Concrete sidewalk building in Duluth MN - a walk built on firm, even ground

Most people call us when the old walk has cracked, sunk at one end or started holding puddles, or when there's no walk at all and the path across the lawn has worn to mud. The price mostly turns on how long and wide the walk runs, whether old concrete has to come out, how much digging the ground needs and whether it meets steps at your door or the street. The schedule turns on the weather, the cure time and whether the city has to sign off on work along the street, and you'll get your own price once I've seen the job at your house.

I start by walking the route with you and asking where the water goes now, because a walk that tips toward the house sends every rainstorm to your foundation, and we find out early whether the walk ties into the street or the city sidewalk, since that changes who we work with at the city. Then we break out the old walk, dig out the soft dirt and shape and pack the subgrade, the ground the concrete sits on, so the whole walk rests on even support instead of settling wherever the dirt was loose. We set forms so the walk sheds water away from the house, pour outside the worst of the midday heat so the top doesn't come out weak and dusty, give it a broom finish, a light texture that gives your shoes some grip when it's wet, and cut control joints, shallow lines that give the concrete a planned place to crack instead of a random one. If the budget gets tight, the base is the last place I'd cut, because you can redo a surface someday, but you can't fix soft ground under a finished walk without tearing it out.

A walk usually connects to something else. If it runs to a garage with a tired slab, we can plan garage floor concrete alongside it so the two meet at the same height, and if you'd like the walk to look like more than plain gray, decorative concrete adds color or pattern on top of the same packed base.

In Duluth, the city engineer issues permits for any digging in public sidewalks and streets, and for setting equipment or materials in them or right next to them, so a walk that ties into the city sidewalk or the curb goes through that office. Work on your own property is handled by the city's Construction Services & Inspections Division, and I don't assume a private walk is exempt, so that's who we ask before we start. When a job needs a permit, we pull it and book the inspections, and if you'd rather apply yourself, I'll tell you what the city will want to see from us. If your block has no sidewalk at all, owners can petition the city to build one as an assessed project charged to the properties, once a majority of owners, counted by the front footage being assessed, sign on.

Plenty of walks here run along a grade or squeeze between a house and a driveway, so most of our planning goes into where the water will run once the concrete is down. We're based in Duluth and do the same base and drainage work on walks in Hermantown and Cloquet, along with Superior and the cities around them.