Concrete Contractors in Cedar Falls, IA

Concrete contractors in Cedar Falls work across two housing eras that often sit a few blocks apart. The city counted 40,713 residents in 2020 and is home to the University of Northern Iowa. Point2Homes, summarizing Census estimates, lists 16,804 housing units with a median year built of 1975. The 1970s are the biggest single decade at 2,724 homes, and the 2010s added 2,286 more. One street may need a worn-out driveway torn out while the next needs a first patio behind a house that is barely ten years old.

1970s houses

A drive poured around 1975 has seen close to fifty winters of freezing, thawing and salt carried in from the street. What we look for:

• Scaling and pitting where the top paste has flaked off and the stone shows.
• A sunken panel at the garage door, where the fill was never compacted or has washed out.
• Front walks that have tipped and now send water toward the foundation.

If the slab is solid and only the surface is worn, a repair may do. If a corner moves when you step on it, or a crack has opened with one side higher than the other, we usually recommend tearing out and pouring new on a recompacted base with an air-entrained mix.

Houses from the last fifteen years

Newer homes usually came with a driveway and a small stoop, and the yard was left for later. That is where patios and stamped work come in. We talk through:

• The size the patio needs for the table and grill you actually own.
• A plain broom finish, or a stamped pattern with color mixed into the concrete.
• Steps down from a patio door set well above the yard.
• Where the downspouts discharge, so a new slab does not hold water against the foundation.

Get a Free Estimate

The 500-year floodplain rule

On June 11, 2008, MPR News reported the Cedar River at 101.8 feet in Cedar Falls. Flood stage there is 88 feet, and the old record, from 1999, was 99.2. The American Planning Association's case study on the city says Cedar Falls then adopted a floodplain ordinance that goes beyond FEMA's minimum. It treats the 500-year floodplain as the locally regulated boundary and requires structures inside it to be elevated one foot above the 500-year flood elevation. It caps fill at three feet in any one spot and at no more than a third of a property. It also restricts the size of detached accessory structures that are not elevated, and bigger ones must be raised to the 500-year level. The same study says about a quarter of the city lies within the 100- and 500-year floodplains, most of it in the North Cedar area.

For a garage or shed slab, that matters. If your lot falls inside the boundary, we confirm the size limit and required height with the city before forming, since a pad at the wrong elevation can stall the whole building.

Raising a low back yard

The fill limits also affect patios. On a lot inside the regulated boundary, you cannot always build a low yard up as far as you would like before pouring. We plan slab heights and steps around the three-foot and one-third limits instead of assuming the ground can be raised as needed.

Locates before digging

Cedar Falls runs its own power, gas, water and cable services through Cedar Falls Utilities. Before we excavate for a driveway, walk or footing, buried lines are located and marked so the digging and the forms stay clear of them. It adds a day to the schedule, and it is not optional.

Call (319) 481-5867 or send photos through the form to set up a visit in Cedar Falls.