Nothing in Springfield stays flat for long. One winter, a few freeze-thaw cycles off the Connecticut River, and a driveway that looked fine in October is doing its best impression of the surface of the moon.
I'm Tony. My crew has been pouring around Hampden County for the best part of six years now: driveways, patios, steps, foundations, concrete curbs, the lot. We show up when we said we would, we answer the phone ourselves, we never talk down to you, and we hose down your sidewalk before the truck pulls out.
Below is every service we run, where we work, and what people ask before they book. Read on, then call me at (413) 547-4797 and I'll come take a look.
What happens when you call
Here's what happens when you call: you get me or one of my guys on the phone, not a phone tree. We ask what the concrete is actually doing, whether it's a driveway apron out in Sixteen Acres or crumbling curbs in a lot off Boston Road, and we set a time to come look at it.
I walk the job with you, measure, check the grade and where the water runs, and tell you what I'd do and what I'd leave alone. Then you get a written scope, so you know if we're forming a full concrete curb gutter or cutting out eight bad feet of cement curbing.
Then we schedule around the weather, because nobody wins pouring in a February freeze.
Curbs
Curbs take more punishment than anything else we pour. Plow blades in February, salt off Sumner Ave, and delivery trucks clipping the corner because the driver's in a hurry. We handle concrete curb installation for driveways, lots and garden beds, plus ADA compliant curb ramps where a walk meets the street. Radius work, total footage, and whether it's an extruded curb or a monolithic curb poured right along with the slab all change what the day looks like.
Bad curbing spalls along the top edge the first winter, usually from an overwatered mix. We tool control joints every ten feet or so and give the crack somewhere to go. A low curb frames a stamped concrete patio nicely too.
Stamped Concrete
Stamped concrete is how you get the look of bluestone, cobble or running bond brick without anybody setting five hundred pieces by hand. We pour the slab, work color through it, then press the mats in while the concrete sits right at thumbprint stage. Miss that window and the pattern comes out shallow and blurry, and no amount of troweling brings it back.
Pattern choice, the color system and how much saw cutting your layout needs all push the number around. Most patios pour and stamp in a day, then cure before sealer. Skip the sealer and Springfield winters plus road salt will have you asking us about concrete repair by year three.
Concrete Repair
Concrete repair is the call I get most in February, right after the plows and the road salt have had their fun with everything. That means repairing concrete curb a plow blade clipped, patching a step that has spalled down to the aggregate, or sawing out the two bad panels in a concrete driveway instead of tearing up the whole slab. What kills a patch is skipping prep.
If we don't square the edges and bond the new mix to sound concrete, it lifts off by the next thaw and you've paid for nothing. Most repairs are a one day job. Call me at (413) 547-4797 and I'll come look at it.
Concrete Driveway
A concrete driveway in Springfield lives or dies on what sits underneath it. We dig out the old one, compact six to eight inches of process stone, then pour four inches of air entrained mix, six where the truck parks. Joints get cut within a day, about every ten feet, so the cracking happens on a line we picked. Skip that base work and by the third March you've got the same heaving you swear at on Sumner Avenue.
Size, access for the truck, tear out, and a concrete curb for driveway edges all move things. If you want more than gray, our decorative concrete finishes work here too. Two days to pour, a week before you park.
Decorative Concrete Finishes
Decorative concrete finishes are how a plain gray slab stops looking like a sidewalk. We pour exposed aggregate, salt finish, integral color and acid stain, and we'll run decorative curbing along a bed line so your mulch quits migrating into the lawn every spring. The finish lives or dies on timing.
Stain too early and you get blotches; seal it on a muggy August afternoon and you trap moisture under the film, which shows up as a white haze you can't buff back out. Springfield winters and the salt trucks are rough on color, so figure on resealing every two or three years. Where the slab underneath is still solid, resurfacing gets you the look without demolition.
Resurfacing
Resurfacing buys you a new slab without the jackhammer, and on plenty of Springfield patios and garage floors it's the right call. We shot blast the old surface first so the topping has something to grab, fill the low spots, then trowel on a polymer modified overlay about a quarter inch thick, broomed or stamped, your call. Skip that profiling step, bond to a dusty sealed slab, and the whole thing flakes off in chunks by the second February thaw.
I'll say it plainly: if the slab is heaving or cracked clean through, resurfacing hides the problem for one season and no longer. Most concrete flatwork we resurface takes two days, plus about 72 hours before you park on it.
Concrete Flatwork
Sidewalks, walkways, garage pads, aprons: concrete flatwork is anything we pour flat and finish smooth. Most of the job happens before the truck ever backs in. We dig it out, compact the base, set forms so water runs away from your foundation instead of toward it, and saw control joints every eight to ten feet the same day. Skip the joints and the first hard freeze off the Connecticut River picks the crack for you, usually right through the middle.
