A concrete line pump is a trailer-mounted pump that pushes concrete through a train of steel and rubber hose laid along the ground. It handles pours a mixer truck can’t reach directly: backyard pool decks, interior slabs, and tight lots. Most line pump work runs smaller volumes than boom pump jobs.

We’ve run Schwing line pumps out of Lake Butler since 2003, starting with a single P88 and adding multiple pumps throughout the years. What follows is the version we’d give you standing next to the trailer.

What Is a Concrete Line Pump?

A line pump is a self-contained concrete pump mounted on a trailer and towed to the job. It has a hopper at the back where the mixer truck discharges, a pumping mechanism that generates pressure, and an outlet that feeds a line of hose running to wherever the concrete needs to go.

The naming trips people up, so it’s worth clearing up three terms you’ll see used for the same machine:

Ground line pump. Same thing. The name describes the hose running along the ground rather than through an elevated boom.
Trailer pump. Also the same machine, named for how it gets to the site.
Line pump concrete truck. This one is a bit of a misnomer. The pump itself is usually a trailer, towed behind a truck. There’s no line pump equivalent to the big truck-mounted boom rig.

The distinction that actually matters is line pump versus boom pump. A boom pump is truck-mounted with an articulating arm that swings concrete up and over obstacles. A line pump has no arm. It moves concrete horizontally through the hose you lay by hand. We’ve covered the full comparison between the two elsewhere, so this guide stays on the line pump.

One thing to be clear about before going further, because it catches homeowners off guard: pumping is not placing or finishing. We move the concrete from the mixer to your form. A finisher screeds, floats, and finishes it. Those are two different trades and usually two different companies.

How Does a Line Pump Actually Move Concrete?

The mixer truck backs up to the hopper and discharges. From there the process runs in a loop:

Concrete fills the hopper. An agitator keeps it moving so it doesn’t start setting up or separating while it waits.
The pumping cylinders draw and push. Two cylinders alternate. One pulls concrete in from the hopper while the other pushes its charge out toward the line.
A valve switches between them. As the cylinders swap roles, a valve redirects flow so the output stays continuous rather than pulsing hard.
Concrete travels the hose train. Steel pipe and rubber hose, coupled together, carry it to the discharge end where your crew is placing.

The step nobody outside the trade knows about is priming. Before any concrete goes through, we push a slurry, essentially cement and water without the aggregate, down the line to coat the inside of every hose. Dry hose walls grab aggregate and start a clog within a few feet. The slurry gives the concrete a lubricated surface to slide against.

We don’t charge a primer fee. Some outfits do. It’s part of the job, and the bill matches the estimate.

How Far Can You Line Pump Concrete?

Further than most people expect horizontally, and much less than they expect vertically.

Distance isn’t a single number, which is why the manufacturer pages dodge the question. What you can pump on a given day depends on four things working together:

Total hose length. Every additional length adds friction the pump has to overcome.
Bends in the line. A 90 degree bend costs you significantly more pressure than the same length of straight hose. Routing the line in a wide arc rather than a hard corner is free performance.
Vertical rise. Pushing concrete up costs far more pressure than pushing it along the ground, because the pump is fighting the weight of the entire column of concrete in the line. A modest vertical run can eat more capacity than a long horizontal one.
The mix. This one is the big lever, and it gets its own section below.

The practical answer for most residential and light commercial work is that a line pump will comfortably reach anywhere on a normal lot. Around a house, over a fence line, through a gate, into a backyard the mixer truck has no hope of reaching. When we do run into a limit, it’s more often an access or routing problem than a raw distance problem.

If reach is genuinely the constraint, that’s usually the signal to look at a boom pump instead. Going up and over is what the boom exists for.

What Kind of Concrete Mix Does a Line Pump Need?

This is where jobs go wrong, and it’s worth getting right before the mixer is on its way.

Line pumps run best with a 5 inch slump or higher. Slump is a measure of how wet and workable the mix is, taken with a standard cone test (ASTM C143 is the reference method). Higher slump means a wetter, more flowable mix.

