Concrete driveways, patios and repair in Valley
Some of the sand and gravel in our concrete comes out of the pits right here. The lakes left behind are where a lot of Valley's newer houses went up.
Concrete work in Valley, Nebraska
Valley's a funny one for us, since a good share of the rock and sand that goes into Omaha concrete gets dug out of the Platte valley right around here. When those pits fill up with groundwater, they turn into the lakes a lot of Valley's newer neighborhoods are built around.
So the houses range from century-old places near the original town to big lake homes a few minutes away, and our work does too. In old town it's driveways, sidewalks, steps, stoops and garage floors. Around the lakes and acreages it's longer driveways, patios, boat and RV pads, shop floors, and steps down toward the water.
Sand, slopes and old town concrete
The ground under most of Valley is sand and gravel, which drains fast and doesn't heave the way clay does. What it doesn't like is water running through the same spot. A downspout dumping next to a slab or a lake lot where runoff funnels down one side will wash the sand out from under it, and you'll find out a season later.
Lake lots slope, and on a slope everything is a drainage decision: which way the patio sheds, whether a walk should be steps or a ramp, whether that little wall is actually holding anything back. Steps and anything structural need footings below the frost line, about 42 inches here, or they'll heave every winter.
In old town, the concrete is just old. A lot of it went in during the 40s and 50s, three inches thick, no steel, no air in the mix. After seventy winters of salt it's crumbling at the edges and cracked all the way across. That needs replacing, and the new slab gets a packed base, steel and air-entrained concrete so you don't do this again.
Parts of Valley we work in
Pretty much all of it, including Downtown Valley, Ginger Cove, Ginger Woods, Highway 275, Meigs Street, Valley acreages and Platte River properties. If you're in or near Valley and don't see your street, call (531) 236-6623 and ask. It takes about thirty seconds.
Valley questions
Do lake lots need anything special?
Mostly a real plan for the water and footings deep enough for the frost. Lots that slope toward a lake send all their runoff one way, and concrete that ignores that gets undercut.
How long will my driveway be out of commission?
About a week. Tear-out, prep and the pour usually take two or three working days. You can walk on it the next day, park a car on it after about a week, and put a loaded truck or camper on it after a month.
Do you take small jobs out here?
Sure. A sunk sidewalk panel, a cracked stoop, a pad for the AC. Trucks have a minimum load and it's a drive for us, so there's a practical minimum, but we'll tell you what it is.