Decorative concrete in Moses Lake WA - a good-looking finish you can keep up with

Most people who call about decorative work have a plain gray patio or walk they're tired of looking at, or an old stamped slab that's gone dull and they want to get it right this time. The price moves with the size of the slab, how involved the design gets, whether an old slab has to come out first and how much base work your ground needs, and the schedule turns mostly on weather and curing, since the pour date has to suit the concrete and not just the calendar. If a pattern is all you're after, our stamped concrete services page goes further into that, and your own number comes from the written estimate once I've seen the ground.

Before you choose a finish, I show you how much upkeep each one takes and how it grips when it's wet, because a pretty slab you can't keep up isn't a good deal. Then we check where the water runs and set the slab to fall away from your house, and we dig out and pack the subgrade, the ground the slab sits on, so it doesn't settle along with loose dirt. We set the forms and rebar, the steel inside that keeps any crack from spreading apart, pick a pour date that gives the slab a fair chance to cure, which is the slow stretch where it gains strength and needs to be left alone, and work in the pattern, color or texture while the concrete is still workable. Concrete cracks, so we cut control joints, shallow grooves that give it a straight place to do that instead of wherever it likes. If the budget gets tight, I'd rather you go simpler on the finish than cheaper on the base, since nobody sees the base on day one but everybody sees it when the slab sinks.

Decorative slabs often come with other work. If your yard slopes toward the patio, concrete retaining walls hold the soil back and give the slab level ground to sit on, and if you want a stained look indoors, that starts with concrete floor installation done right underneath it.

If your new slab reaches into the city right-of-way, the strip the city owns along the street, like the sidewalk or the driveway approach in front of your house, the City of Moses Lake issues a Street and Utility Construction Permit for that work. Curb, gutter and street work there has to be done by a licensed and bonded contractor. Sidewalk work is the exception, since a homeowner can pull the permit for the sidewalk in front of their own house without meeting the license and bonding rules, though every other city standard still applies. If you're not sure your plan touches the street, the city offers to help figure out whether a permit is needed. Before I price any job, I check with the city or county office that covers your property, and when a permit is needed, we handle the application or help you with yours and build to what that office decides.

Our summers run hot and dry and our winters freeze, which is hard on a fresh slab, because national concrete guidance warns that hot, dry weather or a late-season pour can leave the top soft, so it wears away and soaks up water that freezes. That's why we pour early in the day in summer and plan decorative work well before the cold sets in, the same way we do on jobs in Ephrata and Othello.