Custom decorative concrete since 1988. Stamped and exposed aggregate patios, driveways, walks, footings and block across Macomb County, built for 42 inches of Michigan frost.
Stamped concrete is not a product you buy off a shelf, it is a finish that gets built into a slab in a narrow window while it is still wet. Done right it looks like flagstone at a fraction of the cost. Done wrong it looks like a driveway with lines in it. Here is how we do it.
Concrete goes down over a prepared base, screeded flat and floated so the surface is ready to take a stamp.
Color hardener is worked into the surface for the base tone, then a release powder so the stamps lift clean without sticking.
The texture mats are pressed in by hand, panel by panel, so the pattern lines up and reads like real flagstone, slate or cobblestone.
Once it has cured it gets cleaned and sealed, which locks the colour in, brings out the depth, and gives the surface a fighting chance against forty-odd freeze and thaw cycles a year.
The specialty, and the reason people call. Patios and walkways coloured, textured and sealed to read like real random flagstone, slate or ashlar, in the multi-colour blends we are known for. All the look of stone, none of the settling, weeds and wobble of individual pavers.
Exposed aggregate washes back the surface paste to reveal the stone already in the mix, so you get a hard-wearing, naturally non-slip finish with real depth. It is the classic Michigan patio and walkway surface for good reason, and it ages better than almost anything else we pour.
Driveways, sidewalks, garage and pole barn floors, porches, approaches and custom steps. Poured on a properly compacted base, jointed on purpose, sloped to drain and edged so it does not chip. The unglamorous work that quietly decides what a property looks like.
Michigan does not go easy on concrete. The Great Lakes region averages roughly 40 to 60 freeze and thaw cycles a year, and every one of them tries to lift, crack and flake a slab that was poured cheap. Most of what makes a slab survive that is buried before you ever see it, which is exactly why it is the first thing skipped. Here is what we do not skip.
This is not a preference, it is the code. Michigan rule R 408.30522 says exterior footings and foundation systems shall extend 42 inches below grade, and footings shall not bear on frozen soil. Anything poured shallower is being lifted by frost every single winter, whatever it looked like in June.
The Michigan Concrete Association spec calls for 6.5% (±1.5%) entrained air and 4000 psi. Those microscopic air bubbles give freezing water somewhere to expand. Without them the water has nowhere to go, so it takes the surface off instead. That is what scaling is.
Concrete will crack. A joint is just a crack you decided the location of first. Control joints get cut a quarter of the slab depth, about every 8 feet on a 4 inch slab, so the slab relieves itself on a straight line instead of a lightning bolt across your patio.
Do not salt new concrete the first winter, and never use a magnesium or ammonium deicer. They are chemically aggressive and they will destroy the surface.
Stamped patios, driveways, walkways, commercial flatwork, removal and replacement and decorative concrete across Macomb County.
Colored, textured and sealed to read like flagstone or slate. Our specialty.
02Poured and jointed to outlast asphalt through the freeze and thaw.
03Curved, edged paths that shed water and resist chipping.
04Foundations, flooring, stairs, walks and approaches, poured to spec.
05Break out failed concrete, rebuild the base, pour it fresh and level.
06Acid stain, color, texture, polish and seal on new or existing concrete.
Since 1999Owner the family has worked on construction projects since 1999, and that experience is the difference between concrete that looks good on pour day and concrete that still looks good a decade in. General Maintenance Works is big enough to take care of you, and small enough to care.
Reviewers say the same things over and over: responsive, creative with ideas, communicated when they would be there, finished on time or early, and cleaned up after. That is what you want when someone is pouring something permanent in your yard.
Tell us what you are picturing, a stamped patio, a driveway, a walkway, or a slab to tear out and replace, and we will come look and put a price in writing.
