Concrete patio construction in Quincy MA - a slab built on a solid, packed base

Most patio calls start with a patch of worn lawn by the back door or an old slab that's sunk and cracked. The price mostly comes down to the size, how much digging and base the ground needs, whether an old patio has to be broken out and hauled off, how easily we can get concrete to the spot, and whether you want a plain finish or stamped concrete. The schedule turns on the weather more than anything, since we only pour when the days after look right. If the job needs a permit, we pull it ourselves, and your own number comes in a written estimate that spells out what's included.

A patio is a slab sitting on the ground, so the ground does most of the work, and if the base is poor, no amount of steel in the slab will save it. That's why most of our effort goes there. I start by marking out the patio with you and showing you where the control joints will go, the straight grooves we cut so the slab cracks along a line we picked instead of one it picks for itself. Then we dig out the sod and soft topsoil down to firm subgrade, the native ground everything sits on, check which way the water runs so the finished slab sheds it away from your house, and bring in gravel that we spread and pack in layers rather than just rake level. Forms go up, and rebar goes in, steel bars that hold any cracks tight. We pour early in the day so the top doesn't bake in the afternoon heat and turn weak and dusty later, give it a broom finish, a light swept texture that keeps it from getting slick when it's wet, cut the joints while the concrete is still young, and keep it moist while it cures, the slow hardening that sets how strong the surface ends up. If the budget gets tight, I'll steer you toward spending it on the base before the finish, because the base is the part you'll never see again and the part that decides whether the slab stays put.

Patios rarely stand alone. Plenty of people want a pattern or color on top, and our stamped concrete services go on the same packed base. A concrete sidewalk from the driveway or back steps out to the patio is often worth pouring at the same time, since the crew and the truck are already there.

That same state guidance lists patios as work that generally doesn't need a building permit, but it says the answer depends on the project and to check with the local building official, so we don't assume. I check with the building office before we set a date, and if your patio does need a permit, we pull it ourselves. Water is the other local check. Quincy sits on Boston Harbor and Quincy Bay, and Marina Bay, Wollaston Beach and Germantown have a lot of flood-prone ground. The state's wetlands law protects land that floods as well as wetlands, and it covers work like regrading, which digging out for a patio can count as. If your yard is in one of those areas or within 100 feet of a wetland, the strip the state calls the buffer zone, you'll need to contact the conservation commission before any digging starts, and I'll ask about it at the estimate so it doesn't catch us by surprise.

Around Quincy we see a lot of tight backyards behind older houses, so concrete often goes back by wheelbarrow or pump instead of straight off the truck, and digging sometimes turns up old fill or buried stone that has to come out before the base goes in. We run into the same things on jobs in Braintree and Weymouth, and we work across the cities around Quincy, including those on our city pages and others nearby.