Concrete patio construction in Junction City KS - a patio that drains the right way

Most calls start with an old patio that's cracked, sunk on one side or pooling water against the back wall, or with a bare patch of yard you're tired of mowing around. The price moves mostly with the patio's size, how much digging and base work the ground needs, the finish you pick, whether it's raised or covered, and how close we can get a truck. The schedule turns on weather and ground more than anything, because concrete needs the right conditions to set and cure, so I won't promise a pour date the forecast can't back. When I come out, I measure and walk the spot with you, then send a written estimate so you have a number for your own patio.

I start by watching where water runs off your roof and yard, because a patio that falls toward the house sends water at your foundation. We dig out the topsoil and roots and pack a gravel base in layers, so the subgrade, the ground the slab sits on, doesn't settle with loose dirt underneath. Then we set forms with a slight fall away from the house, place rebar, the steel that holds a slab together, where the job calls for it, and plan the pour for the cooler part of the day so the top doesn't dry out weak and dusty. After a broom finish, a light texture that keeps the patio from getting slick when it's wet, we cut control joints, shallow grooves that give the slab a straight place to crack instead of a random one. While it cures, the wait while concrete gains strength, we keep the surface from drying out too fast, since that's when surface cracks start, and you get written care notes for its first winter.

If you want pattern or color, stamped concrete can go on the same slab, but when a budget gets tight I'd rather you cut the fancy finish than the base, because nobody sees the base on day one and it's what decides whether the patio stays flat. If you also need a way to reach the patio from the driveway or the gate, we can handle concrete sidewalk building on the same job so the two slabs meet at the right height.

The city's Building and Codes office answers permit questions, and its permit list names patios more than 30 inches off the ground and patios that are enclosed or covered. That list doesn't settle every patio, so I check with the city or county office on each job, and when a permit's needed we pull it before work starts and call in the inspections as the job reaches them. When the city inspects a slab, it comes out once any steel, conduit and piping are in place and before the concrete goes in, so we plan the pour around that visit.

K-State Extension, writing about clay soils in the Kansas City area, says clay that shrinks and swells can crack foundations and move concrete sidewalks, which is why I won't skimp on digging out and packing the base. We're based in Junction City and work in the cities around it, and we build patios the same way on jobs in Manhattan and Abilene.