Concrete Contractors in Bear, DE

Bear is about 14 miles south of Wilmington, and concrete contractors here spend much of their time on subdivision homes from the same era. In the late 1980s and 1990s, Bear became a popular site for large housing developments and shopping centers along U.S. Route 40. Before that it was a rural crossroads with corn and cattle farms; the 1900 census counted just 59 people. By 2020 the population had reached 23,060, up 19 percent from 2010.

Thirty-year-old builder concrete

When a whole neighborhood goes up within a few years, its driveways, walks and patios age together. Builder concrete from the late 1980s and 1990s is now 25 to 35 years old. Around that age, typical problems include:

• Driveway panels that have sunk near the garage, where backfill around the foundation settled
• Cracks running across the driveway where joints were spaced too far apart
• Front walks that have dropped at the stoop
• Small rear patios that have tipped toward the house
• Surface scaling from years of rock salt

Some of these can be repaired. Others mean the slab has lost its base, and replacement is the honest answer. We explain the difference when we look at your property.

Flat ground, slow drainage

Bear sits at about 69 feet, on flat Coastal Plain land. Flat lots look easy, but water has little reason to move. When a patio or walk is poured level, water sits on it and under it. We set a consistent fall on every slab, check that downspouts discharge away from walks, and build on compacted stone rather than the soft fill that sometimes sits under original builder concrete.

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Upgrades homeowners ask for

Once the basics are fixed, many Bear homeowners want more from the yard. Common requests:

A bigger patio. Original builder patios are often small. We can replace one with a larger slab sized for a table, grill and chairs.

Stamped concrete. A stamped patio or walk adds pattern and color without the upkeep of pavers.

A wider driveway. Adding a strip along one side gives room for another car. We tie it in with dowels or replace the whole driveway for a uniform look.

A shed slab. A level concrete pad gives a shed a solid, dry floor.

Busy roads nearby

U.S. Route 40, Delaware Route 7 and the Delaware Route 1 freeway all pass through Bear. Most homes we work on sit on subdivision streets, but for any work at an entrance onto a state road, we check whether DelDOT approval is needed before scheduling.

Where the driveway crosses the sidewalk

Where a public sidewalk crosses the front of a lot, the driveway apron usually runs through it. When we replace a driveway, we check whether the sidewalk section and apron are part of the job and what the county or DelDOT requires for work there. Matching the sidewalk height on both sides of the driveway keeps a trip edge from forming, which matters on streets where kids ride bikes.

Farm fields under the subdivisions

Wikipedia describes old Bear as a crossroads of small farms growing mainly corn and cattle, and the 1900 census counted only 59 people. The subdivisions were built on that farmland. Plowed topsoil is soft and full of organic matter, and where a builder left too much of it under a walk or patio, the slab settles as that soil compresses and breaks down. When we replace concrete in Bear, we dig until we reach firm subsoil, haul out the dark topsoil and replace it with compacted stone. That one step, which is easy to skip when a whole street is going up at once, is often the difference between a patio that stays flat and one that tips toward the back door again.