Towns we pour in

Tampa and the older streets

A lot of the older housing in Tampa has concrete that went in decades back, poured thin, straight onto sand, with no joints cut into it and nothing in the way of steel. It held up because nobody drove much on it. Then a truck parks on the apron, or a live oak root comes up under the walk, and one panel lifts an inch while the one next to it drops.

On those jobs the fix is almost never a patch. We break out the failed panels, get down to something we can compact, and pour a slab thick enough for what actually parks on it. Where a root caused it, we deal with the root first. Otherwise you're looking at the same lift again in a few seasons.

Riverview, Gibsonton and Clair-Mel City

These are the closest towns to the shop and a big share of what we pour. Low ground, sandy, and in summer the rain comes hard and fast, so drainage decides everything. We see slabs where water sits along the back door after every storm because the pad was poured dead flat, and the block wicks that water up until you get staining inside.

Fall across a slab is a small number and it's the whole job. On a patio or a barn pad we build in step downs at the doors and set the grade so water runs out and away from the structure. Nobody notices it when it's right. Everybody notices it when it isn't.

Brandon, Valrico and Bloomingdale

Out this way there's more newer housing on filled lots, which brings a different problem. Fill that was placed and compacted properly is fine. Fill that got pushed in and left is not, and it keeps settling under a driveway for years, which shows up as a long crack running the length of the drive or a corner that has dropped away from the garage.

Before we quote a replacement out here we want to know what's under it, because good concrete on soft fill just gives you a better looking version of the same failure. Sometimes that means cutting deeper and bringing in material to compact. We'd rather tell you that up front than surprise you halfway through.

University, Lake Magdalene and Town 'n' Country

North and west of the city we do a mix of residential drives and walkways plus commercial flatwork around small business properties. Older commercial lots up here often have paving that's been patched over the years until the patches themselves are the problem, with water ponding in the low spots and eating the edges of every joint.

For those we take out the failed sections properly, square cut, down to a base we can compact, then tie the new work into the old at a level that drains. Less exciting than a full tear out, and it costs a good deal less. On the right lot it buys years.