Stiffer mixes are harder to push through hose and risk clogging a line. That’s a physical constraint of moving concrete through a narrow tube under pressure, not a preference. A mix that would place fine off a chute can be a genuine problem in a hose.

For comparison, our boom pump jobs run a 4 to 6 inch slump, and stiffer or wetter mixes are fine on those. The line pump window is narrower and sits higher. Don’t average the two numbers or swap them.

What to do about it: tell your ready-mix supplier the concrete is being line pumped when you order. They’ll design the mix accordingly. Aggregate size matters as well as water content, and a supplier who knows it’s going through a hose will account for both. We coordinate timing with your supplier as a matter of course, and if we know the mix ahead of the pour we’ll flag a problem before the truck is loaded rather than after.

What Makes a Line Clog, and How Do Operators Prevent It?

Every operator’s least favorite word is clog. Concrete jams in the hose and stops moving, the pump is still making pressure, the line has gone solid, and nothing comes out the end. It’s the single most common way a pumped pour loses time.

Here’s what causes them, in roughly the order we see them:

Too stiff a mix. The most common cause by a distance. Covered above.
A contaminated load. A big rock in the pump mix, or anything else that leaves the plant in the load and shouldn’t be there, bridges the hose.
A poor cement ratio. A mix short on cement is harder to move through hose and more likely to clog.
A dry or badly primed line. Skip or shortcut the slurry and the first concrete through will grab.
Segregation. If the mix separates, aggregate and paste stop traveling together and the aggregate bridges across the hose.
Interrupted flow. Concrete sitting still in a hose starts to stiffen. A long gap between mixer trucks is a real risk, which is why pour timing and supplier coordination matter more than most people assume.
A hard bend or a kinked hose. Line routing gets treated as an afterthought. It isn’t one.

Clearing a clog means finding it, breaking the line at the coupling, clearing the blockage, and reassembling. On a bad clog you’re looking at real downtime with a crew standing around and concrete aging in the trucks behind.

Which is why the prevention side is where experience shows up. Prime properly. Get the mix right before ordering. Route the line with sweeping bends instead of hard corners. Keep concrete moving, and keep the trucks arriving on a rhythm that matches how fast the crew is placing. Most of that happens before the first yard goes in the hopper.

We maintain our line pumps in house and keep a backup pump available for time-critical jobs, which covers the other failure mode: the machine itself.

What Is a Line Pump Best For?

A line pump is the better call for most backyard pours. That’s an opinion, and here’s the reasoning behind it.

Line pumps earn their keep where access is the problem rather than height:

Pool decks. In-ground pool builders are repeat customers of ours, and the reason is structural: the pool is in the backyard, the mixer is on the street, and there’s a house in between.
Backyard patios and slabs. Same geometry, smaller volume. Most residential concrete pumping we do runs through a line pump for exactly this reason.
Interior pours. Basement floors, garage slabs, anywhere the hose can be run through a doorway.
Tight lots and narrow side yards. The trailer takes up far less room than a boom truck needs for outriggers.
Smaller volume work generally. Setup is quicker and the machine is less pump than a big pour needs.
Grout and cementitious fill. Our sinkhole pumping runs through line pumps, because grout placement is a hose job.

Where a line pump is the wrong tool: elevated pours, anything that needs to go up more than a modest rise, large-volume commercial slabs on a schedule, and jobs where the concrete has to clear a genuine obstacle rather than go around it. Those are boom pump jobs, and we’d tell you so.

A mixer truck loaded with concrete weighs around 60,000 pounds. If the honest answer is that the truck can get close enough to chute directly into the form, you may not need a pump at all. We’d rather say that on the phone than take the booking.

How Much Does Line Pumping Cost?

For residential work, a line pump runs $150 to $250 per hour with a minimum fee. Most residential pours finish inside the minimum.

