Concrete Contractors in Sioux City, IA

Concrete contractors in Sioux City deal with ground that changes from one block to the next. The city sits at the northern end of the Loess Hills, where wind-blown silt in Iowa often runs more than 90 feet deep, and its streets climb from the Missouri River bottoms into Morningside, Rose Hill, the Northside and the Heights. Mix in about 36 inches of snow a winter and a long run of nights below freezing, and you get driveways that heave, walks that drop and stoops that shed their surface. We pour new concrete and repair old concrete with those conditions in mind.

Why slabs give out in this town

Five causes account for most of the cracked, tipped and flaking concrete we are asked to look at:

• Washed-out base. Loess is called "sugar clay" locally because it is rock-hard when dry and loses its cohesion when wet. Runoff that slips under an edge carries the fine silt away, leaves a hollow, and the slab settles into it.
• Freeze and thaw. Sioux City climate records show a January average low around 10 degrees, roughly 52 days a year that never get above freezing, and about 17 nights at zero or below. Moisture in the top of the slab freezes, swells and lifts off flakes.
• Road and sidewalk salt. Deicers speed up that scaling, and young concrete in its first winter is the most vulnerable.
• Hills. On a sloped lot, roof water, yard water and street runoff all head downhill to the lowest slab. Without a planned path, the water ends up underneath it.
• Age. About a third of Sioux City homes date from 1939 or earlier, and the median house was built in 1957. Many of the walks and steps in front of them are just as old.

What we do about it

The work starts below the slab. Old concrete comes out, soft or wet soil is dug out, the subgrade is compacted and a gravel base goes in. Exterior pours use air-entrained concrete, whose microscopic air voids give freezing water somewhere to go. Forms are set so the finished surface falls toward the lawn or the street, away from the foundation. Steel goes in where the soil or the load calls for it, and control joints are cut so shrinkage cracks run along a line we chose instead of across the middle of a panel.

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Public sidewalks and the city

In Sioux City, the owner of the adjoining lot is responsible for fixing unsafe public sidewalk. The Engineering Division splits the city into ten zones and inspects one a year, marking panels with problems such as a lip or gap of 3/4 inch or more. An owner can hire a contractor of their choosing, who pulls a city permit, and the city inspects the forms before the pour. The same division also issues driveway and sidewalk installation and replacement permits. We take care of that paperwork and book the inspection as part of the job.

The six things we build

• Driveways, from a single-car strip off an alley to a wide three-car approach, including tear-out.
• Patios with a broom, colored, exposed aggregate or stamped surface.
• Stamped concrete on patios, front walks and driveway edges.
• Sidewalks and steps, including panels marked on a city notice and front stoops.
• Garage floors and shed pads, with thickness and base matched to what sits on them.
• Repair and replacement of cracked, sunken or scaling concrete, with a straight answer on which one you need.

Looking after new concrete

A new slab is not done when the forms come off. Hold cars off a new driveway for roughly seven days, and skip ice melt for the whole first winter. The city's Engineering Division passes on Iowa Concrete Paving Association advice to use plain sand instead on driveways and sidewalks poured that season. Once the slab has cured, a penetrating sealer, reapplied every few years, keeps brine and water from soaking into the surface. We go over the care plan for your slab before we leave.

Inside Sioux City we work from the Northside and the Heights to Morningside, Rose Hill, Southern Hills and the West Side. Outside the city limits we cover Sergeant Bluff, Salix and Sloan to the south; Le Mars, Hinton, Merrill, Akron and Kingsley to the north and east; Lawton and Moville out along Highway 20; South Sioux City, Dakota City, Jackson, Homer and Ponca across the river in Nebraska; and North Sioux City, Dakota Dunes, Jefferson and Elk Point in South Dakota. Live nearby but not on the list? Call (712) 482-2303 and ask.