Are you licensed?
Ohio has no state licence for concrete or general contractors; it licenses HVAC, refrigeration, electrical, plumbing and hydronics. So there's no state number to show, and anyone who shows you one is showing you something else. What applies in Cincinnati is the City's street-contractor licence for work in the right-of-way (aprons, public sidewalks, curb cuts), which the licensed crew on our jobs holds, plus the permits each job needs and the insurance certificate, available from the insurer.
How does the estimate work?
An estimator comes to the property, measures the job, checks slope and drainage, looks at the street end and asks what's going on the slab. Twenty to forty minutes, no charge. A written price follows within a couple of days with the spec on it.
What does a driveway cost?
Published 2026 figures: plain concrete $6 to $10 per square foot installed, exposed aggregate $10 to $15, stamped $15 to $20, a typical two-car driveway $2,400 to $8,600, removal $2 to $6 per square foot (HomeGuide). The Cincinnati apron at the curb is a separate, heavier-spec line. The driveway cost page has the table.
Do I need a permit?
For the apron and any public sidewalk work inside Cincinnati, yes: DOTE's permit and a licensed street contractor. For a slab on your lot, usually not unless it carries a structure; for retaining walls above a certain height, yes. Suburbs and townships differ. We ask the right office for every job.
When can concrete be poured?
About March to early December. It needs to stay above roughly 40°F while it cures, with blankets and a cold-weather mix in the shoulder months.
How long until I can use it?
Walk on it in a day, drive on it in a week, anything heavy at 28 days. Seal at about a month. No de-icer the first winter.
Why did my old concrete flake?
A mix without air entrainment, salted. Water freezes in the surface and pops it. Every exterior mix we order has air in it, and it's on the ticket.
Can you lift a sunken slab instead of replacing it?
If it's sound and just low, yes, with polyurethane foam, in an hour. If it's broken or spalling, replacement.
What's in the written price?
Area, thickness, base depth, reinforcement, mix, finish, joint plan, removal and haul-off, the apron or sidewalk under its permit as a line, the schedule, payment terms and the warranty.
Do you do foundations?
No. Slabs, walks, steps, patios, driveways and walls. House foundations and structural work are engineered jobs we don't take on.
What should I keep after the job?
The written price and contract, the permit records, the mix ticket if you asked for it, the warranty, and proof of payment, with the house papers.
Do you work in Kentucky?
No; the Ohio side only. Northern Kentucky has different rules and its own contractors.
Get a written price
Tell us the job and where it is. Someone calls back the same day, an estimator measures it in person, and you get a written price with the thickness, the base and the finish spelled out. Nothing is poured on a verbal.