Stamped concrete services in Springfield IL - a patterned patio set on solid ground

Most people who call us have a plain or cracked slab out back, or bare ground where they'd like a patio, and they want something that looks finished without laying pavers. Stamping is one kind of decorative concrete, and the price moves with the size of the patio, how much digging and base work the yard needs, whether an old slab has to come out first, whether we add steel, and how many colors and patterns you choose. The schedule turns mostly on the weather, since we won't pour into a hard freeze or the midday heat, and on the curing time before you can use the patio. When I come out, I measure, look at where the water runs and write you an estimate, because I want you to know exactly what you're paying for before we start.

We start under the surface. We dig out the soft topsoil and pack a firm base over the subgrade, the ground the slab sits on, so the patio doesn't settle with loose dirt the way so many slabs I used to repair did. We set the forms so the patio falls away from your house and the water has somewhere to go, then add rebar, steel bars that hold the slab together if it does crack, where the size and use call for it. I choose a mix that can stand up to our winters before we talk about color and texture, because a stamped pattern only lasts as long as the concrete under it. We pour early in the day rather than in the midday heat, which can leave a weak, dusty top, then color the surface and press the stamping mats while the concrete can still take the pattern. After that we cut control joints, shallow grooves that give the slab a planned place to crack, and let it cure, a slow wait while the concrete gains strength, before we seal it. If something has to give in the budget, I'd rather simplify the pattern than thin the base, because you can't see the base on day one, but it's what decides whether the patio stays flat. Before we leave, I go over how resealing and winter care fit in, since salt is hard on the sealer.

A stamped patio often connects to other work. Many owners have us pour a matching walk through our concrete sidewalk building at the same time, so the color and edge detail carry from the driveway to the patio. If the garage slab is cracked or pitted, I can look at garage floor concrete on the same visit and price it alongside the patio.

If your patio or a new walk reaches the street or ties into the public sidewalk, the city's Office of Public Works requires an Excavation Permit before any work begins in the public right-of-way. Any public sidewalk we pour has to meet the Illinois Accessibility Code, and Public Works inspects it once it's done. For a patio that stays in your backyard, I can't tell you ahead of time whether your job needs a permit, so we check with the city's Building & Zoning office about your address and take care of the paperwork for our work when a permit applies. If the office needs something from you as the owner, I'll let you know early. It's also worth knowing that when a building permit applies, the city's permit application leaves soil compaction and mine subsidence research to the applicant and the owner, and the permit itself doesn't judge whether the ground suits the project. That's one more reason we dig out and pack the base ourselves instead of trusting the ground as we find it.

Around Springfield, most tired patios we look at have the same few problems. The slab tips toward the house, a downspout empties right onto it, or the base was never packed, and freeze-thaw winters find those mistakes quickly. We grade every patio to shed water and plan the downspouts into the layout, the same way we do on jobs in Chatham and Decatur.