Concrete & Demolition Contractor in Highland Park, IL

Concrete and demolition work in Highland Park

Highland Park has ravine and lakefront lots with old-growth trees. That shapes the work we do here more than anything else. The three things we get called for most in Highland Park are driveways on sloped ravine lots where drainage rules everything, decorative work on high-value properties, and retaining and foundation work.

We are based in Avondale at 3227 N Western Ave, which puts Highland Park well inside our normal working radius. Because we run demolition and concrete with the same crew, a tear-out and a new pour in Highland Park is one contractor and one schedule rather than two companies negotiating with each other over your driveway.

What Highland Park concrete is up against

Chicago is one of the hardest climates in the country on concrete. The freeze-thaw cycle runs from November into March, de-icing salt goes down on every driveway and public walk, and the clay soil underneath holds water instead of draining it. Concrete that survives here is air-entrained, poured on a compacted stone base, pitched so water leaves, jointed on a proper grid, and kept away from salt through its first winter.

Around Highland Park specifically, the recurring theme is age. A lot of the hardscape here was poured decades ago, before compacted stone base was standard practice on residential work, and it is now at the end of a life it was never really engineered for.

• Settled and heaved sections. Where the slab is sound but has dropped, lifting or a single section replacement costs a fraction of a full tear-out.
• Freeze-thaw scaling. Water gets into the surface, freezes, and lifts the top layer off in flakes. It comes from too much water in the mix, finishing while bleed water is still on the slab, or skipping the air entrainment Illinois exterior concrete needs.
• Control joints cut late or shallow. Concrete is going to crack. Joints decide where. Cut at the wrong depth or a day late and the slab picks its own line across the middle.
• Slabs poured on bad base. Most cracked driveways in the older neighborhoods were poured straight on disturbed clay with no compacted stone under them.

Services we offer in Highland Park

Every one of these has a page of its own, and a page specific to Highland Park.

How a Highland Park job runs

1. Walk the yardWe look at drainage, existing grade, access, and where the patio actually needs to sit relative to the house and the gangway.
2. Layout and demoShape is marked out. Any existing slab comes out and gets hauled.
3. Excavate and compactDown past disturbed soil, graded stone in, compacted in lifts.
4. Form to the pitchForms set to fall away from the structure, checked before anything is poured.
5. Pour and finishPlaced, screeded, floated, and finished in your chosen texture. Stamped work is stamped in the window before the slab sets up.
6. Joints, cure, sealControl joints cut same-day. Stamped and exposed aggregate get sealed once cured.

What we look at before quoting in Highland Park

Every estimate in Highland Park starts with the same five questions, because the answers change the number far more than square footage does.

• How does material get in and debris get out? On the tighter lots around Highland Park this is half the labor. A site a truck can back up to and a site where everything moves by buggy are not the same job.
• What is under the existing slab? If the base was never compacted, the new pour needs the bad material dug out, not covered over.
• Where does the water go? Grade, downspouts and where the yard drains. Fixing the slab without fixing the water just resets the clock.
• Does any of it sit in the public way? Aprons and sidewalk sections usually need a permit and have to meet municipal spec.
• What is the slab actually carrying? A work truck, an RV or a dumpster means a thicker slab and more reinforcement than a passenger car.

Taking care of new concrete in Highland Park

Once the pour is done, the first twelve months decide how the next twenty go. Keep vehicles off for about a week and foot traffic off until the next day. Do not put de-icing salt on it through its first winter, and get it sealed before the second one. Keep downspouts discharging onto grass or a splash block rather than straight onto the slab, and if a planter or a pile of firewood is going to sit on it, put something underneath so it does not trap moisture in one spot. That is the whole list.

Nearby areas we serve

We work across the North Shore and north suburbs and beyond. Close to Highland Park we are regularly in Northbrook, Glenview, Wilmette, Morton Grove and Skokie. The full list is on the areas we serve page.

Highland Park FAQ