Decorative concrete in Fargo ND - a finish planned to hold up through winter

Most people call us because the patio or driveway they have is plain, cracked or sinking, and they want the next one to look better and last longer. The price moves with the size of the area, how much digging and base work your ground needs, and how many steps the finish takes, since a two-color stamped pattern takes more hands and hours than a single stain. The schedule depends on getting a pour day without a freeze, then on curing, the wait while the concrete gains strength before you use it. If you mostly want a pattern, our stamped concrete services page goes into that work, and when I walk your job you get the scope in writing.

A good finish only lasts as long as the slab under it, so on the first visit I talk through the base with you as much as the color. Our crew digs out the soft dirt, packs the subgrade, which is the ground the slab sits on, and lays a compacted gravel base instead of raking the dirt level and pouring over it. Rebar, the steel set inside the slab, helps hold the pieces together if it cracks. We pour in the cooler part of the day, because midday heat can leave a weak, dusty top, then work the color and pattern in while the concrete is still soft. Control joints, the straight cuts that give the slab a place to crack where we chose, go in on time and not days later. Before we wrap up, we go over how you'll handle winter deicing, because that's where decorative surfaces take the most wear. If the budget gets tight, I'd rather simplify the pattern than thin out the base, because the base is the part you can't fix later without tearing the whole slab out.

A decorative patio often sits where the yard slopes, and our concrete retaining walls hold the grade so the slab has level ground beside it. If you want the same look inside a basement or shop, we pour the slab through our concrete floor installation work and finish it to match.

Near the street, the city sets part of the design. The City of Fargo requires a home driveway to be at least 9 feet and no more than 30 feet wide where it meets the sidewalk, and its standards treat any decorative or colored concrete behind the curb as impressioned concrete, so a colored apron out there gets built to the city's standard as well as ours. On each job we check with the city what it needs, and when a permit's required we handle the application and set up the inspections with you. If you'd like to ask about your project before you call us, the city's Inspections Department invites people planning a project to contact it about the requirements.

Under the slab, the ground is the bigger concern. Clay and other fine soil swell when they're wet and shrink when they dry, and under a driveway or patio that takes support away from the slab, which is why the packed base matters so much here. We're based in Fargo and work across the cities around it, and we dig into the same heavy clay on jobs in West Fargo and Moorhead.