Merrillville Indiana Concrete Replacement Companies

You hear a tire drop into a low spot by the garage. The patch from last spring has a white ring around the edges. A corner of it rocks when you step on it. So that is the driveway people ask us about in Merrillville after a hard winter. Concrete Replacement Companies in Merrillville see this where a spot patch met freeze-thaw and a soft base.

Water sits in the hairline cracks after a thaw. Then a cold night turns that water to ice, and the crack opens a little more. Salt from the street and from your own shovel gets into the same spots. After a few winters the patch looks tired. Then the edges turn white and the surface starts to scale.

Merrillville driveways take a lot of that abuse. US 30 and the roads around town get salted through the cold months. Tires drag that salt onto the apron. On jobs in Merrillville we have found clay that stays wet in spring. When the clay softens, the slab above it can settle at one edge. Then the joint between the old pour and the patch starts to open.

How Patches Fail for Concrete Replacement Companies in Merrillville

We have pulled up patches that sat thin over broken concrete. The new mix held for a season. Because the old slab kept moving on wet clay, the bond let go. You can see a clean break along the old edge. The patch comes up in chunks, and the concrete under it is already cracked through.

We still do patch work when a chip is small and the base under it is sound. A sunk panel at the garage needs the whole slab out. When the middle has spidered or the street edge has heaved, the damage runs through the slab. Freeze-thaw keeps working on every open joint. After another winter the patched area is usually the first piece to break out.

People in Merrillville often try one more patch before they call. We have seen driveways with more than one patch color in the same lane. Then the owner is ready for a full replacement built for that ground and those winters. Concrete Replacement Companies in Merrillville get that call after the joints open from clay movement and freeze-thaw.

A full driveway job can also take in the apron at the garage. For example, a service walk along the side of the house can come with it. If the curb is breaking up, that concrete can come out in the same tear-out. When the upper walk to the front door is the same age, we can fold that into the visit. On a house lot, tear out and replace is the core of the job, and concrete removal comes first. We can talk through a garage floor that is flaking from salt while we are on site.

Concrete Replacement Companies in Merrillville Build the New Driveway

We tear out the old slab and haul it off. Then we look at what is under it. After we pull the slab on Merrillville lots, we have found wet clay and a thin layer of sand. But we have also found broken asphalt under the concrete. Because a new slab needs a firm place to sit, we cut the soft base out. We put compacted stone in before we form and pour.

Concrete Replacement Companies in Merrillville set the stone base to get off the soft clay. We do that before the forms go in.

Our company is family owned. Since 2006 we have worked across Northwest Indiana and the Tri-State area. Our crew writes each quote out line by line. We do not mark up the concrete to pad the bill. When we price a job, the hours for the base work are on the quote. So we take pride in how long the job takes.

For a look at finished driveways, our photo gallery has shots from after the forms come off. You can read who is on the crew on our About Us page. The concrete replacement services page covers removal and pour-back, plus the flatwork that goes with a full replacement. Concrete Replacement Companies in Merrillville cut joints to fit the width of the pour. We slope the slab so water leaves the garage.

After the finish, we keep cars off the new concrete until it has strength. In cold weather that wait runs longer. So we watch the forecast before we set a pour day in Merrillville. We will not pour on frozen ground or on a base that is still pumping mud. We tell you when the driveway can take a car again.