What is Plum Concrete?

www.iamcivilengineer.com
4 mins read

T
he word plum means large stones which are termed as boul-
ders or coarse aggregates if technically speaking.

The plum concrete is actually an economical variation of mass

concrete.

The use of plum concrete is preferred if the required thick-

ness of PCC is excessive or large.

This is mainly done below the foundations where due to steep slope
of the strata, the quantity of leveling course could be excessive.

Definition of Plum Concrete

The plum concrete is defined as:-
A mixture of coarse aggregate and cement that are placed
below the foundation or footing of a structure so as to
achieve a level surface for equal distribution of load.

What is Plum Concrete?

Application of Plum Concrete

1. In one example the plum concrete can be used below
footings of residential buildings having small portion where
the slope of ground below single footing is 1:10 to 1:50 so to
save the cost of concrete plum concrete is usually preferred.
This will result in minimization of the construction cost of
building as a whole.
2. Plum Concrete is also used in areas that require massive
concrete placements like concrete dams or bridge piers. In
such cases pieces of rock about 150 mm in size are used as
coarse aggregates to mix a plum concrete.
3. Similarly in another example; suppose the foundation pit for
a machinery bed is proposed to have a certain depth but the
hard stratum is available at 3 m below the ground level.
Whereas in design It was proposed that the depth of
foundation for bed would be 1.5 m. Since the foundation has
 to be rested on the hard strata of soil, so plum concrete of
lean ratio with 80mm -100mm size stones would be poured
which will be rammed upto 1.5 m and thereafter regular
designed raft, footings may be laid.

Mix Design of Plum Concrete

I was actually working on a building project a few years back, when I
joined the project the excavation work was nearly done and my senior
engineer told me that they are getting prepared for placement of
plum concrete. And when I heard the word “plum concrete” I was
stunned as I haven’t heard that thing in the past as I was fresh obvi-
ously :D.

But the reason of explaining above fact was that I had actually
worked on the project where we placed plum concrete. So for that
particular project we used 40% boulders and 60% concrete which
means M15 was used.

Construction Methodology of Plum

Concrete
Step 1 – Transportation of Plum Material
The boulders are large Stone size which can be lifted by laborers eas-
ily, not too big or small.

Step 2 – Leveling and Cleaning – Surface Preparation

The first step that is done initially is leveling and cleaning of the sur-
face by removal of soft soil that can cause low bearing capacity. After
clearing and grubbing water is sprayed to the surface to make it wet
before placement of plum concrete. The reason of sprinkling water is
to ensure proper bond of plum concrete with the ground surface.
After sprinkling of water anti-termite chemical is sprayed which is
essential now a days for the flawless foundation of a structure.
Step 3 – Pacing and Spreading of Plum Concrete
Boulder’s are spread over the ground with little gapping layer by
layer and concrete is spread using pump all over the boulder’s in each
layer which slowly permeate inside the gapping between boulder’s.
This helps to bind it properly, after pouring concrete, boulders are
thrown into the concrete again and the process repeats till required
level surface is reached.

Step 4 – Curing of Plum Concrete

Curing should be done for next 7 days minimum. Jute bags are spread
over the whole area of plum concrete to retain moisture for a long
time after curing.

Boulder’s should be inspected before spreading and if any dirt or Clay

is found, then it should be washed properly.

Boulder’s should be strong and should not be falky. since,

whole building load is going to act upon it.
Fact is that nobody in construction site, measures that how much
boulder’s and concrete is used in doing plum concrete. Sometimes,
more boulder’s are needed when there is dearth of concrete or for
economical purpose etc.

Specifications for plum Concrete

• Plum shall comprise of black trap basalt of crushing
strength of minimum 100 Kg /Sqcm.
• The concrete shall be of nominal mix 1:4:8 using aggregate
of maximum size 25mm.
• The volume of the plum in the concrete shall not exceed
50% of total volume.
• The crevices shall not be less than 150 mm.
• Layer shall not exceed 900mm.

The nominal maximum size of coarse aggregate should be as large as

possible within the limits specified but in no case greater than
one-fourth of the minimum thickness of the member, provided
that the concrete can be placed without difficulty so as to surround
all reinforcement thoroughly and fill the comers of the form.

As for the requirement of the aggregate size that can be used in the
plum concrete there are different recommendations by the IS code;
the code says that for most of the common works the size of 20 mm
aggregate is suitable and best. If there are no restrictions for flow of
concrete into section 40 mm or larger can also be used. But where
there are reinforcement or the cover is small with the formwork 10
mm nominal maximum size of plums should be used in plum con-
crete.

Plums above 160 mm and up to any reasonable size may be used in

plain concrete work up to a maximum limit of 20 percent by vol-
ume of concrete when specifically permitted by the engineer-in-
charge.

However for all the cases, the plums shall be distributed evenly and
shall not be closer than 150 mm from the surface.

Difference between Plum Concrete and

Mass Concrete
Sometimes the people do have misunderstanding about the difference
between plum concrete and the mass concrete. The both are actually
one and the other thing; mass concrete is a term used for concrete
that is placed in large size and huge quantity that can either be a
plain concrete or reinforced according to the requirements of the
structure or project. The term mass concrete is just used to define the
massiveness in quantity.

But as for the plum concrete it is by all means plain having large size
of aggregates, as explained above called plums and they can be used
with different grades of concrete.