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We provide sitework and structural concrete in St Louis, MO for commercial and industrial projects. Our services include structural footings, concrete walls, equipment pads, and piers built to engineering specs. From excavation to final pour, we deliver structural concrete that supports your buildings and heavy equipment with long term reliability.
St. Louis Concreters provides professional structural concrete throughout St Louis, MO, Missouri and the surrounding area. Our licensed, insured crew delivers safe, clean, on-time work with a free estimate before anything begins. Call (314) 207-8572 or request your free quote.
Sitework and structural concrete for St. Louis projects that last
St. Louis Concreters provides complete sitework and structural concrete services for commercial, industrial, and residential projects across the St. Louis metro. We focus on getting the base and structure right so everything you build on top of it stays level, dry, and safe.
In our area, structural concrete has to handle heavy freeze-thaw cycles, clay soils that move when they get wet, and drainage issues from sudden storms off the Mississippi. Our crews understand these local conditions and plan footings, slabs, and site grading so your building or addition does not shift, crack, or flood. Whether you are planning a new shop, warehouse, multifamily building, or a serious home addition, we coordinate the sitework and structural concrete so they work together as one system.
How we prepare your site before any concrete is poured
Sitework is the foundation of your foundation. Before we ever set a form, St. Louis Concreters evaluates soil conditions, access, and drainage around your lot. In much of St. Louis, we see expansive clay and fill soils that are not suitable to build directly on. When needed, we remove soft or organic material and replace it with properly compacted engineered fill.
Typical sitework steps include clearing and stripping topsoil, rough grading to establish drainage away from the building, trenching for footings and utilities, and installing temporary construction entrances to keep mud off nearby streets. We use plate compactors and rollers to hit target compaction levels so the soil under your structural concrete does not settle in the first few seasons.
On sloped city lots or tight neighborhoods, we often add simple swales or French drains during sitework so water does not run back toward basements or garage slabs. Handling these details early costs less than trying to fix water problems after walls and floors are in place.
What structural concrete includes and where it is used
Structural concrete is the concrete that actually carries loads, not just the visible surface. For our St. Louis clients, this usually includes footing and foundation systems, structural slabs on grade, equipment pads, grade beams, retaining walls, basement walls, and sometimes elevated decks or stair landings.
For example, a typical small commercial building in St. Louis might use continuous strip footings around the perimeter, isolated pad footings for columns, 8 or 10 inch reinforced concrete walls, and a 5 to 6 inch slab on grade with control joints. A multifamily project might add thicker slab areas for trash enclosures, parking, or fire truck access.
At St. Louis Concreters, we read and follow your engineer's structural drawings, then translate that into field-ready layouts. We verify rebar size and spacing, footing width and depth, concrete strength (for instance 3,500 psi versus 4,000 psi), and anchor bolt placement so inspections pass cleanly and your steel or framing crew can start on time.
Step-by-step: our process for structural concrete work
Once sitework is complete and inspected, we stake out building corners and footing lines with survey instruments to match your plans. Accurate layout is critical, especially in St. Louis city lots where property lines are tight and setbacks are strictly enforced.
We then excavate footings and trenches to the engineered depth, often going below the frost line that is typically around 30 to 36 inches in this region. In areas with weaker soils, we may widen footings or install pier pads as specified by your engineer. Subgrade is compacted and, when required, we add a layer of crushed rock to help with drainage and provide a stable base.
Next comes forming and rebar. Our crews build wood or metal forms, install dowels and continuous reinforcing steel, and chair the rebar so it stays centered in the concrete, not sitting in the dirt. We coordinate with electricians and plumbers so any sleeves or blockouts are in place before the pour. When ready, we schedule concrete delivery, place the mix using chutes or pumps, consolidate it with vibrators to remove voids, and then screed and finish to the specified level or surface texture.
For slabs on grade, we typically install a vapor barrier where interior flooring is planned, then place welded wire mesh or rebar grids. We cut control joints at proper spacing, usually within 12 to 24 times the slab thickness, to guide where minor shrinkage cracking will occur so it remains straight and manageable.
Materials, mix designs, and options for structural concrete
Not all concrete is the same. For structural work in St. Louis, we commonly use 3,500 to 4,500 psi mixes depending on your design. Heavy-use areas like loading docks, dumpster pads, or fire lanes may call for higher strengths or thicker sections. In exterior applications, we nearly always select air-entrained mixes to help concrete handle winter freeze-thaw cycles without scaling.
We also look at slump (workability), aggregate size, and set times based on time of year. In hot Missouri summers, we may use retarding admixtures or schedule earlier pours to avoid rapid set and shrinkage cracking. In colder weather, we plan for blankets, heaters, or accelerator admixtures so the concrete reaches strength even when temperatures drop overnight.
If your project involves corrosive environments or deicing salts, such as parking structures or exposed stair landings, we may recommend additional cover over rebar or supplementary cementitious materials to reduce permeability. St. Louis Concreters discusses these choices with your engineer or architect so the structural concrete is tailored to real-world conditions, not just what looks good on paper.
Local issues that affect cost and long-term performance
The cost of structural concrete in St. Louis is driven by more than just square footage. Access to the site, depth of excavation, soil corrections, reinforcement density, and the number of separate pours all influence your budget. A small building with difficult access through an alley can take more labor than a larger open site in the county.
Local soil and water conditions also matter. Areas near the river or in older neighborhoods can have buried debris or soft fill that must be removed and replaced. High water tables can require sump pits, drainage tile around foundations, or waterproofing systems that protect basement walls. All of this must be sorted out during the sitework and structural phases.
St. Louis Concreters is transparent about these factors early. We flag where your engineer might need additional borings or where an alternate foundation type, such as thicker footings or piers, could save you from future settlement. Spending a little more on proper subgrade preparation, drainage, and reinforcement usually costs far less than lifting settled slabs or repairing cracked walls later.
Permits, inspections, and what to ask before you hire
Structural concrete work in St. Louis is inspected closely, especially in the city and larger municipalities like Clayton, Kirkwood, and Chesterfield. We coordinate with local building departments for footing, foundation, and sometimes reinforcement inspections before pours. Our crews are familiar with common local code requirements so there are fewer surprises on inspection day.
Before you hire any contractor for structural concrete, ask who is responsible for layout, who will be on site during pours, and how they document rebar placement and concrete delivery tickets. A reputable contractor should be able to show you past projects similar to yours in the St. Louis area and explain how they handled drainage, expansion joints, and cold-weather placements.
St. Louis Concreters provides clear schedules, communicates around weather delays, and walks you through what is happening each step of the way. We welcome coordination with your engineer, architect, or general contractor so the sitework and structural concrete support the long-term performance of your building, not just the immediate inspection.
