South Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Concrete driveways, patios and walks in South Milwaukee

A driveway rebuilt from the garage door to the curb, a patio laid out behind the house, a front walk and steps you no longer have to watch your feet on. Tell us which, and a local crew comes out to measure it and talk it through.

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The jobs we price

Often it starts with a driveway. One that has broken into separate plates, sunk where the downspout empties, or lifted along an edge so the garage door no longer seals against it. The second most common is the patio: somebody wants the one they have made bigger, or taken out and poured again level instead of pitched toward the house.

Then the smaller jobs that tend to ride along with the big one. A cracked service walk, a stoop whose treads have worn round, a pad for a shed or an air conditioner. Looking at those on the same visit as the driveway saves a second appointment, so mention them on the form even if they are a someday item.

Driveways, in two pieces

Treat the drive as two jobs that happen to be poured the same week. The part on your lot is yours to shape: width, finish, where the joints fall, whether it flares at the garage. The part between the public walk and the gutter is the City's, and it is built to the City's measurements rather than ours or yours. We quote those two pieces on separate lines so you can see where the money goes, and we plan the pour around the inspection the street end needs.

See concrete driveway work for how we set out, reinforce and finish the private part.

Patios, slabs and steps behind the lot line

Behind the house there is far more freedom. A concrete patio can follow the shape of the yard, step down a level, or wrap a corner to reach the back door. Shed and garage slabs are sized to what will sit on them. Where a project on your own lot needs a building permit, that runs through the City's Inspection Department, a different office from the one that looks after the street end.

If what you have is damaged rather than finished with, concrete repair covers cutting out the failed sections and pouring them back, and we will say so plainly if a whole replacement is the better spend.

The street end, by the City's own paperwork

South Milwaukee's Driveway Approach Permit, issued through the Engineering Department, calls for 7-1/2 inches of concrete between the street, gutter and sidewalk, and the same where a public walk is rebuilt through the drive. Ordinary walks are 5 inches, with contraction joints every 5 feet; a replacement walk goes back at the width that came out.

Nothing is poured until Engineering has approved the forming, line and grade, and materials. The permit asks for 24 hours of notice, not counting Saturdays, Sundays or holidays, booked with the Engineering Department. The City Engineer sets the curb return radius, and the City's standard flared driveway drawing shows a 3 foot flare and 1/2 inch deformed tie bars, 36 inches long, at 36 inch centres. Right-of-way work sits under Code § 12.01 (Ord. No. 1813), which adopts the Engineer's regulations by reference.

From first message to finished pour

1. Four short questions. What the job is, roughly how big, when you would like it, and your ZIP. Then a crew member calls to arrange a visit.
2. A measured visit. We walk the site with you, check falls and drainage, and split the street end from the private work on the estimate.
3. Paperwork, then forms. The approach permit goes to Engineering, the forms go in, and the City signs them off before the truck is booked.
4. Pour and cure. Placed, finished, jointed, and kept off until it is ready, with the walk and the lawn at the edges put back.

Worth a read first

• asphalt against concrete for a driveway you mean to keep
• telling a repairable driveway from a finished one
• how a patio estimate is built up