Concrete Contractors in Parma, OH

Parma Concrete Contractors replaces, pours and repairs residential concrete across Parma, Ohio. As concrete contractors serving a city of about 78,000 people in Cuyahoga County, roughly 8 miles south of downtown Cleveland, we spend most of our time on the concrete homeowners use every day: the narrow driveway beside the house, the back patio, the front walk and the stoop. In a city where the median home dates from 1958, a lot of that concrete has already been through decades of winters.

One decade shaped the whole city

Parma's growth was sudden. Wikipedia's history of the city notes the population jumped from 28,897 in 1950 to 82,845 in 1960, and by 1956 Parma was being called the fastest-growing city in the country. The housing numbers match. Point2Homes' summary of American Community Survey data puts the median build year at 1958, with 39.4% of homes built in the 1950s and another 19.9% in the 1960s. Fewer than 4% of homes went up after 2000.

For concrete, that matters. A driveway or walk that is still original to a 1950s house has been through nearly seventy Ohio winters, and plenty have been patched or partly replaced since. Before pricing a replacement we check the slab's thickness at an edge and what sits under it. A thin slab on little or no gravel explains most settling and cracking, and pouring new concrete the same way repeats the problem.

Winters that work on concrete

The Cleveland Hopkins Airport weather station averages 63.8 inches of snow a year and records snow on about 46 days. January averages a high near 36 degrees and a low near 22, so outdoor concrete crosses the freezing point again and again through the winter. Water that soaks into a slab freezes and expands, then thaws, then freezes again. Add road salt tracked in from the street and spread on walks and drives, and the top of poorly made concrete starts to flake and pop. That flaking is called scaling, and it is one of the most visible kinds of winter damage on older concrete.

We pour exterior concrete with air-entrained mixes, which hold microscopic air bubbles that give freezing water room to expand. We slope every surface so water runs off rather than sitting, cut control joints at the right spacing, cure the slab properly and seal it. Those steps cost little up front and decide how a slab looks after ten winters.

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What we pour and repair

• Concrete driveways: tear-out and replacement of single-lane and two-car drives, widening, and new aprons
• Concrete patios: new back patios, larger replacements for small original slabs, and extensions
• Stamped concrete: patterned and colored patios, walks and borders
• Sidewalks and steps: front walks, side walks to the garage, stoops and poured steps
• Garage and shed slabs: floors for detached garages, new garage pads and shed bases
• Concrete repair and replacement: crack repair, leveling, resurfacing and section replacement

Side drives and back-yard garages

If your driveway runs along the side of the house to a garage in the back yard, you have a long, narrow strip of concrete with a turn or a pad at the end, and the garage floor may be as old as the drive. When both are failing, replacing them in one job keeps the slopes matched where they meet and saves setting up twice. If only the drive is bad, we check the height at the garage threshold so the new slab does not send water under the door.

Repair first when it makes sense

We will tell you when a slab does not need to come out. A sound slab that has sunk in one corner can often be lifted. Light surface wear can be resurfaced. Hairline cracks can be sealed. HomeGuide's concrete leveling guide puts leveling at about $3 to $12 a square foot against $6 to $15 for replacement, so repair is worth a look first. When the base is gone, the slab is broken into pieces, or the surface is scaling across the whole area, replacement is usually the better money.

What happens at the estimate

We measure, check where water goes, look at the edges of the old slab to see how thick it is, and ask how you use the space: one car or two, a boat or trailer, a grill and table on the patio. You get a written quote listing removal, base, thickness, reinforcement, finish and sealing. If your project touches the public sidewalk or the apron at the street, we check what the City of Parma requires before work is scheduled.

Parma is the center of our service area, from the Ridge Road and State Road corridors to the neighborhoods along West Creek. The cities on Parma's borders, Parma Heights, Brooklyn, Brooklyn Heights, Seven Hills, North Royalton, Broadview Heights, Brook Park and Middleburg Heights, are all part of our regular area, and so is Cleveland's Old Brooklyn neighborhood on the city's northern edge. Farther out we pour and repair concrete in Strongsville, Berea, Independence, Valley View, Brecksville, Garfield Heights, Maple Heights, Fairview Park, North Olmsted, Olmsted Falls, Westlake, Lakewood and Rocky River, plus Hinckley Township across the Medina County line. The age of the housing shifts as you go. Brook Park, Parma Heights and Maple Heights grew fastest in the 1950s and 1960s, Lakewood and Old Brooklyn are older still, and Broadview Heights, Westlake and Olmsted Falls kept adding homes into the 2000s. Each area page has the local numbers and what they mean for concrete.