Concrete Contractors in Excelsior, MN

Excelsior is tiny. The 2020 census counted 2,355 people and 1,276 housing units on about 0.63 square miles of land. A group of settlers from upstate New York founded it in 1853 as the first settlement on Lake Minnetonka, and it incorporated in 1878. For concrete contractors, Excelsior means tight lots, old houses and work where every foot counts.

Victorian homes and their concrete

Many Victorian-era houses still stand in Excelsior, and its Water Street business district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Older homes here often have:

• Front steps poured long after the house was built, now cracked, settled or uneven
• Narrow walks from the street that have heaved with frost and tree roots
• Detached garages off alleys or side drives with broken, thin floors
• Small back patios squeezed between the house, garage and lot line

When we replace these, we keep the proportions of the original. A porch on a Victorian house calls for steps that look like they belong to it, with even risers and treads wide enough to be safe in winter.

Working on tight lots

With so little land per home, access is the first thing we plan. A concrete truck may not be able to reach the backyard, so we chute, wheelbarrow or pump the concrete in. Forms have to be set carefully where a slab runs close to a fence, garage or neighbor's property. And with small yards, drainage needs attention: water from a new patio has to go somewhere other than the house next door.

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Compact patios that work

A small yard does not mean a small use. A well-planned patio of modest size, with a stamped or colored finish, can make a narrow backyard feel finished. We help you size it for a table and grill, keep room for a path to the garage and pitch it away from both houses.

A lake town's winters

Excelsior sits on Lake Minnetonka, where the median ice-out is April 14 and winter ice runs 12 to 18 inches thick. Long, hard winters mean freeze and thaw, and the sidewalks and steps that people walk to downtown and the lake take a beating from salt. Air-entrained concrete, a well-drained base and a broom finish for traction are the basics on every Excelsior job.

Services in Excelsior

• Sidewalks and steps, often the first need on older homes
• Concrete patios and stamped concrete for compact yards
• Garage and shed slabs, including detached garage floors
• Concrete driveways, often short drives or alley pads
• Concrete repair and replacement of individual steps and walk sections

Near downtown and the lake

Water Street's historic commercial blocks sit a short walk from many Excelsior homes, and the lake is close by. That makes the public-facing pieces of a property, the front walk and the steps to the porch, the parts that matter most here. Before we start, we check with the City of Excelsior on permits and on any design rules that apply to older properties. On the work itself, we keep walks the width the house was built with, match new steps to the porch height, and use a broom finish so the route to the sidewalk holds up through winter.

Call (952) 209-8658 or ask for a free estimate. We look at access, measure and give you a written price.