Concrete Contractor in Youngstown, OH
Youngstown is about thirty-six miles from our shop in Beaver, roughly forty-five minutes up I-680. That is the longest run we make, and we are upfront about it: this is not a job we can swing by and check on twice in an afternoon the way we would in Beaver County. What it does mean is that when we come, we come with everything, and the work gets done in fewer, longer days. Dave Felouzis has been pouring concrete in this valley for over twenty-five years and Youngstown is not new ground for us.
Youngstown Is Two Different Jobs Depending on the Neighborhood
There is no single answer to what concrete work in Youngstown looks like, because the city was built in two very different eras and the flatwork tells you which one you are standing in.
In the older core, the blocks around Wick Park and up through North Heights, you are looking at homes built before 1940 on narrow lots. Detached garages are set deep at the back, which means long ribbon drives or single width runs that were poured thin, directly on grade, and have been carrying traffic for eighty years. Access is the constraint on these jobs as much as the concrete is. Getting a truck to the back of a lot with a house on one side and a neighbor four feet off the property line takes planning, and it is worth pricing honestly instead of discovering it on pour day.
At the edges of the city, Brownlee Woods, Lansingville, Kirkmere, Lincoln Knolls, the buildout is postwar. Wider lots, attached garages, aprons and patios poured in the fifties and sixties. That concrete is now sixty to seventy years old and hitting the end of its service life all at once, which is why entire streets out there seem to need driveway work in the same few years. It is not a coincidence, they were all poured together.
Attached garages in those neighborhoods also mean the garage slab and the apron are one continuous drainage decision. Get the pitch wrong at the door and water runs into the garage every time it rains.
Fill, Side Lots, and What Is Actually Under Your Slab
Youngstown has torn down a lot of vacant houses over the last fifteen years, and that changes what is underground.
When a house comes down, the hole does not always get excavated and engineered back. Frequently it gets filled with whatever was on site: brick, block, foundation rubble, and loose soil that was never compacted. That fill keeps settling for years. Concrete poured on top of it settles with it, and no amount of good mix design saves a slab sitting over a buried basement.
This matters most on side lots. The Mahoning County Land Bank has moved a lot of vacant parcels to the owner-occupant next door, and once somebody owns the lot beside their house the first thing they want to do is use it: widen the drive, put in a garage pad, pour a patio where a house used to stand. Those are good projects. They just need somebody to find out what is under there first.
We probe and excavate before we quote a slab on a demolished lot. If there is a foundation down there it either comes out or the slab gets designed to span it, and either way you find out before you write a check instead of two winters later.
Concrete Services We Provide
Concrete Driveways, Sidewalks & Steps, Concrete Patios, Stamped & Decorative Concrete, Retaining Walls, Pool Decks, Fire Pits, Commercial & Industrial Concrete, Concrete Repair & Resurfacing, Garage Floors & Structural Slabs
Frequently Asked Questions
- Are you actually going to drive to Youngstown for this?
- Yes. It is about forty-five minutes up I-680 and we make the run. What we ask is a little flexibility on scheduling, because we will group the estimate visit and the work efficiently rather than making four separate trips. The price is the same as it would be in Beaver County.
- I bought the lot next door from the land bank. Can you pour on it?
- Usually yes, and it is one of the more common calls we get out of Youngstown. The question is what is underneath. If a house was demolished there, the hole may have been backfilled with rubble that is still settling. We check that before quoting, because pouring a slab over uncompacted fill is throwing the money away.
- One corner of my patio has dropped. Is that the concrete or the ground?
- Almost always the ground. Concrete does not sink on its own, its base does. If the slab itself is sound we can sometimes lift and reset it. If the base is gone under a large area, or the slab is already cracked through, replacing it over a proper stone base is the honest answer.
- Are you licensed to work in Ohio?
- Ohio does not issue a statewide license for concrete contractors. We are a registered Pennsylvania Home Improvement Contractor, HIC# PA196507, and the standard does not change when we cross the line. If the City of Youngstown requires a permit for your project, we will tell you before we start.
- Why does so much of my street seem to need new concrete at once?
- Because it was all poured at once. Most of the postwar neighborhoods went up inside a few years, so the driveways and walks are all the same age and they reach the end of their life together. If three neighbors are getting work done the same summer, that is why.
Forty-five minutes up I-680. Call (412) 983-3445 for a free written estimate in Youngstown.