The sky is the limit. Scritchlow Concrete Lifting and Slab Jacking works with all major manufacturers of both natural and man made paver products in addition to all of the traditional concrete and stamping options. No matter what you are looking for, or have envisioned, we can deliver on all of your outdoor patio living needs. Our attention to detail is why our customers use us over and over. Scritchlow Concrete Lifting and Slab Jacking's 5 year hardscaping warranty, 2 year slab jacking warranty and 1 year new concrete warranty far surpasses any local company. We install all of our products to exceed ICPI and NCMA standards which allows us to offer industry leading written warranties on all products we sell.
Concrete and Paver Patios
After careful site evaluations, we determine if we are able to back the concrete truck up to your project or if we need to buggy the concrete from the street to your pour location. Once the concrete has been placed, Scritchlow Concrete Lifting and Slab Jacking screeds at least two times in order to level the surface. We immediately bull float at a perpendicular direction to what we screeded to remove any possible high and low spots.
Scritchlow Concrete Lifting and Slab Jacking finish all of our concrete by bull floating after screeding. Next, we get out on the concrete and hand trowel the concrete surface. We hand trowel to insure the concrete surface is enclosed, which helps to reduce surface pops that can be common in our climate. We then do the final floating and finishing procedures begin. We hand tool all control joints once the surface is firm enough, insuring you don't get the typical breakage that occurs from saw cutting the joints. We apply a light broom finish, particularly on exterior concrete such as driveways, walks, and patios to help create a slip resistance finish. When a smooth finish is desired, including garage or building floors, a hand float finish should be used. This hand float finish can be slippery when wet, so always take that into consideration when picking a concrete finish.
Concrete
Concrete is a construction material composed of cement (commonly Portland cement) as well as other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate (generally a coarse aggregate such as gravel, limestone, or granite, plus a fine aggregate such as sand), water, and chemical admixtures. The word concrete comes from the Latin word "concretus" (meaning compact or condensed), the past participle of "concresco", from "com-" (together) and "cresco" (to grow).
Concrete solidifies and hardens after mixing with water and placement due to a chemical process known as hydration. The water reacts with the cement, which bonds the other components together, eventually creating a stone-like material. Concrete is used to make pavements, architectural structures, foundations, motorways/roads, bridges/overpasses, parking structures, brick/block walls and footings for gates, fences and poles.
Concrete is used more than any other man-made material in the world. As of 2006, about 7.5 cubic kilometers of concrete are made each year—more than one cubic meter for every person on Earth. Concrete powers a US $35-billion industry which employs more than two million workers in the United States alone. More than 55,000 miles (89,000 km) of highways in the United States are paved with this material. The People's Republic of China currently consumes 40% of the world's cement/concrete production. Reinforced concrete and pre-stressed concrete are the most widely used modern kinds of concrete functional extensions.
Concrete Paving Products
Base
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While other companies don't meet ICPI standards for paver installation, Scritchlow Concrete Lifting and Slab Jacking shows you what they are, and explains why we exceed them. Scritchlow Concrete Lifting and Slab Jacking then back that up with an industry leading 5 year written hardscaping warranty.
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Our Process
We build all patios and walk way applications over an 8" thick base that is built out of CA-6. In order to insure proper compaction, we build our base in 1.5" lifts to insure every base is compacted completely.
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-We extend our bases 10" to 12" past the finished edge of every patio we build to insure the edges of your paving project stay secure and in place for many years to come.
Laying the Pavers
-All pavers are laid over an 1" thick layer of bedding sand. We take careful consideration to account for natural drainage, as well as the drainage of your paver project. Most patios contain multiple compounding slopes which is why all of our screened sand is set using dual sloping lasers.
-We only use premium flexible paver restraints on all of our projects.
-12" galvanized spikes are used on 8" centers to secure your edge the entire way through our base and into undisturbed soil.
Finishing the Installation
After the pavers have been installed, Scritchlow Concrete Lifting and Slab Jacking only use Techniseal Poly Metric Sand. After compacting the pavers into the bedding sand, we apply 2 additional applications of polymeric sand according to Techniseal guidelines.
During the install process, you can actually see the difference. The benefits don't come until down the road, as your project still looks as good as the day it was built.
Vehicle traffic for a driveway should be disallowed for 7 days following concrete placement.
- Hiring someone with inexperience in handling site or weather challenges: Improper setting of forms can lead to water standing on your slab or too much slope on the tread of a step or walk. Failure to prepare for different weather conditions can cause an unsightly surface and worse; surface failure. Concrete is an animal. It's behavior depends on many different conditions, and some can be controlled while others can't.
- Ugly concrete due to poor workmanship: Finishing, sealing, forming, and jointing problems can be very unsightly and may, in many instances, cause scaling of the surface within the first few years.
- Defective Concrete: Your concrete may be compromised because of improper placement procedures.
- A claim against your homeowners insurance: If you hire a contractor without proper insurance, you could end up footing the bill for injuries or damages caused from the contractor.
- A lien filed on your home from an unpaid material or service provider: A hauling company, or concrete material company, when not paid can be left no restitution but to file a mechanic's lien on your property if your low-bid contractor "disappears" without paying.
- Hiring a contractor who begins a job and draws out a 3 day project to 3 weeks or more, and continues to make excuses as to why he can't come to your job.
- Hiring a contractor who refuses to make restitution for any of the above problems.
- Hiring a contractor who won't return phone calls when there is a problem.
- All of the above stories have come to us by homeowners who have called us after they had hired the wrong contractor. A contractor who is willing to cheat the government out of sales taxes, payroll taxes, and income taxes is also willing to cheat the customer.
"The bitterness of poor quality remains long after low price is forgotten."
Central Illinois
Northern Illinois
Monday - Friday
8:30 am to 4:30 pm
Saturday
9:00 am to 12:00 pm
Evenings by Appointment
PHONE: 877-287-0402
FAX: 877-486-2011