Concrete sidewalk building in Junction City KS - a walk that drains and stays level

Most calls start with a walk that's cracked, heaved or sunk enough to catch a toe, or a yard that never had a walk and now has a worn dirt path. The price turns on how long and wide the walk is, how thick it needs to be, whether an old walk has to be broken out and hauled off, how much digging the base takes and whether it meets concrete steps at the porch. The schedule turns on weather and, for a walk along the street, on the city's permit and inspection, which I take care of before we start. Your own figure comes in the written estimate I send after I measure and walk the site with you.

I start by checking where water runs across your yard, because a walk that tips toward the house sends every rain at your foundation. Then we lay out the control joints together. Those are the grooves cut across the walk that give it a planned place to crack, and on a walk the joints decide where cracks show up. Our crew digs out the soft dirt and packs the subgrade, the ground the slab sits on, instead of raking it level, because loose dirt settles and takes the walk down with it. We set the forms to the slope we checked and add mesh or rebar, steel that holds the slab together if it does crack, where the walk calls for it. All of that is ready before the truck pulls up, since concrete won't wait on a crew that's still digging. We plan the pour away from midday heat when we can, because a top that dries too fast turns weak and dusty later. Then we give it a broom finish, a light texture that keeps it from getting slick when it's wet, cut the joints on time and let it cure, the slow hardening it needs before you put weight on it.

A new walk often comes up alongside other work. If it runs from the garage, we can pour new garage floor concrete and match the heights at the door so there's no lip to trip on. If you'd like more than plain gray, decorative concrete adds color or a patterned border, and it starts on the same packed base.

Any work on a public sidewalk in Junction City needs a Right of Way and/or Easement permit from the city, and there's no fee for it. The city also makes it unlawful to break out or remove a sidewalk or curb without that permit, so on a street walk nothing gets broken up until the paperwork's done. When your walk runs along the street, I sort out the permit first and line up the inspection, which the city's right-of-way page sends to Kaw Valley Engineering. For a walk that stays on your own lot, I ask the city's Building and Code Enforcement office whether anything's needed before we start, and you can ask them too through the city's online portal.

Winters here freeze and thaw over and over, and the walks we're called to replace have usually heaved at a joint, settled where the base was never packed or flaked on top from salt. We're based in Junction City and build for that from the base up, and we do the same work in Manhattan, Abilene and the other cities around it.