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Concrete in Colfax

Concrete in Colfax, Wisconsin.

Concrete flatwork, aprons and curb in Colfax. Commercial pours go down at 4,500 PSI with tied rebar, priced and scheduled with the asphalt.

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4.7 from 18 Google reviews

About 25 minutes northwest of Eau Claire. Free estimates, and a straight read on whether it needs doing yet.

A poured concrete apron running from a parking lot up to a loading dock door on a metal industrial building, with the asphalt tied in along its edge.
1,252 People in Colfax
4.7 Google ratingFrom 18 reviews
2-3 yrs Reseal cycleIn Colfax
400°F Crack fillerDirect-fire rubber

What a Concrete Job Looks Like in Colfax

For a village of this size the commercial surface is unusually spread out, which matters when you're pricing a job rather than looking at a map.

Main Street is the retail corridor and it runs in two clusters, the 100 block and then the 400 through 600 blocks, with small frontages and shared access. East Railroad Avenue is the second one, and it's the heavier of the two: the co-op with its fuel and agronomy traffic, the village public works yard, the museum. University Avenue is the whole school campus on a single site, elementary and high school together, which is one large parking area with a summer-only window.

Then there's manufacturing, on Bremer Avenue and Willow Street, which is genuine industrial loading in a village most people drive through without noticing it has any.

Concrete specifically in Colfax

Aprons and pads at the manufacturers on Bremer Avenue and Willow Street, where the loading is real. Residential concrete here is mostly garage aprons that have settled at the joint with an older asphalt drive.

The Driveways and Lots in Colfax

Colfax sits on the Red Cedar River in Dunn County where Eighteen Mile Creek joins it, about eight miles north of the I-94 corridor. Highways 40 and 170 are the routes through the village. The river banks here are steep and wooded with sandstone outcrops, which isn't incidental: the village had a sandstone quarrying industry and its two landmark buildings are both built from the local stone.

Colfax is really two housing stocks, and the reason is specific. On June 4, 1958 an F5 tornado crossed the south and east of the village and leveled dozens of homes. Those parts were rebuilt afterwards, and the Census figures still show it: almost 30 percent of the housing here dates from the 1950s, a far larger share than any other town in the area, with driveways laid to match.

The parts the tornado missed still carry the older stock, including the 1915 municipal building on Main Street and the 1914 depot that's now the railroad museum. What that means in practice is that two drives a few streets apart in Colfax can be forty years different in age, and they want different answers.

Colfax

We work the whole village rather than a named handful of neighborhoods.

Around Colfax: Colfax Municipal Building, Colfax Railroad Museum, Red Cedar River, Colfax Red Cedar Preserve, Felland Park.

Standard 48-inch frost depth. The Red Cedar corridor through the village has steep banks and real grade change, so drainage varies sharply between the river side and the flat ground west of Main Street.

From our jobs

Job Photos

A fresh asphalt drive lane running up to a loading dock door at an industrial building, new yellow lines beside it
The approach paved up to the dock
A freshly poured concrete walk across the front of a commercial building, coned off, with the bollards set
A storefront walk poured and coned off
Two crew working a curb and gutter pour, radius forms and rebar in place
Curb and gutter: radius forms and rebar, on a Best Buy storefront
A freshly poured concrete walk running past steel bollards at a commercial storefront, coned off
A storefront walk poured around the bollards
A new concrete driveway running to a single garage at a blue house, caution tape across the street end
A driveway replaced, start to finish
A new concrete driveway poured down the side of a house, crossing the public sidewalk, cones at the street end
A driveway poured down the side of the house

All job photos

The joint between concrete and asphalt

Concrete and asphalt move differently. Concrete is rigid and moves at its joints; asphalt is flexible and moves everywhere. Where they meet, that difference has to be absorbed, and if it's not, the joint opens. Once it's open, water goes straight into the base under both of them. This is why so many lots fail first at the dock apron, the dumpster pad and the garage apron. Not because those slabs were bad, but because two different the line where they met was nobody's. We pour the concrete and lay the asphalt against it, so that joint belongs to the job.

What Decides the Price in Colfax

Flatwork prices per square foot and is easy to quote from measurements. Structural work like curb or a dock apron is quoted per project, because the forming is most of the labor and it doesn't scale with area.

