Concrete patio contractors: how to choose one in your metro

How concrete contractors by metro works

1. Ask for addresses, not a gallery. Any contractor can show photographs. Ask for three drives or patios they poured in your metro three or more years ago and go and look at them. Age is the test: a slab looks good at three months whatever was under it, and the base shows up in year three.
2. Check the licence and the insurance in your state. Requirements differ by state and sometimes by city, and the person who quotes should be able to say what applies where you live and produce it. Ask for the certificate of insurance directly from the insurer rather than as a scan, and confirm it covers the dates of your job.
3. Get the specification in the same units from everyone. Square footage, base depth, slab thickness, reinforcement, joint spacing, finish. Send the same list to every bidder. Local price differences are real and comparable; differences that come from three bidders quoting three different jobs are not.
4. Ask who is actually on site. Small firms subcontract the pour, the finish or both when they are busy. That is normal and it changes who is responsible. Find out whose crew turns up, who supervises the finish, and who you call in year two if something moves.
5. Pay against progress, never up front. A deposit for materials is reasonable. Paying the bulk before the base is in is not. Tie payments to demolition complete, base in and compacted, pour complete, and joints cut, and keep a retention until the drive has been through a freeze and a thaw if your climate has them.

Using the restoration firm for the flatwork

Where the drive or patio was damaged in an insured event, the restoration firm handling the loss may offer the flatwork too, and that can be convenient because one estimate covers the whole claim. It is still worth a second bid from a concrete specialist, because the carrier pays the same either way and the slab is the part you live with longest. Ask both to write area, thickness, base and finish so the adjuster is comparing the same job.

Common questions

How many quotes should I get for a concrete job?

Three is the usual advice and the reason is not price, it is specification. Three bids written properly will disagree about base depth or thickness, and that disagreement is the most useful information you will get, because it tells you what the cheap bid is leaving out.

Are concrete prices really different by city?

Yes, and for structural reasons rather than local greed: haul distance from the ready mix plant, local labour rates, how long the pouring season is, and how much demolition and disposal cost in that county. The same drive genuinely costs different money in two states.

What does a deposit normally cover?

Materials and mobilisation. It should be a modest share of the job rather than most of it, and the balance should follow work that has actually happened. A contractor asking for the majority before anything is broken out is asking you to fund their cash flow, not your driveway.

Should I use concrete patio builders who specialise, or a general contractor?

For a drive or a patio on its own, a flatwork specialist pours more slabs in a month than a generalist does in a year and it shows in the finish. Where the slab is one part of a larger project, a general contractor coordinating trades can be worth the margin.

Do concrete patio contractors take on concrete patio repair as well as a new pour?

Many do, and it is worth asking for the addresses of repairs rather than pours. Repair work is judged on whether the cause was dealt with, so a firm that only shows you new slabs is showing you the easier job.

Do concrete patio contractors offer an aggregate concrete patio finish?

Most do, because it is a finish rather than a product: the surface mortar is washed off the same slab so the stone becomes the face. Ask to see one that has been down a few winters rather than a fresh one.

Claims data by state

• Water damage claims in Arizona
• Water damage claims in Florida
• Water damage claims in Georgia
• Water damage claims in North Carolina
• Water damage claims in Texas
• Water damage claims in Washington