On public walks we form an ADA compliant sidewalk ramp and handle the curb cutting so nobody catches a wheel on the lip. Call me, Tony, at (413) 547-4797 and I'll come look at the site.
Concrete
We pour concrete all over Springfield, from Forest Park driveways to loading docks off Page Boulevard, and most weeks the truck is somewhere in between. Flatwork, footings, concrete steps that don't rock under your mother-in-law, and curbs, plenty of curbs. A good share of our work is curb cutting and repairing concrete curb along lots where a plow blade caught an edge back in February.
Get the base wrong and it doesn't matter how sharp the finish looks: four inches of compacted gravel under a residential slab, more where trucks turn. Bad concrete tells on itself by the second winter, usually right at the joints.
Concrete Steps
Concrete steps take a beating here: road salt in January, kids in July, and a mail carrier hitting the same tread twice a day for twenty years. We set ours on compacted gravel over a footing below the frost line, roughly four feet down, because a flight poured on bare dirt starts leaning toward the street by the third winter and then the railing goes crooked with it.
If yours already rocks when you step on it, the old set has to come out. That concrete removal usually runs a half day, and we pour the next morning. Where the walk meets the street, we can tie in an ADA compliant sidewalk ramp while we're there.
Concrete Removal
Concrete removal is the part nobody dreams about, but you can't pour good work on top of a slab that's already lost. We saw cut clean lines first, break the concrete into pieces two guys can lift, cut out the wire mesh and rebar, and truck it off. A 400 square foot patio usually comes out in a day.
An old garage floor at eight inches thick, or the remains of a concrete foundation, takes longer and takes a bigger machine. Concrete curb cutting for a new apron gets a walk behind saw so the edge stays true. Skip the regrading and compaction underneath and your fresh slab sinks by the second Springfield winter.
Concrete Foundation
A concrete foundation is the one pour nobody ever sees and everybody feels. Around here we dig footings below the frost line, four feet down, because a Springfield winter will lift a shallow footing and you find out in March when the door upstairs quits latching. We form it, tie the rebar, pour a good stiff mix, and let it cure before anybody backfills. Push the backfill in early and you bow a green wall.
A concrete patio that settles can be fixed later. A foundation, not so much. Garage slab, addition, new build, call me, Tony, at (413) 547-4797 and I'll come look at the hole with you.
Concrete Patio
A concrete patio only stays flat if what's under it is right, so we dig out the soft stuff, put down six inches of compacted process, and pour four inches on top with slope of about a quarter inch per foot running away from the house. The patios I get called to fix were poured on loose fill or skipped control joints, and around here the first February thaw finds every one of them.
Size, thickness, the finish you want, and how much digging the yard needs are the things that swing your number. We'll set a ribbon of concrete garden curbing along the edge to hold your mulch back, and tie in concrete paving from the driveway while the trucks are already parked out front.
Concrete Paving
We do concrete paving for parking lots, aprons, alleys and loading areas across Springfield, and what decides whether it holds up is under the slab, not on top of it. Compacted gravel base, honest subgrade prep, control joints cut early so the slab cracks where we tell it to instead of where it feels like it. Skip that and by the second February you've got heaving and spalled edges.
Where the site needs them, we form paving curbs and an ADA compliant sidewalk ramp in the same phase, so nothing gets patched in later. If the lot drops off at a grade change, the concrete retaining wall goes in before we pave, never after.
Concrete Retaining Wall
A concrete retaining wall is holding back dirt and water, and water is the one that wins every argument. So we dig the footing below frost depth, which around here runs close to four feet, tie in rebar, then backfill with crushed stone and set weep holes or a drain line so the pressure has somewhere to go. Skip the stone and by the third spring your wall is leaning like that tower in Italy everybody poses next to.
On the hillside lots up around Wilbraham Road we're usually pouring four to six feet of wall, about a week start to finish. Same crew pours curbs and commercial concrete grade changes at loading docks.
Commercial Concrete
Commercial concrete runs on a different clock than a backyard patio. We pour parking lots, dock aprons, walkways and paving curbs for businesses along Boston Road, and most of it happens after you lock up so your doors stay open in the morning. An ADA compliant sidewalk ramp is where people get burned: miss the running slope by a hair and the inspector has you break it back out.
We handle our own concrete curb cutting when a new approach goes in, so nobody sits waiting on a second crew. Then give the slab a solid week before delivery trucks roll on it. Call me, Tony, at (413) 547-4797 and I'll walk the lot with you.
