Concrete cutting in Springfield IL - straight cuts along a line we've scanned first

Most people call us because something has to go through concrete that's already there, like a drain line that needs a trench across the basement floor, a driveway that's getting wider, a cracked patio section that has to come out or a window wanted in a foundation wall. What moves the price is the surface, how thick and reinforced it is, how many feet of cut there are, whether it's a floor or a wall, and whether you want the pieces broken out and hauled away. What moves the schedule is usually what comes before the saw, such as an engineer's direction on a wall opening or the city's approval when the cut reaches the street. I come out, look at it with you and write an estimate that says plainly what's included.

I come out first to look at the slab or wall and mark the line with you. Before any blade goes in, we scan for steel, cable and conduit, and we cut along the line the scan has cleared. The surface decides the saw, so a floor gets a flat saw walked along the mark as the blade works down into it, and a wall gets a saw that runs on a track. Cutting wet is the usual way, because water keeps the blade cool so it lasts and cuts true, and it holds down silica dust, the fine dust from cut concrete that's hard on the lungs, right where it starts. For a door or window in a wall, I ask for an engineer's direction before we mark anything. Once the lines are cut, we break out and haul the pieces when your quote includes it and leave the area cleaned up.

A cut is often the start of a bigger job. Widening a driveway or tying in a new apron means sawing a straight edge on the old slab first, which is where concrete driveway building picks up, and taking out a sunken or cracked section of the back slab often leads into concrete patio construction. Since we pour as well as cut, the edge we leave is one we'd be glad to pour against ourselves.

If your cut reaches the curb, the public sidewalk or the street, as a driveway apron or curb cut often does, the City of Springfield's Office of Public Works issues a separate Excavation Permit, and it has to be in hand before work starts anywhere in the public right-of-way, the strip along the street that belongs to the city. The city also doesn't allow a street, sidewalk or parking space to be blocked until its street and traffic officials approve and the fees are paid, and a curb cut and driveway permit is part of the same application, with the city doing any street repair. We check what the office asks for at your address and take care of the permit paperwork for our work when a permit applies, and if the city needs something from you as the owner, I let you know early so it doesn't hold up the job.

Much of what we're asked to cut here is around older houses, a worn apron that needs a clean edge before new concrete goes in or a basement floor that needs a trench for a new drain, and we see the same calls on jobs in Chatham and Decatur.