Concrete Contractors in Taylor, MI

Taylor Concrete Contractors replaces and repairs driveways, patios, stamped surfaces, walks, steps and garage floors for homeowners in Taylor, Michigan. Taylor is the most populous community Downriver, with 63,409 residents at the 2020 census spread across 23.6 square miles of Wayne County, crossed by I-94 in the north and I-75 in the southeast corner. Wikipedia's article on Downriver notes the city grew mainly from the 1950s through the 1970s, when postwar tract homes and subdivisions filled in former farmland. That history shapes almost every job concrete contractors in Taylor take on today: the original concrete is old, and much of it was never built for the weight and salt it sees now.

A city built in three decades

Point2Homes, summarizing Census survey data, puts the median year built for Taylor housing at 1963. The 1950s alone account for 31.3 percent of homes, the 1960s for 21.4 percent and the 1970s for 18.3 percent. Only about 17 percent were built in 1980 or later. Nearly three in four housing units (72.8 percent) are single-family detached houses, and about two-thirds are owner-occupied.

For concrete, that means:

• Driveways, service walks and stoops on many streets are 45 to 75 years old
• Some were poured before air-entrained concrete was routine on residential work, so they flake badly after salt
• Narrow single-lane drives laid out for one 1950s sedan now carry two or three modern vehicles
• Garage floors and the strip where the drive meets the garage have often dropped as the ground below washed out

Clay ground and slow water

Taylor is flat, low country. The South Branch of the Ecorse River runs through the city along with the Sexton-Kilfoil, Bondie and Brighton drains, and Wikipedia's Ecorse River article describes a very low-gradient river whose clay soils and dense development limit how much rain the ground can absorb. Water that cannot soak in sits under slabs, freezes, and lifts them; in spring the softened clay lets them settle. The fix is not thicker concrete alone. It is digging out soft material, building a compacted stone base that lets water drain, and pitching every slab so runoff leaves the house and garage. Taylor's Department of Public Works keeps FEMA flood insurance rate maps for the city, and residents can ask the department about the flood status of a property.

Built for a Detroit-area winter

Wikipedia lists Taylor's January average at a high of 32 degrees and a low of 18. At the Detroit Metro Airport weather station a few miles west in Romulus, the 1991 to 2020 normals show 45 inches of snow a year. That adds up to months of freezing and thawing, plow blades and rock salt. On every outdoor slab we pour, we use:

• Air-entrained concrete, whose tiny bubbles give freezing water room to expand
• A compacted stone base under the slab instead of bare clay
• Thickness matched to the load, from about 4 inches for walks and patios to 5 or 6 where trucks or trailers park
• Joints on a planned layout, so cracks form in straight lines where they belong
• A proper cure, with no salt on new concrete its first winter

Permits in Taylor

The City of Taylor's Building Department, at City Hall on Goddard Road (734-287-6550), lists concrete or asphalt work, patios, driveways and approaches, public sidewalks and service walks, garages and sheds among the jobs that require a permit, and strongly recommends calling before work starts. A copy of the construction contract is required with any permit application. The city's zoning review fee is waived for removal and replacement of existing concrete, though the permit itself still applies. We confirm what your job needs and build it into the schedule, so you are not the one standing in line at City Hall.

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Six kinds of work

• Driveways: tear-out and replacement, widening a single lane to a double, new approaches and parking pads.
• Patios: broom, colored or exposed-aggregate slabs, with paths to the drive or garage.
• Stamped concrete: slate, stone and brick patterns for patios, entries and driveway borders.
• Sidewalks, steps and porches: service walks, side paths, front stoops and poured steps.
• Garage floors and slabs: replacement floors for attached and detached garages, plus shed and equipment pads.
• Repair and leveling: slab lifting, crack sealing, resurfacing and replacement of single panels.

What a job looks like

Visit. We walk the site with you, measure, and look at drainage, the age of the concrete and what is under it.

Quote. An itemized written price. When a repair is a real option, it sits next to the replacement price.

Prep. Old concrete broken out and hauled, soft soil removed, stone base compacted, forms set to grade.

Pour. Reinforcement where the slab needs it, then placing, finishing and jointing.

Handoff. Written dates for foot traffic, cars and the first sealer coat. HomeGuide's driveway guide says to wait at least 7 days before driving on new concrete and about 30 days for heavy vehicles.

When to call

Most exterior concrete in southeast Michigan goes in between the spring thaw and the first hard freeze. Concrete that freezes before it gains strength can be ruined, so late-fall pours need a forecast of nights above freezing and sometimes insulated blankets. Calling in late winter or early spring gets you measured and on the calendar before the busy months. If you call in October or November, we will tell you straight whether to pour now or wait. Reach us at (313) 351-8654.

Most of our work is in Taylor itself, from the blocks off Telegraph Road to the streets along Eureka, Goddard and Van Born roads. We also cover the Downriver and western Wayne County cities around it: Dearborn Heights and Westland to the north, Allen Park and Southgate to the east, Lincoln Park and Wyandotte toward the Detroit River, Romulus and Inkster to the west, and Dearborn and Brownstown Township a short drive beyond. Housing in these towns is similar in age to Taylor's, but each city runs its own building department and sets its own permit rules for driveways, approaches and public walks. Our town pages note what we found for each one, and we confirm the rules for your address before any work is scheduled.