Concrete Paths and Walkways in St. Louis, MO
Guiding Your Steps with Style and Durability
At St. Louis Concrete Works, we specialize in designing and installing aesthetically pleasing as well as functional concrete pathways and walkways that can contribute to the overall beauty and functionality of your residential or commercial property. Whether your needs involve a meandering garden path or a simple walkway leading to the entrance of your property, we provide customized pathway solutions that both blend with and complement your existing landscape while resisting the many forms of weather associated with living in the St. Louis area. In addition to enhancing the aesthetic value of your property, a properly designed and constructed walkway is a key component of your property’s curb appeal and accessibility.
We take pride in our ability to provide precise and accurate grading of your pathway surfaces to provide an extremely smooth and safe walking experience for you and your visitors. Our construction methods are specifically developed to accommodate the extreme temperature and moisture changes common in the Missouri climate. Using top-quality materials and slip-resistant coatings, we have created pathways that continue to be safe under the harshest of winter ice storms and the heaviest of spring rainfalls. We also provide a variety of decorative options to add beauty and personality to your pathways. From the classic broom finish to the elegance of decorative borders, we allow you to customize your pathways to reflect the style and architecture of your home.
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Benefits of Concrete Paths and Walkways
Investing in a professionally installed walkway offers more than just a place to step; it provides a permanent solution to property access and safety. Our walkways are engineered to withstand the specific environmental stressors of the Gateway City.
- Unmatched Durability: We make sure our paths can survive both St. Louis’s freeze-thaw cycle and extremely hot summer days. Air-entraining concrete and high-quality reinforcement are just two methods we utilize to guarantee your paths do not develop cracks or scale from extreme weather variations such as those found in Missouri.
- Low Upkeep: Very simple to maintain; all you will need is a rare washing and re-sealing to keep it looking its best. A solid concrete path will never grow weeds or lose its alignment like other forms of surfaces (such as gravel or pavers).
- Design Variety: Many types of finishes and styles to fit your property’s style. From the traditional look of a broom finish to the modern aesthetic of decorative borders, we have numerous ways to design the texture and shape to perfectly complement your current architectural style.
- Enhanced Safety: Several slip-resistant finishes to help protect against slippery surfaces in wet weather. At St. Louis Concrete Repair, we understand how important your safety is, so we have developed many textured finishes that will provide you with the needed traction during the spring rains in St. Louis and freezing temperatures in the winter, greatly decreasing your chances of slipping and falling.
- Lasting Quality: Will last for years to come if installed correctly and maintained properly. By creating a solid base beneath your walkway and installing it at the correct thickness, we assure your walkway will be a permanent part of your landscape and will not sink or buckle over time.
- Eco-Friendly: Permeable concrete options are available to improve your water run-off issues. If you have drainage issues, we have created options for you to allow rain to pass through the surface of your walkway, thereby eliminating stormwater run-off and helping to protect the St. Louis area water table.
Our Concrete Path and Walkway Services
We provide tailored walkway solutions designed to improve both the accessibility and the visual appeal of your property. Our team ensures that every path is engineered with the correct thickness and reinforcement to handle its intended foot traffic while integrating perfectly with the surrounding environment.
Residential Walkways
- Front Entrance Walkways: A well-maintained path to the front of your house creates a first impression as inviting and clean as you want it to be.
- Garden Walkways: Paths that meander and create a view of your garden by allowing your plants to stay healthy and your feet dry.
- Backyard Paths: The transitional space from your house to your patio and/or other backyard structures such as sheds or detached garages.
- Pool Surrounds: A slip-resistant surface that will give you an area to safely walk and lounge around your pool.
Commercial Walkways
- Businesses Entrances: High-quality heavy-duty walkways made to last through the daily foot traffic and keep a professional appearance for your customers.
- Campus Pathways: Large campus-wide walkway systems designed for long-term durability and ease of maintenance.
- Public Park Trails: Long-lasting and durable walkways that allow visitors to travel safely and easily through parks and recreation areas.
- Plaza Walkways: Widely used walkways in heavily trafficked public areas (plazas) that are constructed to remain flat and attractive even after prolonged use.
