Concrete Contractors in St. Louis, MO

St. Louis Concrete Contractors pours, replaces and repairs residential concrete across St. Louis, Missouri: driveways and alley pads, patios, stamped surfaces, sidewalks, stoops and steps, garage floors and slabs that have sunk or scaled. Most concrete contractors in St. Louis work around the same two facts. The housing is old, with Point2Homes' Census summary listing a median build year of 1938 and 58.4 percent of homes built in 1939 or earlier. And the winters sit right on the freezing line, which is hard on any slab that holds water.

Winters that hover around 32 degrees

Wikipedia's climate table for St. Louis gives January a mean high of 40.4 degrees and a mean low of 23.8, with about 16.6 inches of snow a year and 41.7 inches of total precipitation. A typical January day goes below freezing overnight and back above it in the afternoon. Snow here often melts within days, soaks the concrete and refreezes. Each round of freezing swells the water held near the surface, and over a few winters the top layer starts to flake, which the trade calls scaling. Road salt and de-icers make it worse.

That is why we treat the following as standard on outdoor work, not upgrades:

• Air-entrained concrete, which leaves tiny bubbles for freezing water to expand into
• A compacted stone base so water drains away rather than sitting under the slab
• Thickness matched to what the slab carries, from walks up to driveways that see trucks
• Control joints laid out on purpose so shrinkage cracks fall in straight lines
• A proper cure, and sand instead of salt during the first winter

Old houses, old concrete

With most of the city's homes dating from before 1940, much of the concrete around them has been patched, overlaid or poured in pieces over the decades. On a typical city lot we find front walks lifted by street trees, stoops that have dropped away from the brick, gangway paths that pitch water toward the foundation, and alley parking pads cracked by years of trash trucks and turning cars. Detached garages at the alley often have floors that have settled in the middle.

The ground matters too. Wikipedia notes the city sits on limestone and dolomite, that parts of it are karst, and that the area south of downtown has numerous sinkholes and caves. Most settling we see comes from water and poor fill, but a slab that keeps dropping in the same spot deserves a closer look before anyone simply pumps it back up.

Who fixes the sidewalk in front of your house

In the City of St. Louis, property owners are responsible for keeping their sidewalks in repair. The Street Department's 50-50 Sidewalk Program lets eligible owners split that cost with the city, and the city pays the full cost for slabs damaged by a City tree growing between the street and the sidewalk. To qualify, a property must be zoned A through G with real estate taxes paid in full. You start by asking the Citizens' Service Bureau, (314) 622-4800, for an inspection, and eligible addresses go on a waiting list funded ward by ward.

If you would rather not wait, the sidewalk can be rebuilt at your own expense with a Street Department sidewalk permit, which the city lists at $25 for a residential property. Work done that way is not reimbursed by the program. When a driveway, walk or step job touches the public sidewalk, our quote shows both paths so you can choose.

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Historic districts

St. Louis has many City Historic Districts. According to the city's Cultural Resources Office, all exterior work in one of those districts needs a permit except painting wood trim, and even work that does not need a building permit, such as on-premise sidewalks and drives, falls under the district's standards. If your home is in a district, we plan materials and finishes with that review in mind and leave time for it in the schedule.

What we pour and repair

• Concrete driveways: tear-out and replacement, asphalt-to-concrete conversions, widening and alley parking pads.
• Concrete patios: broom, colored and exposed-aggregate slabs, with paths and steps to the yard.
• Stamped concrete: slate, stone and brick patterns for patios, entries and borders.
• Sidewalks and steps: private walks, gangway paths, front stoops and poured steps.
• Garage floors and slabs: floors for detached and attached garages, shed pads and equipment slabs.
• Repair and leveling: mudjacking, foam lifting, resurfacing, crack sealing and panel replacement.

How a job runs

Visit and measure. We look at the area, the drainage, the roots and the access. Alley work and tight gangways change how concrete gets delivered, so we check that too.

Written quote. Every major piece of work is a separate line. If leveling or resurfacing is a fair option, it is priced beside replacement.

Permits and timing. We confirm with the city or your municipality what the address needs, including the Street Department permit when the public walk is involved, and set a date.

Prep and pour. Demolition and haul-off, base work, forms, reinforcement, then placing, finishing and jointing.

Handoff. You get written dates for foot traffic, parking and sealing. For a driveway, HomeGuide's guide suggests waiting at least seven days before driving on it and leaving heavy vehicles off for the full 28 to 30 day cure.

When to schedule

Most outdoor concrete here goes in from spring through fall. Summer works fine, though with July highs averaging near 90 degrees we pour early in the day and keep fresh slabs damp so they do not dry too fast. Late-fall pours need nights above freezing for the first several days. Call (314) 886-6738 and we will tell you honestly whether your project should go in now or wait.

Our home base is the City of St. Louis, from the riverfront neighborhoods to the city limits, across all 79 of its official neighborhoods. We also work in the larger Missouri towns around it: Florissant, University City, Webster Groves, Kirkwood, Ballwin and Chesterfield in St. Louis County, and St. Charles, St. Peters and O'Fallon across the Missouri River in St. Charles County. The city is an independent city, separate from St. Louis County since 1877, so the rules for sidewalks and permits change when you cross the city limits. Each town page covers what we found about local housing and public works, and we confirm the permit rules for your address before any job is scheduled.