That’s the number the vendor pages won’t give you, because they’re selling machines rather than pours. What sits behind it matters as much as the figure:

Billing is hourly, with a minimum. The rate and the minimum depend on pump type and site conditions.
No fuel surcharges and no primer fees.
No setup fee before the first yard.
Cleanup and washout are inside the hourly rate, not a separate line item.
Line pump runs are billed straight hourly, with no tight-access surcharge for backyard or interior work.

The bill matches the estimate. That’s the part customers mention most, and it’s the reason we publish the range at all rather than making you call to find out.

Commercial and boom pump work is estimated rather than published, because the variables are wider. Commercial estimates get written against actual cubic yards and pour time instead of a daily minimum. Our full breakdown of concrete pumping costs goes into the wider picture.

Worth noting what’s usually the larger number on the day: a pump that shows up on time and pumps continuously saves more in crew hours than the difference between one pumping rate and another. A finishing crew standing around waiting is the expensive outcome.

What Does a Line Pump Need From Your Site?

Less than a boom pump, which is much of the appeal. Still worth checking before the day:

Somewhere to park the trailer within reach of where the mixer can discharge.
A route for the hose to the pour. Through a gate, along a side yard, around the house.
A water source for priming and washout.
A washout spot you’re happy to have used. Concrete washout has to go somewhere, and it’s better decided in advance than at the end.

We’ll walk the access with you when you book. Most surprises on pour day are access surprises.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a line pump for concrete?

A line pump is a trailer-mounted concrete pump that pushes concrete through a train of steel and rubber hose laid along the ground. It’s used where a mixer truck can’t reach the pour directly, most often backyard pool decks, patios, interior slabs, and tight-access lots.

How far can you pump concrete with a line pump?

There’s no single figure, because reach depends on total hose length, the number of bends in the line, how much vertical rise is involved, and the slump of the mix. For typical residential and light commercial work, a line pump will reach anywhere on a normal lot. Vertical distance costs far more pumping pressure than horizontal distance.

How much does a concrete line pump cost per hour?

For residential work in North Florida, we bill $150 to $250 per hour with a minimum fee, and most residential pours finish within the minimum. There are no fuel surcharges, no primer fees, and no separate setup or cleanup charges. Commercial and boom pump jobs are estimated against actual yards and pour time.

What slump does a line pump need?

Line pumps run best with a 5 inch slump or higher. Stiffer mixes are harder to push through the hose and risk clogging a line. Tell your ready-mix supplier the pour is being line pumped when you order so they can design the mix for it.

What is the 90 minute rule for concrete?

Worth knowing that this one has changed, because plenty of material online still quotes the old version. ASTM C94, the standard specification for ready-mixed concrete, used to require discharge within 90 minutes of batching. The 2021 edition replaced that fixed limit with a discharge time agreed between the producer and the purchaser, so the number that applies to your pour is the one your supplier specifies rather than a universal 90 minutes.

The underlying point still stands for a pumped pour: concrete has a working window, and it starts when the water hits the cement. A line that clogs partway through costs you more than the time spent clearing it, because every truck behind it is aging.

Can homeowners hire a line pump directly?

Yes. You don’t need to be a contractor. Homeowners hire us directly all the time. Bear in mind that we pump the concrete and you’ll still need a finisher to place and finish it, so most homeowners are booking two trades for the same morning.

Booking a Line Pump in North Florida

We’ve been running line pumps across North Central Florida since 2003, working a 100-plus mile radius out of the Lake Butler yard. Gainesville is 30 miles south and 7am starts there are routine. Ocala, Lake City, Starke, Live Oak, Palatka, Macclenny, and Chiefland are all inside the run.

Owner Justin Croft runs the company and the crew, so the person you speak to about your pour is accountable for the truck showing up. We’re fully insured, general liability and workers’ compensation on every project, with certificates available on request before the pour.

If you’re weighing whether your job needs a line pump, a boom pump, or neither, call and describe the site. Get in touch for an estimate or call (386) 623-1782. Same-day estimates during business hours, anywhere in the areas we serve.

You can also read more about our line pump service or see the full range of concrete pumping we handle.

The Complete Guide to Concrete Line Pumps