Residential and commercial the concrete company in Springfield
Being the concrete company in Springfield that answers both sides of the street means I'm pouring a concrete mow curb around flower beds in Sixteen Acres on Tuesday and forming the ADA compliant sidewalk ramp at a Boston Road storefront on Wednesday. Homeowners usually want decorative curbing that keeps the mower blade off the mulch and holds a clean line. Commercial lots want paving curbs that survive a plow in February and a delivery truck backing in crooked.
Skip the base prep on either one and those curbs heave by the second winter, and then you're paying for curb cutting to pull out the piece you just bought.
Why Springfield homeowners and businesses choose us
Springfield homeowners and businesses choose us for a pretty boring reason: we do the part nobody ever sees. Six inches of compacted gravel base, air entrained mix, and control joints cut before the slab is a day old. Our winters swing from 40 degrees to 12 over a weekend, and concrete that skipped those steps splits right along the salt line by March.
I've been running crews here the best part of six years, from Sixteen Acres out to the East Longmeadow line. We're licensed, we carry general liability and workers' comp, and as concrete curbing contractors we'll tell you straight when curb cutting isn't worth the money. Tight joints, clean edges, concrete curb appeal that holds up.
Areas we serve
The areas we serve run from downtown Springfield out past the Wilbraham line, and my truck knows every crack on Boston Road.
Forest Park, East Forest Park, Sixteen Acres, Pine Point, Indian Orchard, McKnight, Mason Square, Six Corners, Liberty Heights, Brightwood, the South End, Chicopee, West Springfield, Agawam, Feeding Hills, Longmeadow, East Longmeadow, Wilbraham, Hampden, Ludlow, Holyoke and Westfield.
Sixteen Acres sits on sand, so poured concrete curbing there sets clean and stays put. Down near the river in Indian Orchard we hit clay and old fill, which means six inches of compacted base before any curbs go in, or they heave by the second winter.
Small jobs out past Palmer or Monson wait until I've got another one nearby. Otherwise the drive eats the day.
Frequently asked questions
What kind of concrete work do you do?
Most of our week is concrete flatwork: a driveway that finally gave up, a concrete patio out back, walkways, and concrete steps that have pitched back toward the front door. We also form and pour a concrete foundation for additions and detached garages, and we build a concrete retaining wall when a yard drops off the way so many of them do around Sixteen Acres.
Do you take commercial jobs or just houses?
Both. Commercial concrete here means sidewalks, dumpster pads, ADA ramps, loading aprons and concrete paving for smaller lots, usually 6 inches thick over compacted base with rebar, because a box truck weighs a lot more than your Subaru. We set curbs too, and we stage the pour so half your lot stays open while the other half cures.
What makes one quote higher than another?
Thickness, steel, access and tear-out. A 4 inch residential slab with mesh costs less than a 6 inch pad with rebar mat. Concrete removal adds real hours when the old slab is thick or sits behind a fence a truck cannot reach. Decorative concrete finishes, color and sealer add labor over a plain broom finish. My driveway is cracked. Do I need a whole new one? Usually not, at least not yet. Concrete repair works when the slab is still sitting level and the cracks are tight. Resurfacing suits a surface that is spalling and flaking but has a sound base underneath, since a 3/8 inch overlay only lasts if what is below it does not move. Once sections have heaved or sunk, a new concrete driveway is the cheaper answer over ten years.
How long before I can walk on it and park on it?
Foot traffic at 24 to 48 hours, your car at about 7 days, heavy trucks at 28. Concrete keeps gaining strength for a month after we leave, so we ask you to keep the boat and the loaded trailer off it that first month.
Can you pour in a Springfield winter?
We pour into late fall with an air entrained mix and insulating blankets, and we stop when nights sit below freezing for days at a time. New slabs also hate deicers. Skip the rock salt that first winter and use sand instead, or the same salt the trucks throw down Sumner Ave will pit your fresh surface.
Is stamped concrete slippery when it ices over?
It can be if the sealer goes on slick. We mix a grit additive into the sealer on stamped concrete steps and pool aprons, then reseal every two to three years.
How do we get started?
I come out, measure, look at where the water goes, and tell you what I would do and what I would leave alone. You get a written scope with thickness, reinforcement and finish spelled out before anybody breaks ground.
Contact The Springfield Concrete Company now
Contact The Springfield Concrete Company now and you get me, Tony, on the phone, not a call center three states away. Tell me what you're staring at: an apron that heaves every February when the frost lets go, curbs a plow clipped last winter, or a flower bed off Sumner Ave you want edged before the tulips show up. I'll come measure and tell you straight whether you need new poured concrete curbing or just a patch.
Most curb cutting and flatwork we book a couple weeks out, quicker in the fall.
Weekdays nine to five, Saturdays when a job truly can't sit. Call me at (413) 547-4797.
See a few of our projects
