Concrete Contractors in Binghamton, NY

Binghamton is our home base, and the work concrete contractors do here is shaped by the age of the city and the two rivers that run through it. The city counted 47,969 residents and 24,969 housing units in the 2020 census, but its population peaked near 85,000 in the mid-1950s, so most of the houses, walks and front steps you see were built for a much larger city decades ago. We pour new driveways, patios, sidewalks and steps, garage and shed slabs, and we repair or replace concrete that has cracked, heaved or sunk.

Seven neighborhoods, many different jobs

Wikipedia lists seven neighborhoods: Downtown, the North Side, the East Side, the West Side, the First Ward, Ely Park and the Southside, which splits into Southside East and Southside West. The concrete looks different in each one.

On the West Side, the Abel Bennett Tract Historic District alone holds more than 1,000 properties. Many of these homes have narrow drives along the side of the house, deep front walks and stone or concrete steps that have been patched more than once. In the First Ward and on the North Side, tight lots and detached rear garages mean a lot of our work is garage floors, short drives off the alley and walks between houses. Up on the Southside hills, the challenge is slope: a steep driveway needs a broom texture that grips in winter and a layout that keeps runoff from racing toward the garage door.

The sidewalk out front is your job

The City of Binghamton's Department of Public Works says plainly that the property owner is responsible for sidewalk upkeep. Under § 265-13 of the city code, a walk is considered out of grade when a heave, movement or settlement is greater than one inch, and the owner has 45 days to make the repair before the city can do the work and bill the owner. Owners must also clear snow and ice within 24 hours after it stops falling.

If you have received a notice, call us early in that 45-day window. We look at the flagged sections, check whether a street tree root or a failed base is the cause, and replace only the panels that need it so the new concrete lines up with the neighbors' walks.

Get a Free Estimate

Building next to the rivers

Binghamton sits where the Susquehanna meets the Chenango, and the city's record of floods runs from 1865 through 1935, 1936, 2006 and 2011. The National Weather Service lists the September 8, 2011 crest at 25.73 feet on the Binghamton gauge, against a flood stage of 14 feet, the highest on record. Even outside flood years, low-lying lots near the rivers tend to have a high water table and soft ground.

For flatwork, that means the base matters more than the surface. We dig out organic soil, bring in and compact crushed stone, and grade every slab so water runs to the street or a drain instead of toward the foundation. Where an old patio settled after a flood, we usually find a washed-out base underneath, and patching the top will not fix it.

Long winters, heavy snow

Wikipedia's 1991 to 2020 climate table for Binghamton shows 86.5 inches of average annual snowfall and a January mean low of 15.5 degrees. That much snow means a lot of shoveling, plowing and de-icing salt, and plenty of freeze-thaw cycles in spring and fall. We use air-entrained mixes for exterior concrete, cut control joints at the right spacing, and give new slabs time to cure before they see salt. We also talk with you about which de-icers are gentler on young concrete.

What we do in Binghamton

• Driveways: tear-out and replacement, widening, and new aprons on side-drive city lots
• Sidewalks and steps: public walk repairs after a city notice, front stoops and porch steps
• Patios: backyard slabs for small city yards, replacing tipped or cracked patios
• Stamped concrete: patterned patios and walks that suit older homes
• Garage and shed slabs: floors for detached rear garages and pads for sheds
• Repair and replacement: sunken sections, trip edges and failed steps

Call (607) 499-4474 to set up a visit anywhere in the city, from Ely Park to the Southside.