TRESEMER CONCRETE & EXCAVATING LLC

Concrete cutting and removal contractors saw, drill, break and haul concrete on everything from a cracked patio to a doorway through a foundation wall. The tools are specialized: walk-behind slab saws with diamond blades for flat cuts, track-mounted wall saws for straight openings, core drills for round penetrations for pipe and conduit, and hydraulic breakers or robotic demolition machines for bulk removal. Wet cutting controls silica dust, which OSHA regulates tightly, but produces slurry that has to be contained and disposed of rather than washed into a storm drain. Because a saw cannot see rebar, post-tension cables, conduit or radiant tubing inside the slab, a GPR scan before cutting is standard practice on any structural or unknown concrete, and cutting a post-tension slab without one can be dangerous.

Concrete flatwork covers everything flat and horizontal: garage and shop slabs, patios, sidewalks, equipment pads and aprons. Most of what determines whether a slab lasts happens before the truck arrives. The subgrade is compacted, a gravel base of about four inches is placed and compacted, forms are set to grade with slope away from the building, and reinforcement, typically wire mesh or #3 or #4 rebar on chairs, is placed. Residential slabs are usually four inches thick and poured at 3,000 to 4,000 psi; anything that will see trucks or equipment goes to five or six inches. Control joints are cut at intervals of roughly two to three times the slab thickness in feet, so about every eight to twelve feet on a four-inch slab, because concrete will crack somewhere and joints tell it where. Concrete needs about seven days before foot traffic and twenty-eight to reach design strength.

Decorative concrete is standard flatwork with a finish applied while it is wet or after it cures: stamped patterns that mimic stone, slate or wood plank, integral or broadcast color, acid or water-based stains, exposed aggregate, and polymer overlays that resurface an existing slab. The finish adds a lot of labor in a short window. On a stamped pour the crew has to place, color, stamp and detail the whole slab before it sets, so crew size and weather matter more than on plain concrete. Because the surface is the product, the base, thickness, reinforcement and joint layout still have to be right, and joints should be planned into the pattern rather than cut across it afterward. Sealer is what keeps color and finish looking new; most decorative surfaces need resealing every two to three years, and stamped surfaces can be slippery when wet unless a grit additive is used.

Excavation contractors dig and move earth for foundations, basements, utilities, pools and site cuts. Most residential jobs run on a mini or mid-size excavator paired with a skid steer and a dump truck; larger cuts bring in a dozer or scraper. The price depends less on the size of the hole than on what is in the ground: clay, ledge rock, high groundwater and buried utilities all slow the machine down and change the hauling math. Before the bucket touches dirt the site needs an 811 utility locate, and any trench deeper than five feet needs a protective system under OSHA rules.