We pour walkways and sidewalks in Savannah, and most calls start the same way: a front walk has cracked, settled, or lifted enough that people step off it into the grass to reach the door. A walkway is flatwork, which means the concrete spreads load across its whole surface instead of carrying it down into a footing, so the ground underneath decides how long the finished walk lasts. We build the base first, then set forms, then place reinforcement, then pour. A broom finish and a stamped concrete walk sit on the same slab. What changes is the surface.
The median house in Savannah was built in 1971, so many of the walks we replace are original to the property and have simply run out of years. Old sidewalks fail in ways worth naming: control joints closed up and spalling at the edges, a section tipped by a root that found water, a slab poured thin over fill that was never properly compacted. We look at what caused the failure before we plan the fix, because a new walk poured over the same problem breaks the same way. Sometimes that means a full tear-out. Sometimes it means three panels.
Sidewalk work in the public right of way goes through the City of Savannah for permitting, and we handle that paperwork ourselves rather than leaving it with the homeowner. As a concrete contractor we take residential front walks, side paths and garden runs, and commercial concrete for properties that need something wider and heavier than a walk to the porch, here in Savannah and out toward Pooler. A city of 147,898 people has a lot of front walks in it, and a fair number of them are past due for replacement. Call for a free estimate.
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A walkway slab runs four inches thick over compacted base, with fiber or wire mesh through it and control joints cut every four to five feet. Most failures start underneath: soft fill settles, the slab bridges the void, and a crack opens across the narrowest point.
Forms go in first, set to grade with a slight cross slope so water leaves the surface instead of standing on it. As your concrete contractor we thicken the sidewalk where a driveway crosses and tie rebar through it, since vehicle weight breaks thin flatwork fast.
Paths curve more than sidewalks do, so we bend the forms and keep widths honest at three or four feet. Finishes vary: broom for grip, exposed aggregate for texture, stamped concrete pressed into a stone or plank pattern while the slab is still green.
The median house in Savannah dates to 1971, and the original concrete sidewalk out front has usually lifted, spalled or settled by now. We replace those, run new paths to side doors and sheds, and pour commercial concrete walks where a storefront needs a level approach.
A walkway is the piece of concrete you use every day and think about least: the run from the street, the driveway or the porch steps to your front door. Savannah's housing stock has a median build year of 1971, so many of the front walks we replace were poured with the house and have carried traffic ever since. Those older walks tend to be narrow, thin and set tight to grade. We pour new ones as flatwork sized for two people to walk side by side without one stepping into the grass.
Layout comes first. We chalk the line the walk will follow, check it against the door, the drive and the way people actually cut the corner, then form to that line instead of to whatever the old walk did. Base gets compacted before anything goes in it. Wire mesh or rebar goes in depending on the width and what the slab has to span. Finish is your call: broom for grip, exposed aggregate, stamped, or colored concrete chosen to sit well against brick.
Most of what fails on an older concrete sidewalk fails underneath it. A slab poured over loose fill settles in sections, and the joints step apart until one panel stands proud of the next. Roots lift the panels near mature trees. Thin pours crack straight across because nothing inside them was holding the two halves together. Patching a walk in that condition buys a season or two and hides the reason it moved. When we find that, we say so, and we take the old slab out rather than pour on top of it.
Getting a walk right is mostly unglamorous work finished before the truck arrives: grade, compaction, edge support where the slab meets soft ground, forms that hold a straight line, thickness suited to the traffic. Curing matters as much as mixing does. We take our time on those steps because they are the ones nobody can correct later without breaking out concrete and starting again. Call for a free estimate on a walkway or concrete sidewalk installation, whether your place is in town or out toward Pooler.
We walk the route with you, check slope and drainage, and look at what the old walk did to the ground beside it. Tree roots, downspouts and soft fill all change the plan. Most homes here were built around 1971, so we look at what settled and why.
You get the scope in writing: square footage, thickness, reinforcement, finish, joint layout and where the concrete installation ties into existing steps or a concrete driveway. Any approvals needed get handled before we schedule. Nothing starts until you have read the number and agreed to it.
