Eastern Waterproofing Co., Inc. is a family-owned concrete patio contractor, and we approach patio work from an unusual angle. We have spent decades keeping water out of basements. A concrete patio is a wide slab sitting against your house. Pitched the wrong way, it funnels every storm at your basement wall. So we grade every patio to carry water away from the house. That is how we create an outdoor living space that lasts through Connecticut winters.
Four problems bring homeowners to us, and each symptom points to what failed underneath the concrete.
Scaling is the one we hear about most. Road salt carried onto the patio all winter works into unsealed concrete, freezes, and lifts the hardened top skin off the slab. Once that skin is gone, the concrete takes on water faster every season. Surface maintenance will not restore the durability.
Cracks come next, and the width tells the story. Hairline cracks are ordinary shrinkage. A gap you could lay a car key into, or a section standing proud of the one beside it, means the ground underneath shifted. Rust colored stains along those openings mean moisture is moving through the concrete rather than off it. That combination is worth a professional look.
Standing water is third. If it collects in the middle of the patio, or drifts back toward the house, the slab was never pitched correctly. That one concerns us most. A concrete patio shedding water into your foundation works against the wall you want dry.
Fourth is the patio you keep fixing. Pavers and stone sections lift out of true every spring, and a surface that should be part of daily life becomes a recurring job. A poured concrete patio ends that cycle.
A concrete patio installation runs in five stages. The ones that decide how long it lasts happen before any concrete arrives.
Layout and pitch come first and set up everything else in the installation. The finished surface should fall away from the house by roughly a quarter inch per foot. That moves water off the concrete without anyone feeling it underfoot.
Excavation goes deeper than most homeowners expect. Topsoil and any organic material come out completely, because anything that breaks down under a concrete slab leaves a hollow behind it. Processed stone goes in and gets compacted in layers rather than all at once. Nobody can inspect base quality after the concrete is placed. That is why it is the line a cheap bid cuts.
Forms, reinforcement, and placement follow the marked pitch. We set forms to hold a clean edge and specify a concrete mix rated for exterior exposure in a freeze-thaw climate. Air entrainment matters here. Its tiny air pockets absorb pressure when trapped water freezes, and concrete placed without them can scale inside a few winters.
Control joints decide where concrete splits. All concrete moves, so the real job of a concrete patio contractor is choosing where that movement shows. We broom finish for traction, or trowel it smoother if that is the style you want. Then we cut joints at spacing matched to the slab thickness. Details here separate a quality installation from a careless one.
Curing and sealing close the process. Concrete keeps hardening for weeks after it looks finished. A penetrating sealer protects the surface and its durability. Ask whether sealing is included in the scope of any quote you compare, including ours.
Most concrete companies look at a backyard and see a flat area to fill. We think about where the water goes afterward. New patio construction creates an impermeable surface, sometimes several hundred square feet, against the most vulnerable part of your house.
Before installing anything, we check where the downspouts discharge and which way the grade runs. We can reroute a downspout that empties onto the future patio as part of the same project. If the yard already falls toward the house, we say so at the walkthrough, because building over that condition makes it worse. A company whose expertise was built below grade earns its keep before the pour, not after.
A quote comes down to six things, and square footage is only the first.
Shape is next. A plain rectangle pours faster than a curved slab needing custom formwork.
Excavation depth changes with the soil. A lot that drains well needs less stone underneath than one that holds water.
Tear-out is labor before any new concrete arrives. Pulling up a failed slab or an old walkway adds hours.
Access decides much of the rest. A backyard a truck can reach is a different project from one where every load of concrete goes through a gate by wheelbarrow.
Drainage is the one that surprises people. If the grade or a downspout needs correcting first, that work belongs in the quote, not a change order later.
This is why we price residential concrete construction in person. A concrete patio contractor quoting by the square foot over the phone is guessing at five of these six.
Homeowners often judge patio pricing against a concrete driveway quote from the year before. A concrete driveway carries vehicle loads, so it goes in thicker, with more reinforcement, on a deeper compacted base. A patio holds foot traffic and furniture. That allows a thinner section but puts more weight on finish quality.
Mix and sealing overlap, since a concrete patio and a concrete driveway face the same road salt and the same freeze-thaw pressure. What changes is thickness, reinforcement, base depth, and joint spacing. A contractor pricing patio work at concrete driveway thickness has not treated the two as separate projects. Ask for a concrete driveway and a patio as two line items.
Family-owned and locally owned, working out of Manchester since 1976. A company owner handles every estimate personally. No commissioned salespeople and no franchise fees, a commitment we have never broken.
Our own crew, never subcontractors. The professionals on your property average more than twelve years with us. Every customer gets the same in-house crew from excavation through installation. That holds our workmanship and build quality steady from one project to the next.
Rated 4.9 stars across more than 100 Google customer reviews, with an A plus rating from the Better Business Bureau held since our 1986 accreditation. That reputation has taken decades to build.
Fully licensed and insured in Connecticut and Massachusetts, and a CT and MA certified Small Business Enterprise. Any customer can ask for proof of coverage.
We serve Hartford, Tolland, Middlesex, New London, Windham, New Haven, and Fairfield counties in Connecticut, along with Hampden County in Massachusetts.
Written estimates are free, our work is quoted at a competitive price, and we stay responsive from the first call.
Ask about any of these concrete projects during your patio estimate.
The season opens once overnight lows hold above freezing, usually late spring, and closes in mid-autumn. Cold concrete cures poorly and can finish permanently weaker than the mix was designed to deliver. That window is short and fills up months in advance.
Foot traffic can wait a couple of days and furniture about a week. The slab keeps hardening beyond that, so keep anything heavy off it through the first month.
Every concrete slab develops shrinkage cracks. Control joints cut at the right spacing steer that movement into straight lines, where it reads as a joint rather than a defect. Structural failure from a moving base is the real risk, and base quality is what prevents it, not anything done afterward.
That depends on the slab size, where it sits on your lot, and the town you are in. We review the current requirements with your local building department before scheduling, so the project does not stall.
Rinse it down, keep deicing salt off it through the winter, and reseal every two or three years. That holds moisture and staining out of the surface. A wood deck needs that much attention every single season, which makes concrete the cheaper investment over the life of the patio.
Pavers offer more style options and can be lifted individually for repairs. A poured concrete patio gives you one continuous surface, with no joints for weeds and nothing to relevel after a hard winter. Concrete wins on durability, maintenance, and long-term investment, and a clean broom finish adds curb appeal to an outdoor living space.
Every project starts with a free written estimate, no salesperson, and a yard walkthrough before we quote a number. Base depth, pitch, and joint detail are settled on that visit, so you know exactly what you are paying for.
Call Eastern Waterproofing Co., Inc. at (860) 875-6646, or come by 199 Adams St, Manchester, CT 06042. We will create a concrete patio that sheds water away from the house and stands up to the winters that follow.
