Concrete Contractors in Lenexa, KS

We are concrete contractors in Lenexa, and this is the city we know best. Lenexa was platted in 1869 by railroad engineer Octave Chanute and incorporated in 1907 with 362 residents. It stayed a farm town for decades and was known in the 1930s as the "Spinach Capital of the World." Then it grew fast: 5,242 people in 1970, 34,034 in 1990 and 57,434 at the 2020 census. Most of the driveways, patios and walks we replace were poured during that run of growth, and many are now 30 to 50 years old.

What decades of growth leave behind

A city that adds tens of thousands of residents in a few decades pours a lot of flatwork at once, and it tends to wear out on a similar schedule. On Lenexa homes from the 1970s and 1980s we see driveways with scaled tops from years of de-icing salt, aprons cracked where the street meets the drive, and garage-front panels that have dropped an inch or more as the base settled. Patios from that era often have a slight tilt toward the house, which sends water to the foundation instead of away from it.

Newer homes in the western half of the city have different issues. Their concrete is younger, but builders often poured the minimum, and homeowners want more: a wider driveway for a third car, a larger patio for entertaining, or a walk from the driveway to the backyard gate.

The right-of-way starts behind your curb

The City of Lenexa says the public right-of-way typically extends 11 feet behind the back of curb in residential areas. That strip is where most driveway approaches and many public sidewalks sit. The city requires a right-of-way permit for work in the public right-of-way, and whoever does the work registers through the city's online portal, carries general liability insurance of at least $500,000 per occurrence, and posts an annual $10,000 maintenance bond or approved financial security. If your project touches the approach or the public walk, we handle that paperwork as part of the job. Work that stays on your side of the line, like a backyard patio, follows a different path, and we check what applies before we schedule a pour.

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Built around Rain to Recreation

Lenexa began its Rain to Recreation stormwater program in 1998 after a watershed study, and it has shaped the city since. According to a summary on the Georgetown Climate Center's Adaptation Clearinghouse, drainage projects in older parts of the city removed at least 68 homes from the floodplain, and the program uses natural features to slow runoff. Lake Lenexa, the 35-acre lake in Black Hoof Park, was finished in 2006 as part of that approach. For a homeowner this matters in a small but real way: the city pays attention to where water goes. We set every slab to drain away from the house and toward the yard or street, we avoid sending patio runoff onto a neighbor's lot, and we ask where your downspouts and sump discharge empty before we form anything.

Clay, frost and Kansas winters

Johnson County building officials publish a residential foundation guideline that sets a minimum frost footing depth of 36 inches and calls for air-entrained concrete in exterior flatwork. Air entrainment is what lets a driveway or patio survive repeated freeze-thaw cycles, and the clay soils common in the area make a compacted base just as important. We order exterior mixes with air, compact the base before forming, and cut control joints at spacings that let the slab crack where we want it to.

What we do in Lenexa

• Concrete driveways: full tear-out and replacement, widening, and new approaches inside the right-of-way
• Concrete patios: new slabs, extensions and replacements of old sloped patios
• Stamped concrete: patterned and colored patios and walks
• Sidewalks and steps: front walks, side paths, stoops and step replacement
• Garage and shed slabs: pads for sheds, detached garages and equipment
• Repair and replacement: sunken panels, trip edges and scaled sections

A note on sheds and detached garages

The city's accessory structure guide says a permit is required for most detached garages and sheds, but detached accessory buildings of 120 square feet or less do not need one, though they still have to meet setbacks. Buildings of 600 square feet or less do not need frost-depth footings. If you are pouring a pad for a new building, tell us its size and where it will sit so we can plan the slab around those rules. Call (913) 355-6902 to set up a visit.