pump usually wins on price.
- Established properties. Line runs can be routed to protect gardens, paving and landscaping. A boom needs a big, firm parking footprint that finished properties often don't have.
The trade-offs: someone has to lay and later strip the line (we do that), output is slower than a boom, and very long or very vertical runs need planning — see our post on how far a line pump can actually push concrete.
When a boom pump wins
- Volume. Big slabs — commercial floors, large house slabs, suspended decks — pour dramatically faster under a boom. When you're paying a finishing crew and a queue of agitator trucks by the hour, pump output is money.
- Elevation. Pouring at height — second storeys, suspended slabs, formwork decks — is what booms are built for. A line pump can go vertical, but it costs reach and adds complexity.
- Obstacles with open parking. A boom reaches up and over a house to a backyard pour in one move — if there's room to park and spread outriggers out front. On wide new-estate streets, that's often the fastest option of all.
- All-day pours. Continuous high-volume pours with multiple trucks cycling need the hopper capacity and output rate of a boom.
The trade-offs: cost, and access. A boom truck is large and heavy. It needs a truck-length of firm ground, clearance for outriggers, and no powerlines in the boom's arc — our boom access guide covers exactly what to check.
The quick decision test
Ask three questions about your job:
- How much concrete? Under ~40m³, line pump territory. Over that, a boom starts paying for itself in speed.
- Where does it need to land? Ground level with walkable access from the street: line pump. At height, or over obstacles with good street parking: boom.
- What's the site like? Finished landscaping and tight streets favour the line. Open blocks and wide access favour the boom.
Most residential jobs in Melbourne — house slabs, driveways, pool surrounds — land on the line pump. Most commercial work lands on the boom. The interesting jobs are the ones in the middle, and that's where a quick phone conversation saves real money.
What we do when you're not sure
Send us the address, the volume and a couple of photos of the access. We'll look at the site (we know most Melbourne suburbs street by street), tell you which pump does it cheapest, and quote it all-in. Sometimes the answer surprises people — a boom that parks once can beat a long line run on price; a line pump can rescue a job a boom quoted at a fortune because of a difficult set-up.
There's no commission on the answer either way. We run both types of pump, so our only interest is matching the right unit to your pour the first time.
Still weighing it up? Get a free quote — describe the job and we'll recommend the right pump within the day.