Concrete Patios in Waukegan, IL

A concrete patio is the cheapest usable outdoor square footage you can buy, and it is also the slab most often poured wrong, because it looks simple. Grade, base and jointing are what decide whether it stays flat or becomes the thing you apologise for.

We pour patios across Lake County and southeast Wisconsin, sized and shaped to the yard rather than to whatever was easiest to form.

Grade comes first

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

We set 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 water actually needs to go: a swale, the side yard, a drain, or an area that can take it.

Finishes and what each is for

Broom is the standard: most slip-resistant, hides minor imperfection, least expensive.

Exposed aggregate washes the top paste off to reveal the stone. Durable, hides staining, more texture underfoot.

Troweled smooth belongs on covered patios and interior slabs. On an exposed patio here it is slick when wet and it scales faster.

For stamped and decorative work, see our stamped concrete page.

Steps, landings and edges

Where the patio meets the back stairs, the transition gets formed and poured with the slab instead of patched afterward. Steps, landings and low sitting walls go in 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.

Drainage in a county built on clay

Lake County soil does not drain. A patio dropped into a yard that already holds water becomes a pond with a hard bottom. Sometimes the honest answer is that the drainage has to be addressed before there is any point pouring.

We will tell you that at the estimate rather than pouring a slab that floods twice a year.

How we run a concrete patios job

1. Walk the yardDrainage, existing grade, access, and where the patio actually needs to sit relative to the house.
2. Layout and demoShape marked out. Any existing slab comes out and gets hauled.
3. Excavate and compactPast 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, finished in your chosen texture.
6. Joint and cureControl joints cut same-day, cured to the weather.

What affects the price

• Square footage and how complex the shape is
• Finish: broom is the baseline, exposed aggregate costs more
• Access for material and debris
• Existing slab removal and haul-off
• Steps, landings and sitting walls
• Drainage work if the yard currently holds water

See the pricing page for how we quote, or send photos and a rough size for a real number.

Why concrete fails in Lake County

Lake County sits on clay that holds water instead of draining it, and the freeze-thaw cycle here runs from November into March. Add the salt that goes down after every storm and you have the three things that kill concrete. Slabs that survive are air-entrained, poured on a compacted stone base, pitched so water leaves, jointed on a proper grid, and kept off salt through their 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 exterior concrete needs here.
• 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 clay. Most cracked driveways in this county went down on disturbed clay with no compacted stone under them. Clay holds water, water freezes, the slab lifts.
• 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.
• Water pitched toward the house. A patio or walk sloping the wrong way puts water against the foundation every time it rains and freezes there in January.
• 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.

Before we arrive

• Clear vehicles, trailers and anything stored on the slab the night before
• Leave an outside spigot reachable
• Mark any private irrigation, invisible fence or low-voltage lighting lines in the work area
• Plan for no vehicle access across the work for about a week after the pour
• Keep pets and kids off fresh concrete until we say it is ready
• If a village permit is involved, allow time for it before the pour date

Concrete patios across the area

We do this work throughout Lake County and up into Kenosha County. A lot of it lands in Tower Lakes, Vernon Hills and Ingleside, and we are regularly in Riverwoods and Fox Lake too.

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

Concrete patios FAQ