Springfield Concrete Paving

Paving Companies

Plenty of paving companies can lay something that looks sharp in October. April is the real judge, after five months of freeze and thaw have worked on it.

So when you're weighing concrete paving contractors, the question that matters is what's underneath the slab. We dig down to solid ground, lay six inches of compacted processed gravel, use an air entrained mix that can take a New England winter, and cut control joints within about a day of the pour so the concrete cracks where we put the line instead of wherever it pleases. Skip those joints and by the second spring you've got the same spiderweb you see on half the driveways off Sumner Ave.

That's the reason The Springfield Concrete Company works the way it does, and why our trucks are usually the last ones to leave.

Driveway Paving

Driveway paving is the job we get called for most, and everything that decides how it ages happens before a single truck backs up your street. We dig out to subgrade, lay six inches of processed gravel and compact it in lifts, because a slab poured over soft ground in Forest Park will show you exactly what it thinks of that by February. Four inches of air entrained mix for cars, five or six if there's a work truck sitting on it every night. Control joints get cut within a day, roughly every ten feet, so the concrete cracks where we tell it to instead of wherever it feels like. Stay off it about a week, and keep the plow blade honest that first winter. Most driveways The Springfield Concrete Company goes back to fix were poured straight on dirt.

Paving Installer

A paving installer earns his money in the two hours before anything gets poured, not during. That's the part people never see: pulling the sod and loose fill, getting the grade to fall away from your foundation, compacting the base in lifts instead of one fat six inch layer that settles by March. Skip that and you get the Sumner Ave special, a slab that looks great in October and has a hairline map crack running through it after the first real freeze.

The crew I run at The Springfield Concrete Company sets forms, screeds, and floats by hand, and we watch the mix like a hawk because too much water on site means a weak, dusty surface later.

Good concrete paving is mostly patience. Anybody can pour. Finishing it flat and level takes practice.

Paver Installation

Paver installation is the one job where almost everything that matters gets buried before you ever see it. We dig out 8 to 12 inches for a driveway, less for a walk, compact processed gravel in 3 inch lifts, screed an inch of bedding sand, then set the concrete paving stones tight with edge restraints spiked along both sides. Skip the restraints and by the second Springfield winter your border row is wandering out into the lawn like it heard the ice cream truck.

Most walkways and patios we do at The Springfield Concrete Company take two to four days, weather depending, and we sweep polymeric sand into the joints so weeds and ants stop treating your patio like a studio apartment.

Blend paver stain colors across pallets as you lay, too. Otherwise you get stripes.

Asphalt Paving Co

Call an asphalt paving co and you'll get asphalt. That's fair, it's what they pour, and sometimes it's the right answer. Blacktop goes down in a day, you're driving on it in two, and on a long run out toward the hilltowns that speed matters. But asphalt softens in a 90 degree July, a kickstand sinks into it, and it wants resealing every three or four years for as long as you own the place. Concrete paving doesn't ask that of you. It holds its shape under a plow blade and a loaded truck, and with control joints cut the same day the slab goes off, it'll outlast whatever's parked on it. That's the work The Springfield Concrete Company does all week, and it's why we're paving contractors who stayed in one lane instead of two.

Paving Sealing

Paving sealing is the cheap insurance nobody thinks about until March, after the plow guys have salted Sumner Ave into a white crust and the slab has been through forty freeze‑thaw cycles. We wash it, then let it dry a full 24 hours. Sealer rolled over damp concrete goes cloudy and peels off in sheets, and stripping that is a miserable day. Then it's a penetrating silane‑siloxane on most concrete paving, or a joint‑stabilizing sealer on pavers once we've swept fresh polymeric sand into the joints. Most driveways take a day, and you stay off them 24 to 48 hours.

Plan on redoing it every three to five years, sooner on the south‑facing stretch that bakes all summer.

At The Springfield Concrete Company we won't seal a driveway that needs crack work first. That's just hiding it.

Paver Tint

Paver tint is what brings a patio back when your concrete paving stones have faded to that washed out gray you see all over East Forest Park after ten winters of sun and road salt. We use a penetrating paver dye that soaks into the pore instead of a film that sits on top, because film peels, and peeling pavers look like a bad spray tan that never grows out. Old sealer has to be stripped first, and that stripping is what moves the price, along with square footage and how many paver stain colors you want blended together. The stones need to be bone dry and above roughly 50 degrees, so The Springfield Concrete Company schedules tinting from May into September. Typical patio, we strip and wash one day and tint the next.

What the job involves

What the job involves starts with a shovel, not a mixer. We strip 10 to 12 inches of loam and tired old base, then bring in processed gravel and compact it in lifts, because a slab is only ever as good as what sits under it. Forms next, then fiber or wire, then a 4,000 psi air entrained mix, which matters when February in Springfield goes from 40 degrees to 12 overnight. At The Springfield Concrete Company we saw control joints every 10 to 12 feet so the concrete cracks where we tell it to, not where it feels like it. Most concrete paving on a two car driveway runs two or three days on site, then seven before you walk it and 28 before a loaded truck parks on it. Skip the compaction and you'll see settlement by the second spring.

What it costs

Ask me what it costs and I'll ask you three things back: how big the pour is, what's under it now, and whether a truck can reach it. Driveway paving cost swings on subgrade more than anything else. If we're digging out clay and hauling in gravel, that's a day and a machine before a single yard of concrete lands. Tear-out of an old slab adds weight to the bill. So does anything decorative, since paver stain colors and stamped work take extra hands on the finish while the slab is still green.

Access matters too. A tight lot off Sumner Ave means wheelbarrows instead of a chute, and wheelbarrows cost hours.

Call The Springfield Concrete Company at (417) 464-6822 and we'll measure your drive and give you a real number, not a guess dressed up as one. Concrete paving priced off a phone description helps nobody.

Why choose us for this

You've got a driveway that's pitted, spidered and lifting after a few winters of plow blades and road salt, and why you'd choose us for this concrete paving is simple: you want it handled once and then off your mind for years.

So here's what we won't do.

Quote low, bill high: The number we give you at the curb is the number on the invoice, unless we find something buried, and you'll hear about that before anybody pours.

Start someone else mid-job: Your pour gets finished before another one begins.

Push you to sign today: The estimate costs nothing and books nothing.

Leave the mess: Forms, offcuts and washout go home in our truck.

We're not the cheapest of the driveway paving contractors you'll call, on purpose. We run The Springfield Concrete Company on base prep and control joints, and that takes hours cheaper crews skip.

Frequently asked questions