Concrete Contractors in Arlington Heights, IL

Concrete contractors in Arlington Heights mostly inherit someone else's work: driveways, stoops and walks poured while the village was filling in after World War II. Wikipedia's census table shows the jump plainly, from 8,768 residents in 1950 to 27,878 in 1960 and 65,058 in 1970, in a village about 25 miles northwest of downtown Chicago. Flatwork from that stretch is now somewhere between 50 and 70 years old. We tear out and repour driveways, build new patios and stamped surfaces, set walks and steps, pour garage and shed slabs, and repair what is still worth keeping, in Arlington Heights and the suburbs on its borders.

Winters, salt and the top quarter inch

The village falls in the humid continental (Dfa) climate zone. Its Wikipedia climate table gives a January average low of 13 degrees, average lows under freezing from November through March, and 38.25 inches of precipitation a year. For an outdoor slab that means months of moisture getting into the surface, freezing, swelling and thawing, often several times a week. Road salt and driveway de-icers make it worse. Weak or badly finished paste at the surface gives way first, flaking and pitting in a pattern the trade calls scaling.

The defense is built in before the finish goes on. Our exterior mixes are air-entrained, which leaves microscopic voids in the cement paste where ice can grow without breaking it apart. The slab sits on crushed stone compacted in layers, so meltwater has somewhere to go besides under the concrete. And control joints are placed close enough together that shrinkage cracks follow the lines instead of wandering across a panel.

Housing age, decade by decade

American Community Survey figures for 2019-2023, as published by Point2Homes, put the village's median year built at 1974. The 1950s account for 12.7% of homes, the 1960s for 21.7% and the 1970s for 22.7%; only about 9% were built in 2000 or later. On lots of that age the usual problems are:

• Driveways dropped at the garage door or the apron, cracked clean through, or worn rough by salt
• Stoops tipped toward the foundation or pulled away from it
• Entry walks pushed up by roots of trees planted when the street was new
• Garage floors broken along the overhead door and soaked with old oil
• Patios sized for a grill and two chairs

A lot of that original concrete went down on a thin base, or on bare soil. A replacement is the chance to put proper stone underneath.

Building to the Village's flatwork sheets

Arlington Heights publishes its own driveway and flatwork requirements, and the Building & Life Safety Department reviews each permit with a marked-up plat of survey and the contractor's proposal. The numbers that matter most:

• Private driveway: at least 4 inches of concrete on 4 inches of compacted CA-6
• Approach and the sidewalk crossing: at least 6 inches on 2 inches of CA-6, with no wire mesh
• Base material: no pea gravel or sand under any exterior concrete
• Inspections: a pre-pour base inspection and a final on every flatwork job

We prepare the submittal, book both inspections and plan around the review period, which the Village puts at about 10 business days for driveways and 15 for other flatwork. Outside Arlington Heights, that town's rules are looked up before anything is priced.

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The work, in brief

• Concrete driveways: tear-out, new base, aprons and the public walk where it crosses the drive, plus widening inside village limits
• Concrete patios: first patios, bigger replacements and add-on sections doweled to sound slabs
• Stamped concrete: stone, slate and brick patterns with color, on patios, entry walks and driveway edges
• Sidewalks & steps: entry walks, side-yard paths, stoops on deep footings and formed steps
• Garage & shed slabs: garage floors with the thickened door edge, and pads for outbuildings
• Concrete repair & replacement: sealing cracks, lifting settled panels and swapping out sections that have failed

Fix or tear out?

A crack alone is not a reason to replace a slab. If the concrete has dropped as one piece and is otherwise solid, lifting it back to grade often works. Hairline cracks can be cleaned and sealed. The math changes when cracks pass through the full depth and the pieces have shifted, when scaling covers most of the surface, or when the slope sends water back at the foundation. We check the surface, the base underneath and where the water goes, and when both options are reasonable the estimate prices both.

Booking the season

Most flatwork here goes in between the spring thaw and late fall, and calendars fill quickly once the snow is gone. Getting the site visit and written quote done in late winter leaves room for the Village review before the weather is right for pouring. A late-season pour can work, but fresh concrete has to be kept from freezing while it gains strength, which means insulated blankets and close attention to the forecast. Call (224) 494-2266 or send the estimate form.

Arlington Heights comes first, from downtown and the two Metra stations to the neighborhoods around the former Arlington Park racetrack and north toward the Lake County line. Across its borders we also work in Mount Prospect, Palatine, Rolling Meadows, Prospect Heights, Buffalo Grove, Wheeling, Des Plaines and Elk Grove Village, and a little farther out in Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates, Streamwood, Park Ridge, Niles, Glenview, Northbrook, Deerfield, Lincolnshire, Vernon Hills, Long Grove, Lake Zurich, Inverness and Barrington. Driveway and flatwork rules differ from one village to the next, so the requirements for your address are checked before a price goes out.