Old walk cracked, heaved or sinking where you step? We firm up the ground first and pour a new walk that sits even.
Concrete sidewalk building in Gilroy, CA starts with the subgrade, the ground the walk sits on. We firm it up, set forms, and pour and finish a walk that sheds water and stays even underfoot.
Most calls start with a walk that's cracked, tipped up at a joint, or holds a puddle every time the sprinklers run. The concrete itself usually isn't the problem. The ground under it settled or never got firm. A walk is only as good as the ground under it, so we firm that ground up and deal with any soft spots before we set a single form.
The price mostly follows the size of the walk and how much ground work it needs. The schedule turns on that same ground work and on the weather for pour day, and I'll lay out both once I've measured. If the walk ties into a new garage floor concrete slab, we plan the two together so they meet at the same height and drain the same way.
Call (408) 427-8265 or use the form and give us the address and the walk's rough length and width. We'll set a time for me to come out and look.
I measure the run, check the ground under and around the old walk, and look at where water goes now. You get an estimate written line by line, so you can see what's in it and what isn't.
Before the pour, we go over the layout with you, including where the control joints go and which way water will drain. Control joints are the cuts that give the concrete a planned place to crack, so questions like these get settled on paper and not after the truck shows up.
Our crew works to the plan we agreed on, and I'm on site for the layout and the pour. We cure and protect the new walk, which means keeping it from drying out too fast while it gains strength, before we hand it over.
Most of a good walk is done before the truck arrives. We dig out the old material instead of raking the dirt level, pack the base firm, and set the forms so the walk tips water off its edge and away from your house. On pour day we place it, float it and give it a broom finish, the light texture that keeps shoes from slipping when it's wet, then cut the joints on time.
When a budget gets tight, people usually want to trim the base and keep the nicer finish. I'd go the other way, because nobody sees the base on day one, but it's what keeps the walk from sinking. Once the base is right, a colored or stamped border from our decorative concrete work can go on top.
What a new sidewalk job includes:
If one panel cracked and the ground under it is still firm, replacing just that panel can make sense. When several panels have sunk or tipped, the ground underneath has usually moved, and patching the top only puts new concrete back on the same soft dirt. In that case I'd take the walk out, fix the base and pour it new. I'll tell you which one I think your walk needs once I've looked under the edges.
Size sets most of the price, since concrete and labor go by area. Tearing out the old walk and hauling it away adds to it. Ground work varies the most, because soft spots take extra digging and fill before we can form. A plain broom finish costs less than color or stamping, and a walk the truck can't reach easily takes more hands. Each of these shows up as its own line on the estimate.
I learned concrete on commercial slabs, footings and paving, where the base, the forms and the layout decide how a slab holds up. I started this business in Gilroy in 2017 to bring that care to homes. I come out and measure your job myself, and our own crew does the work, with me on site for the layout and the pour.
We keep the work to the area we marked, protect the lawn and beds along the forms, and clean up before we leave. I'd rather settle questions on paper than fix them after the pour, so you'll know what you're paying for before we start. Your satisfaction, guaranteed.
Call (408) 427-8265 and I'll measure the walk on site, so your estimate is built from real numbers instead of a guess over the phone.
Send the address, the walk's rough length and width, and whether it fronts a State highway. We reply within one business day to set up a free on-site estimate, with no pressure to book.
Concrete work in the San Jose area usually costs about $6 to $22 per square foot. Where your walk falls in that range comes down to its size, the tear-out, the ground work and the finish. That's the area's going rate, not our price, and your own number comes from the line-by-line estimate after I measure.
The ground gets watered and compacted until it's firm, and soft or spongy spots are dried out or dug out, which is the practice on state sidewalk work. The subgrade is wetted again right before the pour, so it doesn't pull water out of the fresh concrete. We do the same groundwork on your walk, and a soft spot can mean waiting for it to dry or digging it out before forms go in.
A licensed contractor, unless the whole job is $1,000 or less, needs no permit, and the person doing it has no employees. If you hire a general "B" contractor for just a walk, it's fair to ask whether they hold the concrete specialty license or are subcontracting to someone who does. We're licensed and insured.
If the walk fronts a State highway, Caltrans may require an encroachment permit, its written approval, for sidewalk a private owner builds as frontage work. For every other job, I check with the city or county office for your address before we start, since the rules differ from place to place. When a job needs a permit, we pull it and line up the inspections.
They can if the walk serves a business or public property, because the ADA Standards set minimum access rules for new or altered government buildings, public accommodations and commercial facilities. Where an accessible route is required, those rules limit how steep the walk can be along the path and across it, and changes in level need a ramp or curb ramp. If you own a covered property, ask us how the new walk will meet the surfaces around it.
Most cracks in a newer walk come from a base that was raked level instead of dug out and packed, joints cut late or skipped, or a pour in the wrong weather. High heat, low humidity and high wind change how concrete is mixed, hauled and placed, so we pick a pour day with the forecast in mind. Control joints won't stop every crack, but they decide where one shows up.
We're based in Gilroy and pour sidewalks in many of the cities around it, including Morgan Hill and Hollister. Pick your area below, or call if yours isn't listed.