Decorative Concrete Paths
For property owners looking to elevate their curb appeal, we offer a range of decorative options that transform standard walkways into standout features. These finishes combine the legendary durability of concrete with the high-end look of premium materials, providing a custom aesthetic for your St. Louis home or business.
Stamped Concrete Walkways
We utilize specific mats to imprint onto the wet concrete in order to create a textured appearance that is almost identical to natural flagstone, slate, or cobblestone.
Colored Concrete Walkways
Using either integral colors (pigment) or color-stains on the surface, we can match our walkway to the exterior color(s) of your home, and provide a variety of colors such as: earth-toned terra cotta; modern slate gray; etc.
Exposed Aggregate Walkways
This process removes the top layer of concrete paste to expose the underlying stones/pebbles, providing an extremely slip-resistant and ruggedly natural surface finish.
Engraved or Stenciled Designs
We can create many designs, borders, logos, or other custom designs on the walkway, creating a unique and high-definition design, which will be created directly into the surface.
Our Path and Walkway Process
Our systematic approach to walkway construction ensures that your path is not only visually pleasing but also structurally sound. We focus heavily on the preparation and curing phases, which are the most critical steps for surviving Missouri’s unique climate.
- Assessments of Your Property: We will assess your site in terms of how it drains and what is the best way to grade and drain your property so that water doesn’t pool under your house’s foundation.
- Consultations on Path Design: We will also meet with you to determine what type of design would be most suitable for you based on your style choices and what functionality you want for your path. Are you looking for a long, flat path for a business entrance or a curvy walkway through your garden?
- Designs Specific to Your Property: Based on your property size and shape, we will develop a custom path design specific to your property. We will take into account the spacing between control joints to prevent random cracking in the finished path.
- Selection of Materials: Concrete can be stained and colored in many ways to match your desired color scheme. In addition to the standard non-slip broom finish, we offer decorative stamped designs and integral color to match your desires.
- Preparation: We will properly grade your site and compact the ground to prevent settling of the path over time.
- Setting Up Forms and Base: We will build the form work and make sure the base material (gravel or crushed stone) is compacted to provide a solid and even base to lay the concrete path on. This base provides good drainage and protects against frost heaving in the cold St. Louis winters.
- Pouring and Finishing: Our experienced crew will pour the concrete quickly and evenly, and then finish the surface with great attention to detail to produce a uniform texture and sharp edges.
- Curing and Sealing: We will cure your path using methods to keep it moist until it reaches maximum strength, and then seal it to protect the surface from damage caused by UV rays, salt, and moisture.
Why Choose St. Louis Concrete Works for Your Paths and Walkways?
Choosing us means partnering with a team that views a walkway as a vital part of your property’s infrastructure. We combine high-performance engineering with an eye for design, ensuring your paths are as reliable as they are beautiful.
- Local Expertise: We are familiar with both soil conditions as well as weather patterns of St. Louis, MO. Whether it be the expansive clay found along the Central Corridor, or the rocky terrain in West County, we can tailor our sub-base preparation to mitigate the “settling” and “shifting” that is often seen in the St. Louis area due to our extreme temperature changes.
- Custom Designs: One size fits all doesn’t work here. We will design a path to fit the unique features of your land (be it a direct, formal entrance, or winding garden escape).
- Durable Materials: We use durable concrete mixes that have been designed for the harsh St. Louis climate. All of our concrete is air-entrained with a high psi rating and has been designed to withstand over 50 annual freeze/thaw cycles without experiencing surface scaling or structural failures.
- Skilled Craftsmen: Our experienced and skillful team members can install your new walkway with precision and care. Our finishers are masters of timing the “set” of the concrete to ensure that every edge is crisp, every joint is straight, and every surface texture is consistent.
- Accessibility Focus: We can design ADA-compliant walkways if required. We are knowledgeable about local St. Louis County and City ADA compliance regulations and will ensure that your new walkway meets the specific slope and width requirements for Universal Access.
- Landscape Integration: We will design and build a walkway that looks like it was intentionally created as a part of your overall landscape plan rather than something that was added as an afterthought. This is accomplished by utilizing curved formwork and various decorative finishes.
Unique Challenges for St. Louis Paths and Walkways
Building walkways in the Gateway City requires a specialized approach that accounts for our distinct environmental stressors. We don’t just pour concrete; we engineer systems designed to navigate the specific geological and atmospheric conditions of the St. Louis metro area.
