Concrete contractor in Eureka, IL - driveways and slabs on solid ground

Most of what goes wrong with concrete in Eureka starts in the ground. Central Illinois dirt holds water, and when that water freezes under a slab it lifts the concrete and drops it again come spring, which is how a driveway ends up cracked, uneven or leaning back toward the garage. A lot of older slabs here were also poured on a base somebody raked smooth instead of digging out and packing, so they settled right along with the dirt. We dig down to firm subgrade, the ground the slab actually sits on, pack the base in layers, and set the slope so water runs away from your house instead of under it.

Spring is the wet stretch here. Long-term averages for Eureka, worked out from 1981 to 2010 records at nearby stations because the local record is short, put May at about 4.6 inches of rain against about 1.5 in February. That's when a soggy base and pooling water show up, so we'd rather wait out a few wet days than pour on mud.

Before a Eureka job goes on our calendar, I check with the city. The state doesn't issue building permits for privately funded work, so anything that's required comes through the city, and the contact on its building permit page is the Building Inspector at City Hall, at (309) 467-2113, with office hours from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. We handle the paperwork when it's ours to file and tell you straight if anything lands on your end, and your start date waits on that answer and the weather. We're licensed and insured, and it's fair to ask any contractor to show you both before they dig. Your price moves with the size and thickness of the slab, how much old concrete and soft dirt has to come out, how close the truck can get, and whether you want more than a broom finish, the light texture that keeps your feet from slipping when it's wet. I'll put your own job in numbers when I come out for the estimate.

Eureka's an easy run from Peoria, and we're out this way often because we work all over the area, from Chillicothe up the river to Normal and Bloomington. On the tighter, tree-lined streets near downtown and the college, I plan where the mixer parks and how we keep your lawn from getting chewed up before pour day, because a concrete truck is a lot heavier than your sod would like.

Eureka is the county seat of Woodford County, a small city ringed by farm fields with Eureka College's wooded campus near the middle of it. The houses run from older homes on shaded streets near downtown to newer subdivisions on the edges and farm properties just past the city limits. A lot of our calls here look like the ones we get in Washington and Morton, with tired driveways, crumbling front steps and shop floors that have seen better days.

The age of the house tells me a lot before I even get out of the truck. Older homes usually mean older slabs, big tree roots and tight driveways, while new lots often sit on fill dirt that hasn't finished settling, which is exactly why we dig out and pack the base hard instead of trusting what's already there.