Stamped & Concrete Patios in Chicago, IL

A concrete patio is the cheapest square footage of usable outdoor living you can buy, and on a Chicago city lot it is often the only flat ground behind the house. It is also the slab most likely to be poured wrong, because it looks simple. Grade, base and jointing decide whether it stays flat or becomes the thing you apologize for.

We pour patios across Chicago and the suburbs in broom, troweled, exposed aggregate and stamped finishes, sized and shaped to the yard rather than to whatever was easiest to form.

Grade comes first

A patio that slopes toward the house sends every rainfall and every snowmelt straight at the foundation. On a city lot where the patio meets the back steps and the gangway, that is the single most expensive mistake available.

We set the pitch before the forms go in, generally about a quarter inch of fall per foot away from the structure, and we check it against where the water actually needs to go: the gangway, the alley, a drain, or a yard area that can take it.

Finishes and what each one is for

Broom finish is the standard and the most slip-resistant. It hides minor imperfection and it is the least expensive.

Exposed aggregate washes the top paste off to reveal the stone. It is durable, it hides staining well, and it has more texture underfoot than broom.

Stamped concrete takes a pattern and integral color for the look of stone, slate or brick. It is the most decorative and the most maintenance, because it needs re-sealing.

Troweled smooth is generally for covered patios and interior slabs only. On an exposed patio in Chicago it is slick when wet and it scales faster.

Patios on tight city lots

Most of our patio work in Avondale, Logan Square and the surrounding neighborhoods happens behind a two-flat with a gangway barely wide enough for a wheelbarrow. That changes the job: material comes in by buggy or by pump rather than off the chute, and the old slab goes out the same way.

It is slower, and any contractor who quotes a tight-access city patio at the same rate as an open suburban yard has not looked at the site.

Steps, sitting walls and edges

Where the patio meets the back stairs, the transition has to be formed and poured with the slab rather than patched afterward. We form steps, landings and low sitting walls at the same time so everything moves together.

Edges get tooled or formed clean. A ragged patio edge is the first thing that chips and the first thing anyone notices.

How we run a concrete patios job

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 affects the price

• Square footage and shape complexity
• Finish: broom is the baseline, stamped and exposed aggregate cost more
• Access, which on a city lot can double the labor
• Existing slab removal and haul-off
• Steps, landings and sitting walls
• Drainage work if the yard currently holds water

What we check before quoting

An estimate that arrives without anyone looking at the site is a guess. These are the things that move the number, and the reason we come out.

• Access. Whether a truck can back up to the work or everything moves by buggy, pump and wheelbarrow. On a Chicago city lot this can double the labor on its own.
• What is underneath. If the existing base was never compacted, it has to come out. Pouring over failed base buys a couple of seasons at most.
• Drainage. Where water goes now and where it needs to go. Downspouts, grade and yard drainage all feed into this.
• Public way. Aprons and sidewalk sections sit on city property, need a permit, and have to meet municipal specification.
• Load. What the finished work actually carries, which sets thickness and reinforcement.
• Disposal. Concrete is priced out by weight. An honest quote includes the haul and the tipping fees instead of adding them later.

Caring for new concrete

The first year decides the next twenty. Keep vehicles off new slabs for about a week and foot traffic off until the following day. Do not use de-icing salt on new concrete through its first winter, and seal it before the second. Keep downspouts discharging onto grass or a splash block rather than onto the slab, and put something underneath anything heavy that sits in one spot so it does not trap moisture there. Hairline shrinkage cracks are normal and not a defect; cracks with vertical displacement between the two sides are telling you something moved underneath, and those are worth a call.

Why concrete fails in Chicago

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.

• 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.
• Road salt damage. De-icing salt accelerates surface scaling badly. New concrete should not see salt through its first winter and should be sealed before the second.
• Slabs poured on bad base. Most cracked driveways in the older neighborhoods were poured straight on disturbed clay with no compacted stone under them.
• 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.

Concrete patios across Chicagoland

We handle concrete patios throughout the city and the suburbs. A lot of this work happens in Oak Park, Evanston and Chicago, and we cover Avondale and Naperville regularly too. Every area we serve has its own page with the local detail.

Related work: Concrete driveways, Concrete foundations and Sidewalks & walkways. See all services or the full service area.

Concrete patios FAQ