Before you pour

We are based in Thomasville, NC, between High Point and Lexington. We pour in High Point, Lexington, Archdale, Trinity, Winston-Salem, Greensboro and the towns around them. We travel anywhere the job is.

Both. We pour for families at their house and for builders on job sites. Our photos show back patios and driveways right next to city sidewalks and commercial slabs.

Send the form on this page, or call or text (336) 307-5784. We come out, look at the job and give you a price. The size, the thickness, how easy the spot is to reach and how much dirt has to move all change the number.

Driveways, patios, walkways, sidewalks, curb and gutter, slabs, slab on grade foundations, structural footings and interior floors. We do the grading and the forming that goes under all of it.

We get back to you. Then we come look at the spot, talk through what you want, and give you a price. If you already have a plan or a drawing, send it along.

Four inches is the normal thickness for cars and pickups. If a dump truck, a camper or an RV is going to park on it, five or six inches is the safer call. Tell us what is going to sit on the slab and we will size it for that.

Usually the old one comes out. New concrete poured over cracked concrete follows the old cracks. Tearing out and starting on a fresh gravel base costs more up front and lasts a lot longer.

Most driveways are formed and poured in a day or two. Then the concrete needs about a week before a car should drive on it. Rain, a hard freeze, or a lot of dirt to move can add a day.

The slope. We set the grade before the pour so rain runs to the street or a drain instead of pooling on the slab or running at the garage door. Water that sits on concrete through a winter is what breaks the surface up.

Yes. Where the patio meets the house we put in an expansion joint, a soft strip that lets the slab move a little without pushing on the wall. The patio is also sloped away from the house so rain runs off into the yard.

Four inches is normal for a patio or a walkway that only carries people and furniture. If you want to drive a mower or a golf cart across it, say so and we can pour it thicker.

Yes. We bend the forms to follow the line you want, around a deck, along a fence, or up to a front door. The photos on this page show a few.

Yes. Sidewalk, street curb, gutter and driveway aprons for builders, developers and towns. We pour along live streets and inside new builds, in straight runs or curves.

The curb is the raised edge of the street. The gutter is the flat strip at its base that carries rainwater to the storm drain. They are poured together as one piece so water goes where the plan says, not into a yard.

The apron is the short piece of concrete between the street and your driveway, where the curb dips down. It is usually poured to the town or county standard, so it holds up to street traffic and drains the right way.

A monolithic slab is a foundation where the footing and the floor are poured at the same time as one piece. The edges are thicker to carry the walls. It is common for houses, garages and shops on flat lots.

A slab on grade is a concrete floor poured on top of the ground, on a gravel base, with no crawl space or basement under it. Most shops, garages and many houses sit on one.

We bring a pump truck. It parks in the street or the drive and its boom carries the concrete over a house, a fence or a wooded lot to the pour. Our photos show a few of those pours.

A compacted gravel base, then a vapor barrier if the slab is under a building, then steel, then the concrete. Once the slab is poured, nobody sees the base again. It still decides whether the slab stays flat, so it gets the most care.

The footing is the concrete strip under the walls of a building. It spreads the weight of everything above it onto the ground. It is dug, formed and poured before the walls or the slab.

Deep enough that frost cannot get under it, and wide enough for the load. The exact depth and width come from the building code and the plan for your county. We pour to the plan.

Yes. We have poured footings inside framed buildings and along interior walls. When a truck cannot get in, a pump carries the concrete to the trench.

A power trowel is a machine with spinning blades that smooths and hardens the top of a slab once it starts to set. It leaves a floor that is flat, smooth and easy to keep clean. Shops, garages and warehouses get this finish.

Yes. We pour floors inside framed buildings and shops. If a truck cannot back up to the door, we bring a pump.

Flat enough for shelving, lifts and rolling tool boxes. If the floor needs a slope to a drain, we set that in the forms before the pour.

Concrete is sold by the cubic yard. One cubic yard is a block 3 feet long, 3 feet wide and 3 feet tall. A 10 by 10 foot slab that is 4 inches thick takes about 1.2 yards.

As a rule, you can walk on new concrete the next day. You can put a car on it after about a week. It keeps getting harder for about a month. Cold and rain slow that down. Ask us about your own pour before you drive on it.

Concrete shrinks a little as it dries, and every slab cracks somewhere. Those saw lines are control joints. They tell the slab where to crack. The crack then opens inside that straight groove.

Most of the year in North Carolina. Hard rain and a freezing night are what move a pour date. Fresh concrete has to be covered until it sets. Winter pours need a better weather window.

A smooth finish is troweled flat and looks clean, but it gets slick when wet. A broom finish drags a broom across the wet surface to leave fine lines, which give shoes and tires grip. Most driveways, walks and pool decks get a broom finish. Most garage and shop floors get a smooth one.

Steel does not stop concrete from cracking. The joints do that. What steel does is hold the pieces tight together if a crack opens, so the slab does not shift. Driveways and slabs that carry weight usually get wire mesh or rebar. We will tell you what your job calls for.