Concrete Sidewalks & Walkways in Waukegan, IL

Sidewalk work splits into two different jobs. Public walk in the parkway follows village specification, usually needs a permit, and the dimensions are not yours to choose. A private walkway from the drive to the front steps is yours to design.

We do both across Lake County and Kenosha County, and we are clear at the estimate about which side of the property line the work falls on, because that decides the cost, the permit and sometimes who pays.

Public walk and village specification

Public walk has set width, thickness, jointing and cross-slope requirements, and every village writes its own. Pour it to the wrong spec and it can be ordered out at your expense.

Trip hazards, the lifted joints that catch a toe, are the most common reason a walk gets replaced. Parkway tree roots cause most of them. Sometimes one flag gets cut out and replaced; sometimes the root has to be addressed first or the new flag lifts the same way.

Private walkways

From the drive to the front steps, the back door to the garage, the patio to the shed. These get used every day and are almost always the last thing anyone budgets for.

Private walks take any finish, and width and shape are up to the property rather than a village standard.

ADA slopes and accessibility

Where a walk serves a commercial entrance or a multi-unit building, cross-slope and running-slope limits apply. Exceed them and it fails inspection no matter how good the finish looks.

We shoot grades before forming on any walk where accessibility requirements are in play, rather than finding out afterward.

Why walks fail here

Three causes in order: tree roots lifting flags, base that was never compacted, and salt. The first two get fixed during replacement. The third is why a new public walk should not be salted through its first winter.

Jointing matters more on a narrow walk than almost anywhere, because a walk is long and thin and it will crack across the short dimension if you let it.

How we run a sidewalks & walkways job

1. Establish public or privateWhere the property line is and whether the work needs a village permit, before quoting.
2. Permit where requiredPublic way work is permitted and inspected. We handle the application.
3. Saw cut and removeExisting flags cut clean at the joints and removed rather than broken ragged.
4. Address the causeRoots, failed base and drainage dealt with, or the new walk fails the same way.
5. Form, pour, finishFormed to spec, poured, broom finished, jointed on correct spacing.
6. Restore the parkwayGrass and parkway restored, debris hauled.

What affects the price

• Linear feet and number of flags
• Public way versus private property and whether a permit applies
• Tree root work and whether the tree is village-owned
• Access for material
• Finish and whether it has to match existing
• Parkway restoration

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

Sidewalks & walkways across the area

We do this work throughout Lake County and up into Kenosha County. A lot of it lands in Old Mill Creek, Pleasant Prairie and Wadsworth, and we are regularly in Tower Lakes and Fox Lake too.

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

Sidewalks & walkways FAQ