- Freeze-Thaw Cycles: Our products (concrete mix designs and application techniques) do not allow for crack formation. Due to St. Louis’ freeze-thaw cycle average being 50 or more each year, we apply air-entrained concrete technology to all slabs. By doing so, we provide billions of small relief areas in the slab where the expanding ice can go through its freezing process without breaking the surface of the concrete.
- Root Intrusion: Our applications account for the area’s mature tree landscape. We also offer physical root barriers and deep gravel sub-base solutions to help protect your walkway from the root systems of St. Louis’ many Oak and Maple trees. These solutions will allow the roots to grow downward and away from the concrete rather than growing upward into the concrete and creating tripping hazards due to the “lipping” caused by soil uplift.
- Soil Movement: Our base preparation addresses the clay-rich soils found throughout the St. Louis area. As you may be aware, St. Louis has expansive clays that swell when they absorb water and shrink during the dry summer months. Our non-yielding, compacted structural base provides a buffer that allows your walkway to remain level even while the Missouri ground moves underneath it.
- Heavy Rains: We have incorporated the correct slope and drainage to keep rainwater from accumulating on your walkway. We take great care in maintaining the precise pitch of your walkway to ensure that Missouri’s heavy spring rains do not collect near the path or near your home’s foundation. The prevention of hydrostatic pressure from building up against your home’s foundation is essential to the stability of the slab.
- Summer Heat: Our concrete mixes have been designed to withstand heat-related expansion and cracking. In the hot 90°F+ temperatures of a St. Louis summer, concrete expands significantly. We use optimized water-to-cement ratios and strategically place expansion joints to manage this thermal movement, thus eliminating the “crush” and buckling associated with poorly constructed walkways.
Maintaining Your Concrete Paths in St. Louis
To ensure your investment survives the Gateway City’s rigorous climate, a proactive maintenance schedule is essential. St. Louis’s unique combination of humid summers and aggressive winter freeze-thaw cycles means that neglect can lead to surface scaling and structural cracks much faster than in more temperate regions.
- Routine Re-sealing: Re-seal your path every 2-3 years to keep it protected from moisture & stains. For the Midwest, the most effective way to defend against moisture is with a high-quality penetrating silane-siloxane sealer. These products create a hydrophobic barrier that keeps water out of the concrete’s pores (the primary reason for ‘spalling’ (pop-offs of the surface) when water freezes during the winter months).
- Debris Removal: Regularly clean leaves and debris to prevent staining. The fall season brings many mature trees dropping tannins in St. Louis that will permanently stain concrete if they are allowed to rot. Regular sweeping will help prevent the trapping of organic matter on top of the concrete to allow moisture to enter and encourage mold and mildew to grow during the summer humidity.
- Safe Traction: Use sand instead of salt for traction in winter to protect the surface of the concrete. Salt (rock sodium chloride) is commonly used to provide traction in winter, but it is highly corrosive and will accelerate the freeze-thaw process by lowering the melting temperature of water. Sand will provide instant traction without causing any damage to the surface. If you need to use a melter, choose calcium magnesium acetate (CMA), which is much gentler on concrete than other options.
- Crack Maintenance: Immediately address any cracks to prevent water from entering and creating additional damage. Because of the expansive clay soils in St. Louis, what starts as a small hairline crack can rapidly turn into a large opening as water enters, freezes, and expands. Use a flexible masonry caulk or crack filler to fill the gaps before the first frost arrives in late November.
- Annual Washing: Deep pressure washing annually to remove dirt and restore the appearance. Deep cleaning of the concrete every year in the spring will help remove any remaining winter dirt and de-icer chemicals that may have been tracked onto the path from the street. Pressure washing will also allow you to inspect the condition of the concrete to identify any potential problems before they require costly repair.
Concrete Path and Walkway FAQs
Ready to Enhance Your Outdoor Space?
Whether you’re looking to create a welcoming entrance to your home or need to improve navigation around your commercial property, St. Louis Concrete Works is here to help. Contact us today for a free consultation and quote. Let’s design concrete paths and walkways that guide your steps in style!
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St. Louis Concrete Works: Paving the Way to Beautiful, Functional Outdoor Spaces