Providence Concrete Flatwork

Concrete Deck Footings

Concrete deck footings are the part nobody sees and everybody feels, because a deck that bounces or racks almost always started with a hole that wasn't deep enough. We dig below the frost line, three feet and then some, set the tube on undisturbed soil instead of loose backfill, and drop in rebar with a galvanized standoff base so the post never sits in a puddle. Skip that and the first hard February lifts the whole concrete deck an inch, the slider stops latching, and the railing goes wobbly by spring.

On the East Side we hit ledge often enough that we plan for it. Hole count, depth, and whether a machine fits through the gate are what move the number.

Builders call Providence Concrete Company for footings alone all the time, then frame two days later.

Concrete Sidewalk

A concrete sidewalk here lives a hard life: plow blades in February, road salt all winter, and a maple root on the East Side quietly lifting one panel two inches above its neighbor. So we build it properly. Six inches of compacted processed gravel, four inches of mix, five at the driveway apron where the tires cross, fiber or 6x6 mesh, and tooled control joints every four to five feet so the slab cracks where we put the line instead of down the middle of your walk. Broom finish, always. Troweled-smooth concrete on a frosty morning is an ice rink with a lawsuit attached.

When Providence Concrete Company replaces a panel, we saw cut a clean line at the joint rather than sledging a ragged edge that telegraphs into the next one. You're walking on it the next day, driving on it in a week.

Concrete Slab With Rebar

A concrete slab with rebar is what I want under anything that has to hold weight: a garage floor, a shed pad, a patio that will carry a hot tub full of people. The steel only works where it sits, though. We tie #4 bar on 16 inch centers and set it on chairs so it lands in the middle third of a four inch pour, over six inches of compacted processed stone. Rebar dragged along the ground after the truck starts is about as useful as a screen door on a submarine, and you will find out the first winter when the slab cracks and one half settles lower than the other.

We use an air entrained mix here because Providence freeze thaw punishes anything else, and we saw joints the next morning.

Stamped Concrete Walkway

We pour a stamped concrete walkway the same way we pour any flatwork right up to the moment the mats come out, and then the clock starts. On a warm July afternoon you get maybe an hour to press the pattern before the mix goes off, so Providence Concrete Company sends enough hands to stamp the whole run in one pass instead of leaving a seam where the crew stopped for lunch. Four inches over compacted base, color worked in, release broadcast, control joints cut so the slab cracks where we put the line and not across the middle of your front path.

Then sealer, and it wants redoing every two or three years, because this city salts hard and salt lifts color off the high spots first. Skip that and by the third winter the pattern looks faded and tired.

Stamp Overlay Concrete

A stamp overlay concrete job puts a thin polymer-modified topping, usually three eighths to half an inch, right over the slab you already have, then stamps texture into it while it's still green. It works when the concrete underneath is sound. If it's heaving, hollow or cracked clean through, an overlay just hides the problem until February, and our winters here always find it. So we shot blast or grind the surface first, prime it, and cut the joints back through the new layer so the old cracks have somewhere to go.

A patio usually takes two to three days on site, plus cure time before furniture.

Skip the sealer and salt does the rest. We tell folks at Providence Concrete Company to keep the ice melt off it that first winter.

Concrete Walkway Installation

Concrete walkway installation is the one people put off until somebody's aunt catches a toe on a lifted slab and the whole family hears about it at Sunday dinner. We dig out eight to ten inches, compact a processed gravel base, and pour at four inches with tooled control joints every four to five feet, so the cracks land where we put them instead of wherever they feel like. Skip that base work and a Providence winter finds it by March. The walk pumps, tips, and starts pooling water right at your front step.

Width matters more than people expect. Forty-two to forty-eight inches lets two people walk side by side without one of them tramping the hostas.

Half the concrete flatwork we do at Providence Concrete Company starts as a path and grows into a patio before we pack up.

