Concrete contractor in East Peoria, IL - driveways and patios that drain the right way

East Peoria has its share of bluffs, hillsides and ravines, and the city regulates building along them and manages erosion on every construction site, with the aim of keeping runoff in check and native plants in place. On a sloped lot that changes the job in two ways. The dirt we dig out has to stay on your property instead of washing into the street or the neighbor's yard, and the rain that used to soak into your lawn will run off the new concrete, so we work out where that water goes before we set a single form. We also try to disturb only the ground the job needs, because every bit of torn-up hillside is one more place for mud to start moving.

A lot of the old driveways and patios we tear out here failed from underneath. The base was raked level instead of dug out and packed, so it settled with the dirt and the concrete cracked right along with it. We dig down to firm ground and pack the subgrade, which is the dirt and gravel the slab sits on, before any concrete shows up.

In the City of East Peoria, permits and inspections for home building run through the Inspections Department, and it won't issue a permit until every contractor on the job is registered with the city. That registration includes the contractor's insurance information and a copy of their state license, so asking any contractor for proof of it before you sign is fair game. Registration comes first, then the permit, then the pour, and that order sets our schedule. We're licensed and insured, and before your job goes on the calendar we look into what the city wants for it, handle the permit paperwork when it's ours to file and tell you plainly if anything falls on your end.

Your price mostly comes from the parts you won't see once it's done. That means how much old concrete comes out, how much digging and packing your ground needs, and how steep the lot is. Then come the size, the rebar, which is the steel inside that keeps a crack from opening up, and the finish you pick. Plenty of streets here wind up the hills, so at the estimate I also check where the concrete truck can park and how far we'll wheel concrete to your forms. The schedule turns on the city's paperwork and on how much ground prep your lot takes, and I'll give you your own number when I come out. We do this same work in Morton and the other cities around Peoria, so you get the same process and the same crew either way.

East Peoria sits right across the Illinois River from our base in Peoria. It has older neighborhoods down near the riverfront and newer streets climbing into the hills behind them. Our calls here run from replacing tired driveways and sidewalks on older houses to patios, steps and slabs for newer homes and additions, with some small business work mixed in. It's also on the way to jobs out in Washington, so we're over here often.

Here the ground does most of the deciding. On the flatter lots the job is mostly tearing out and rebuilding the base, and on the hill lots it's digging, packing and moving water, which is where I'd rather spend your money.