Providence Concrete Patio

Screened In Patio

A screened in patio only works if the slab underneath it was poured with the enclosure in mind, so we set the footings before anybody talks about aluminum frames. Posts need bearing below the frost line, three feet and change here, and anchor bolts go in wet rather than drilled in later when the concrete has cured hard. We hold a slope of about an eighth of an inch per foot away from the house so August thunderstorms drain instead of pooling by your sill plate. Skip that and you get a screen room that smells like the Seekonk in July.

Because the surface stays out of the sun and the road salt, staining a concrete patio inside an enclosure keeps its color far longer than an open slab does. As concrete contractors in Providence we pour the slab a few inches wider than the frame so the kick plate has something to sit on.

Outside Patio

An outside patio in Rhode Island lives or dies on what's underneath it. We strip the topsoil, compact six inches of process stone, and pour a four inch slab of air entrained mix so the freeze and thaw that chews up sidewalks all over the East Side doesn't shell the surface off your concrete patio by year three. Control joints get cut every eight to ten feet, and we pitch the slab a quarter inch per foot away from the house so the rain runs to the yard, not the basement. Boring work, and it's what concrete contractors in Providence get judged on three winters later.

Most concrete patio slabs take us two days on site, then about a week before you're setting furniture on it. Already have a slab that's just gray and tired? We can refinish a concrete patio with stain instead of ripping it out, and a concrete edging patio border tidies up where it meets the grass.

Flagstone Patio

A flagstone patio is one of the few things I'll happily build on top of my own work, because the best base for it is a properly poured slab. We set the stone in a mortar bed over concrete patio slabs, keep the joints tight, and pitch the whole thing away from the house so meltwater in February goes where we tell it to. Laid straight on sand or stone dust in this climate, the flags rock by the second spring and the joints spit out their sand.

Bluestone, irregular fieldstone, sawn rectangles, all fine. Figure a few days for the pour to cure before we set a single piece.

What moves the number is the stone you pick, the square footage, and whether you want concrete edging patio borders. Plenty of concrete contractors in Providence skip the slab. We don't.

Pergola Patio

A pergola patio has to be planned before the truck shows up, not after the posts arrive. Tell us where the uprights land and we'll dig footings past the frost line, roughly four feet down here, and set the anchor bolts while the mud is still wet. Most concrete patio slabs poured without that get 6x6 posts bolted to four inches of surface concrete, and the first real nor'easter off the bay works those anchors loose and cracks the slab around them. We also thicken the edge under the beam line and keep the pitch running away from the house so rain doesn't pond at the post bases and stain them.

If you're planning shade over a slab you already have, we're one of the concrete contractors in Providence who'll core, epoxy in proper anchors, and reseal the patio around them rather than hoping four lag screws hold.

Outdoor Patios

Outdoor patios in Providence have to survive freeze‑thaw from November through March, so we build for that: six inches of compacted gravel, a four‑inch slab, rebar or fiber where the soil is soft, and control joints cut within a day so the concrete cracks where we tell it to instead of where it feels like it. We pitch the surface a quarter inch per foot away from the house, or you'll have a wading pool by the back door every time a nor'easter comes in sideways.

Skip the base and concrete patio slabs settle, always at the corner nobody was looking at.

We're concrete contractors in Providence and patios keep us busy all summer. Broom finish, a crisp concrete edging patio detail if you want one, and a sealed concrete patio before the first hard frost. Three to four days, weather permitting.

Paver Patio Installation

Paver patio installation is a different animal from pouring concrete patio slabs, and the whole job lives or dies in what nobody sees. We dig out eight to ten inches, lay geotextile fabric over the subgrade, then compact processed gravel in three inch lifts before an inch of screeded bedding sand goes down. Skip that step and one Providence freeze thaw winter turns your patio pavers into a set of loose piano keys.

We lock the perimeter with edge restraint or a poured concrete edging patio border, then sweep polymeric sand into the joints so weeds aren't sprouting by the Fourth of July. Most patios run us three to five days start to finish.

And if you'd rather have a sealed concrete patio, we're concrete contractors in Providence first, so we'll tell you honestly which one your yard wants.

Patio Fire Pit

A patio fire pit is the piece we lay out before anything gets poured, because you can't set 600 degrees of burning oak on a four inch slab and expect it to shrug that off. Ours get a firebrick liner and a steel ring with an air gap behind them, and we thicken the slab underneath so the surface doesn't flake apart by the second February. On a sealed concrete patio we hold the sealer back about a foot from the ring, since acrylic clouds and scorches when it cooks.