Old sidewalks come out in pieces and get hauled off, roots included. Then we cut the subgrade, compact it and set graded base to a uniform depth. Skipping compaction is why walks crack in the first two years. Wet, spongy soil gets dug deeper and rebuilt.
Forms get staked to the finished grade with pitch away from the house. Walks run four inches thick over wire mesh; driveways get rebar on chairs so the steel sits mid-slab. We pour in one continuous run and screed to the forms, no cold joints mid-walk.
After bull floating we edge, tool the control joints and broom the surface crosswise for grip when wet. Curing compound goes on the same day. Stay off it a day, keep cars off longer, then we walk the finished sidewalks with you and clean up.
Two walkways the same length can price out very differently, and the reasons are usually visible before anyone pours. Around here a fair number of homes date to the 1971 median build year, so we are often working next to an original walk that has its own history in the ground. Here is what moves the number.
| What changes the price | Which way | Why |
|---|---|---|
| An old concrete walk or slab in the path | Costs more | It has to be broken out, loaded and hauled off before we can grade anything. |
| Tree roots or soft, wet subgrade | Costs more | Roots get cut back and poor ground gets dug out and replaced with compacted stone. |
| A truck can back within chute reach | Costs less | Concrete goes straight into the forms instead of being wheeled by buggy or barrow. |
| Gates, fences or a narrow side yard | Costs more | Access limits crew size and slows every yard of concrete onto the site. |
| Thickness the use calls for | Costs more | A walk that a mower or vehicle crosses gets poured thicker than a garden path. |
| Rebar instead of wire mesh | Costs more | Longer runs, driveway aprons and spans over disturbed soil want the heavier reinforcement. |
| Ground that already falls away from the house | Costs less | We follow existing grade rather than building up base or cutting drainage into the run. |
| Stamped, colored or exposed aggregate finish | Costs more | Release, stains, sealers and the timing they demand add labor after the pour. |
Set competing bids side by side and check the same lines on each: slab thickness, reinforcement type, base material and depth, control joint spacing, whether demolition and haul-off are included, and the exact finish. Bids that look far apart usually differ on those, not on labor.
Three feet is the narrow end, and it works, but two people cannot pass on it. Four feet lets a couple walk side by side and gives movers room to turn a couch. Five feet reads generous on a wide lot. We look at your front door, the distance to the drive, and the width of your porch steps, then size the walk to match rather than picking a number first.
Base preparation and joint placement do most of the work. We compact the subgrade, keep the depth consistent, and cut control joints at regular spacing so the concrete cracks where we put the line instead of where it wants to. Wire mesh or rebar holds the pieces together if a slab does move. Isolation joints where the walk meets a porch, a step, or a driveway keep separate slabs from fighting each other.
Usually, with adjustments. Pouring straight over a live root gives you a hump now and a broken slab later, since the root keeps growing under the concrete. Better options are routing the walkway around the trunk, raising that run and bridging the root zone, or cutting small feeder roots while leaving the structural ones alone. We tell you which of those we think applies before anything gets poured.
Sometimes. Commercial concrete work and anything the public uses generally carries accessibility requirements: slope limits, cross slope, landings, detectable warnings at curbs. A private walkway from your front door to your driveway usually does not. That said, the same dimensions that satisfy a code make a better walk anyway, so we often build residential flatwork to those slopes regardless.
Foot traffic is generally fine after a day or two, depending on the mix, the weather, and the thickness of the slab. Full strength takes considerably longer, closer to a month, which is why we ask you to keep vehicles off a walk that a car could reach. Stamped concrete and colored concrete need extra care early on while the surface is still curing.
Responsibility for the sidewalk in the right of way often falls on the adjacent property owner, though the specifics depend on the street and the situation. That is worth confirming before you plan repairs. We handle sidewalk installation on both sides of the property line, and we can walk the frontage with you to sort out what is yours to maintain.