Concrete Paving Contractor

Jointed plain concrete pavement (JPCP) is the standard design approach for commercial paving. The spec details — thickness, joint spacing, dowel-bar layout — all get set by the traffic class and the base condition. Get any of them wrong and the lot spider-webs inside a few years.

• Traffic class — cars and pickups (Class A), light trucks and delivery vans (Class B), loaded semis and heavy trucks (Class C or higher); the class sets the thickness
• Thickness by class — 5 to 6 inches for Class A parking, 6 to 7 inches for Class B drive aisles and delivery approaches, 7 to 8 inches or thicker for Class C loading areas and truck-turning zones
• Mix design — 4000 PSI air-entrained is standard for exterior paving in the NC Piedmont; 4500 to 5000 PSI at heavy-truck approaches
• Base — 4 to 8 inches of compacted ABC stone on a proof-rolled subgrade; geotextile fabric where the native soil is heavy clay; the base often ends up thicker than the concrete
• Joint spacing — control joints sawed at roughly 24 times the slab thickness (a 6-inch slab gets joints every 12 to 15 feet); joints run in both directions to make square or slightly-rectangular panels
• Dowel bars — smooth steel dowels across construction joints in high-traffic areas transfer load between panels and prevent differential settlement
• Joint sealant — installed in every control joint to keep water and debris out of the joint
• Drainage crown — the lot has to slope to positive drainage, typically at 1 to 2 percent across the paved surface toward inlets and curbs

We design the paving spec around the lot's actual traffic mix — a retail lot with occasional delivery trucks doesn't need the same design as an industrial site with daily semi traffic. Over-spec'ing costs money; under-spec'ing costs the pour.

Failed asphalt lots and failing older concrete lots both have a decision point where an overlay stops making sense. When these show up on a lot, the replacement pour almost always wins the 10-year math.

• Widespread alligator cracking on asphalt — points to base failure under the pavement; a mill-and-overlay on a failed base fails again inside a couple of years
• Rutting deeper than half an inch in drive aisles — asphalt has lost its structural capacity, and an overlay just moves the rut into the new surface
• Standing water in low spots on a lot that used to drain — subgrade has moved, and any overlay follows the failed geometry
• Concrete lot with map cracking across multiple panels — the mix or the joint layout was wrong; patching the panels one at a time doesn't fix the underlying issue
• Loading area with settled slabs at the truck approach — base loss under the highest-load zone; the load will move to the next panel and repeat the failure
• Concrete lot past its 30-year service life with multiple failing panels — the 10-year math typically favors a full replacement over ongoing spot repair
• Asphalt lot with utility cuts that never sealed properly — every cut is a water infiltration point, and the lot ages faster than its remaining service life shows
• Concrete over failed asphalt as a rebuild path — often more cost-effective than a full tear-out-and-repave when the underlying base can be salvaged

We'll write both quotes — targeted repair and full replacement — when the call isn't obvious. The 10-year outlook usually makes the choice clear.