Wood or gas changes the build. Gas means a sleeve goes in before the pour, and deciding later means saw cutting your brand new patio.

Half the concrete patio repair calls concrete contractors in Providence take start with a store-bought pit dropped on green concrete in July.

Patio Design

Patio design starts with a tape measure and a chair, not a catalog. A concrete patio that seats six around a table wants about 14 by 16 feet, and anything under 12 feet deep means somebody eats dinner with their back in the hydrangeas. As concrete contractors in Providence we've laid out enough tight East Side backyards to know the shape you sketched on a napkin usually wants a foot more on one side. We stake it with the door swing, the grill and the downspout in mind, then pitch the slab a quarter inch per foot away from the house so April rain runs to the yard and not the basement. Control joints every 8 to 10 feet, cut where the slab wants to crack anyway. A concrete edging patio border or a brick soldier course tightens the whole thing up.

Staining A Patio

Staining a patio isn't painting one, and that's where most people get surprised. Acid stain reacts with the lime in the slab, so the color soaks in and comes out mottled and a little leathery, never uniform. Water based products open up more concrete patio stain colors, blues and greens included, but they sit closer to the surface. Either way the slab has to be bare. Stain won't take through an old sealer, and grease from three summers of burgers will show up like a thumbprint.

We fix cracks and spalls first, because concrete patio repair done after staining reads as a patch every time. New pours wait a full 28 days.

Then neutralize, rinse, dry, seal. Two days of work, usually.

We're among the concrete contractors in Providence who'll stain a slab we didn't pour, provided it's sound.

Epoxy Patio Colors

Epoxy patio colors run from solid charcoal and slate gray to metallic swirls and vinyl flake blends that hide every crumb from Sunday dinner. Straight epoxy outdoors, though, doesn't last. Sun turns it yellow as Del's lemonade inside a season or two, and one Rhode Island winter finds the edges and lifts them. So we use epoxy as the base and a UV stable polyaspartic over the top.

Prep is where this is won or lost. We diamond grind the concrete patio to open the pores, tape a plastic square to the slab overnight to see if moisture is pushing up from below, and patch spalled spots before any color goes down. Plenty of concrete contractors in Providence skip that moisture check, and that's why coatings bubble in July.

Walk on it in 24 hours, furniture back in three. We stop coating below 50 degrees, so mid October is the cutoff.

What the job involves

A concrete patio starts underground, which is where most of them fail. We strip sod and topsoil, dig down eight to twelve inches, and compact process stone in lifts instead of dumping one pile and calling it a base. Then forms, wire or fiber, four inches of mix, six if a hot tub is coming. Control joints get cut within the first day so the slab cracks where we put the line, not straight through the middle of where your table sits.

Weather runs the schedule. We pour spring through late fall, because a slab poured into a January cold snap is the concrete patio repair work that concrete contractors in Providence spend the next spring doing.

Most backyards take two to four days on site. Access, tear-out of an old pad and edging stretch that.

What it costs

What a concrete patio costs comes down to four things: how big it is, how we get the mud into your yard, what's already back there, and how you want the top finished. A slab behind a house off Hope Street with a three foot side gate means wheelbarrowing every yard by hand, and hand work is hours. Busting out a cracked old pad adds a day and a dumpster. Wire mesh, the depth of compacted stone under it, a sealed concrete patio with proper concrete edging, stain colors instead of a plain broom finish, all of that moves the number. Plenty of concrete contractors in Providence quote off square footage alone, which is how you end up with a change order in week two. Call me at (401) 394-6425 with rough dimensions and a photo of the access and I'll price the real job. Skip the base and you're paying for concrete patio repair by the third winter.

Why choose us for this

You've got a concrete patio out back that's cracked, tipped toward the house, or holding a puddle three days after the rain stops, and you'd like to deal with it once and then forget it.

Here's what we won't do.

No moving numbers: the figure we write down is the figure on the invoice unless you change the scope.

No vanishing act: we don't pour half your slab and then run off to a garage floor in Cranston.

No signing today: the estimate costs nothing and holds whether you call us back Tuesday or in April.

No mess left: forms, washout and rebar ends leave with the truck.

We're not the cheapest concrete contractors in Providence, and that's deliberate. Cutting real control joints, forming clean concrete edging, and coming back for a sealed concrete patio before the first freeze all take hours some crews skip.

Frequently asked questions