Concrete Contractors in Bluffton, SC

Permits

Inside the Town of Bluffton, permits go through Growth Management at 20 Bridge Street. Outside the town limits, Beaufort County’s building codes office issues them.

Licenses

The Town’s minor-projects application asks the contractor for a South Carolina Labor, Licensing and Regulation (SCLLR) license number and a Bluffton business license number.

HOA approval

In an HOA or gated community, the association may have to approve the design before work starts.

Garage floors

May River Concrete Coatings installs one-day polyaspartic garage floors with a 5-year product warranty and a 1-year labor warranty.

Retaining walls

American Paving Design builds segmental retaining and seating walls for sloped and marsh-front lots, with a 2-year workmanship warranty.

Hilton Head

American Paving Design, May River Concrete Coatings and David Masonry & Concrete each list Hilton Head among the places they serve.

Poured concrete is one slab, which makes it the usual choice for a foundation, a garage floor or a plain driveway; Sharper Edge Custom Concrete and David Masonry & Concrete pour slabs, patios, sidewalks and driveways, and David Masonry & Concrete also does stamped concrete. Pavers are individual units laid over a compacted base, so a section can be lifted and re-laid, and American Paving Design installs them for driveways, patios and pool decks.

A coating or overlay goes on concrete you already have. May River Concrete Coatings applies polyaspartic garage floors and resin-bound Vuba Stone to patios and pool decks, and American Paving Design says many customers overlay an existing concrete pool deck rather than dig it out. Ask any of them whether your existing slab is sound enough to cover.

Stamped concrete is poured like any slab and then pressed with patterns so it looks like stone, brick, slate, tile, wood or cobblestone. David Masonry & Concrete, which lists stamped concrete as its own service, says it costs less than the real material, turns around faster than most paving and, sealed and cared for, holds up to weather, chemicals and vehicle traffic. It does patios, sidewalks, driveways and pool surrounds.

The choice against pavers is repair: the company says stamped concrete needs little maintenance, while pavers may need to be replaced or reset if they shift or are damaged. Ask any stamped concrete contractor in Bluffton how the slab is sealed and how often it needs resealing. If you would rather keep the concrete you have, May River Concrete Coatings covers patios and pool decks with a resin-bound stone finish instead.

Sharper Edge Custom Concrete and David Masonry & Concrete both pour concrete patios. Sharper Edge customers describe a 17 by 11 foot patio and a driveway with a stone paver patio added to it; David Masonry & Concrete adds decorative finishes (stamped, exposed aggregate or acid-stained) to a basic smooth slab. American Paving Design builds paver patios when you want pavers rather than a pour.

Before the pour, ask about the base, the slab thickness, where the control joints go and how water will drain away from the house. Ask whether the quote covers any permit or HOA approval; see permits below. A patio next to a fence line? See fence companies in Bluffton.

American Paving Design builds segmental retaining walls, which are walls of interlocking blocks, and seating walls to level sloped and marsh-front lots, frame a patio or add built-in seating. It starts with a free on-site consultation and backs each wall with a 2-year workmanship warranty. David Masonry & Concrete lays CMU block, including walls, as part of its masonry work.

A wall holds back soil, so ask the contractor how drainage behind it is handled. Ask the Town of Bluffton (or Beaufort County, outside the town limits) whether your wall needs a permit before you sign. Plantings and drainage around a wall are a landscaping job.

David Masonry & Concrete says it will add, replace or upgrade a driveway, from excavation and grading through pouring and finishing, and treats drainage as part of the job. Sharper Edge Custom Concrete customers describe a full driveway done in long days by a crew that showed up on time, and American Paving Design builds paver driveways.

A replacement costs more than a repair because of the tear-out, the hauling and the base, so ask whether demolition is in the quote; a roll-off dumpster for the old concrete is on the dumpster rental page. Also ask who handles an HOA architectural review, and how long you will be without the driveway.

For a paver driveway, American Paving Design says the most common repair it sees is a failed edge restraint, the border that holds the pavers in. A border that spreads outward points to the restraint; a dip points to the base underneath. Sharp turns are common trouble spots. It says it looks at what moved and why before it recommends a repair, and a limited fix may do the job where a larger section would otherwise need rebuilding.

For poured concrete, none of the Bluffton contractors on this page lists crack filling or patching as a service, so call and ask whether they take a repair, or whether they would replace the section. Your driveway repair in Bluffton, SC may also be a drainage or tree-root problem; ask the contractor what caused the damage.

If a slab is sound but worn, stained or cracked on the surface, the choice is usually to cover it or to replace it. May River Concrete Coatings resurfaces existing concrete with a polyaspartic floor coating or a resin-bound stone overlay, and American Paving Design says many customers overlay an existing concrete pool deck with pavers instead of digging it out. David Masonry & Concrete replaces existing sidewalks, patios and driveways.

A coating sticks to the concrete under it, so ask how the slab is prepared and whether it is sound enough to cover. A slab that has sunk or heaved needs more than a surface fix. If it is only dirty or stained, pressure washing may be all it needs.

It depends on the project and on whether the address is inside the town limits. Inside the Town of Bluffton, permits go through the Growth Management office at 20 Bridge Street. The Town’s minor-projects application asks the contractor for a South Carolina Labor, Licensing and Regulation (SCLLR) license number and a Bluffton business license number. Outside the town limits, Beaufort County’s building codes office handles permits.

Before you sign, ask the contractor whether your project needs a permit, who pulls it and whether it is in the quote. If you live in an HOA or a gated community, check whether it has to approve the design first; one American Paving Design customer says the company prepared the documents their HOA needed.

Square footage is only the start. Tearing out an old driveway, grading, the base underneath, the thickness of the slab, a stamped or colored finish, a paver pattern and a travertine or stone upgrade all change the number. American Paving Design publishes videos on what drives the cost of a paver driveway and a paver patio, and on what an overlay of an existing pool deck costs.

Get two or three written quotes for the same job. Ask what is under the surface (base depth and material), whether demolition and hauling are included, whether the quote covers the permit, and whether a coating comes with a warranty: May River Concrete Coatings states a 5-year product warranty and a 1-year labor warranty.

May River Concrete Coatings installs one-day polyaspartic garage floors and says the system will not chip, peel or yellow in the sun. Its customers also describe garage epoxy floors. A coating sticks to the concrete under it, so ask how the slab is prepared and what the warranty covers. On Hilton Head, see concrete contractors on Hilton Head Island.