Concrete Restoration

Concrete restoration is the call when a slab has settled, cracked, or gone rough on top but the base under it is still worth saving. Jacking a concrete slab back to level with polyurethane foam takes most of a morning on a walk or patio, and you can stand on it by lunch. We grind off trip lips, rout and seal cracks so February meltwater quits sneaking in and freezing, and skim tired concrete flatwork with a polymer overlay.

Here's where it goes sideways. Somebody patches over a void without filling it, and the patch drops again by the first thaw. So we probe underneath first.

If a panel is spalled down to the aggregate or the subgrade has washed out under it, Providence Concrete Company replaces that section instead of selling you a repair with a one winter shelf life.

Slate Concrete Stamp

A slate concrete stamp gives you the look of split stone without the wobble and weeds you get from real slate set in sand. We press the mats into the slab in one window, usually a couple of hours after the pour depending on sun and wind, and that window is the whole ballgame. Stamp too early and the joints smear shut. Too late and you get a faint texture that looks like the concrete just thought about it. We use integral color in the mix plus an antiquing release for depth, then saw the control joints along the grout lines so cracks hide where they belong. Pattern layout, how many colors you want and the size of the area move the price more than anything. Come spring, skip the rock salt on it, and let Providence Concrete Company reseal it every two or three winters.

Brick Concrete Stamp

A brick concrete stamp gives you the look of the old brick sidewalks on Benefit Street without the wobbly ankles, since it's one continuous slab underneath instead of a few thousand loose pavers going their own way. We run mostly running bond and herringbone. Timing is everything: the mats go down when the mix is ready, and in July that window can be twenty minutes. Stamp too early and the pattern sinks and blurs. Too late and you get shallow joints that read as mush by the second winter.

We broadcast color hardener, hand tool the edges and joints so water sheds instead of sitting, then seal it. Plan on resealing every two or three years once the plows and road salt have had a season at it. Providence Concrete Company treats brick stamp as regular concrete flatwork, just fussier.

What the job involves

Every concrete flatwork job we run follows the same order: layout and forms, break out and haul the old material, six to eight inches of compacted processed gravel, steel, then the pour. What moves the price on your property is access, thickness, and how much demolition is hiding under there. Pouring a concrete slab in a July heat wave means we're on site at six, because an afternoon in the nineties will skin the surface over before we can finish it. Come November we're watching the overnight low.

Skip the base compaction and you buy yourself settlement cracks in two winters, and somebody jacking a concrete slab back to level a few years later. At Providence Concrete Company we saw the control joints, cure the surface, and never trowel a slab that's still bleeding water. That's how you trap moisture and get scaling by spring.

What it costs

What it costs on a concrete flatwork job comes down to four things, and square footage is only one of them. The others are access, tear-out, base and finish. If the truck can back within chute reach, good. If we're wheelbarrowing sixty feet down a narrow East Side drive, that's hours. Breaking out and hauling an old slab adds a day. And a broom-finished concrete sidewalk and stamped concrete pool decks are not the same work at all. A concrete slab with rebar over six inches of compacted base costs more than four inches poured on dirt, and it's still flat after twenty New England winters instead of cracked by the third. Sometimes jacking concrete slab sections back to level beats replacing them outright.

Call me at (401) 394-6425 and I'll walk your property and price it. Every quote from Providence Concrete Company breaks out demo, base, steel and finish separately, so nothing hides in one lump number.

Why choose us for this

You've got concrete flatwork that's cracked, sunk, or quietly embarrassing you every time somebody walks up to the front steps, and what you actually want is to hire this once and never think about it again.

So here's what we won't do.

We won't quote one number over the phone and hand you a bigger one when the forms come off. We won't pull the crew off your pour Wednesday morning to start somebody else's job across town. We won't push you to sign today. And we won't leave washout in your lawn or broken sidewalk stacked by the curb for the city to argue about.

We're also not the cheapest bid you'll get. Rebar, a compacted base, and joints cut the same day cost more than a wire-mesh-and-hope pour that spiderwebs by the second winter.

The estimate from Providence Concrete Company is free and books you into nothing.

Frequently asked questions