Residential flatwork

Driveways, sidewalks, patios

Measured on site

  • Per square foot, broom finish, base prepared
  • Removal of the old surface priced separately

Garage or dock apron

Per project

Measured on site

  • Thicker slab, tied rebar, asphalt tied back in

Dumpster pad

Per pad

Measured on site

  • Heavy slab, because a loaded truck on a hot day is the worst case
  • Sized to the truck, not to the dumpster

Curb and gutter

Per linear foot

Measured on site

  • Straight run at the low end, radius work at the high end

What moves it: thickness, reinforcement, how much has to come out first, access for a truck, and whether the asphalt around it needs tying back in. Removal and haulaway is a real line and gets quoted rather than buried.

How the Work Goes in Colfax

Base, forms, steel, pour, finish, and the asphalt keyed back in against it.

Take out what's there

Broken slab out and hauled away, down to whatever the new pour needs to sit on.

Prepare and compact the base

Graded and compacted. Concrete poured on soft ground cracks on a schedule set by the ground, not by the concrete.

Form and reinforce

Formed to grade so water runs where it should, and reinforced where the span and the loading call for it. Radius forms for curb work.

Pour and finish

Placed, screeded, floated and broom finished. Control joints cut where the slab is going to crack, so that it cracks there instead of somewhere visible.

Tie the asphalt back in

The step most concrete contractors leave to somebody else. Asphalt keyed to the new edge, compacted, joint sealed.

Booking sealcoating and striping through October · Call (715) 450-9897

Questions We Get in Colfax

What Colfax calls us about, answered straight.

More questions answered
Is Colfax too far out for a driveway job?
No. It's about twenty-five minutes and we work Dunn County regularly. As everywhere, several drives on one street in one visit costs each of you less than one drive on its own.
Our drive is on the river side and the neighbor's is up on the flat. Same job?
Usually not. The Red Cedar corridor through the village has steep banks and real grade change, and the ground west of Main Street is flat by comparison. On a slope the water moves, which means a crack acts as an inlet and takes fine material out of the base as it drains. On the flat the water sits, which is a different problem with a different answer. Two drives a few streets apart here genuinely want different work.
Fewer than half the homes here are single-family. Does that change anything?
It means a real share of what looks like residential work is actually shared surface: duplexes, small apartment buildings and the parking that goes with them. Those carry more vehicles than a single drive does, wear at the entrance and the aisle rather than in the middle, and get quoted like a small lot with the bid saying which areas are included. That last part matters when more than one person has to approve the number.
How much does a concrete driveway cost?
Thickness, reinforcement and access are what move it. A slab that has to carry vehicles is thicker than one that carries feet, steel adds cost and adds life, and a pour a truck cannot reach has to be barrowed, which is labour. Removing the old surface is quoted separately rather than hidden in the rate, so you can see what each part costs.
Concrete or asphalt for a driveway?
Concrete costs roughly two to three times as much up front and lasts longer with less maintenance. Asphalt is cheaper, goes down faster, handles frost movement better, and needs sealing every two to three years. Which one suits comes down to the loading, the frost and the budget.
Do you do curb and gutter?
Yes, including radius work, formed and poured to spec. It is priced by the linear foot, and a curve costs more than a straight run because the forms have to be built to the radius.
Why do dumpster pads fail so often?
Because they're usually sized to the dumpster instead of to the truck. The worst loading a pad ever sees is the front axle of a loaded refuse truck on a hot day, and a slab poured for the container alone isn't built for that.
How long before we can use new concrete?
It depends on the mix, and that is worth asking about rather than assuming. On a standard pour: foot traffic in 24 to 48 hours, vehicles after about seven days, heavy trucks at 28 days for a full-strength cure. Where the schedule will not take seven days, we spec a 4,500 PSI exterior mix instead. One of those is a loading dock apron we poured with tied rebar in a working parking lot: customers were driving on it three days later. Whichever mix your job gets, the window goes in the scope up front so you can plan around it before the pour.
Do you subcontract the concrete out?
The concrete and the asphalt around it are priced and sequenced together, so the joint between them is somebody's responsibility rather than nobody's.

Get a Free Estimate in Colfax

Tell us what it looks like and we'll come measure it. You get a written price before anything starts.

(715) 450-9897
  • Free on driveways and lots anywhere in the service area
  • A photo of the problem helps, and it can go in the message
  • Surfaces that are not ready yet get told so at the estimate

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