Concrete Contractors in Wyoming, MI

Wyoming sits directly southwest of Grand Rapids, and concrete contractors working here run into almost a century of housing in one city. The 2020 census counted 76,501 residents and 29,949 housing units across about 25 square miles. Some of those homes stand on lots platted before 1906, some went up during a 1920s boom, and a large share date from the 1950s, which Wikipedia names as the fastest period of residential development in Wyoming's history. We replace driveways, pour patios and walks, rebuild steps, set garage slabs and repair concrete that has heaved or sunk.

Three building waves, three kinds of concrete

The GUB neighborhoods. Galewood, Urbandale and Burlingame were platted mostly between 1890 and 1906, when 32 plats were filed along the route of the Grand Rapids, Holland and Chicago Railway. Lots there tend to be narrow, and the concrete is often a mix of eras: a patched walk, a stoop rebuilt decades ago, a single-car drive along the side of the house. On these lots we plan forms around tight setbacks and old foundations.

1920s plats. Godwin Heights, Home Acres, Wyoming Park and the Division Avenue corridor were platted in the 1920s, when the population grew about 200 percent, from 5,702 to 16,931. Detached garages behind the house are common on these streets, and many of their floors have cracked or settled after a century of use.

Postwar Wyoming. The population went from 28,977 in 1950 to 45,829 in 1960. Ranch houses from that decade usually have a straight driveway to an attached or detached garage, a short front walk and a small rear slab. Seventy years on, the aprons and walks are the parts that fail first.

Creeks and soil

Two creeks shaped the city. Buck Creek runs through Wyoming and cut a valley of dark loam soil that early settlers farmed, and Plaster Creek powered plaster operations starting in 1841, with gypsum mines along it in the northeast part of the city. Dark, organic loam holds water and does not support a slab the way compacted gravel does. When we dig out an old driveway or patio in the creek valleys, we expect to remove soft material and bring in a proper base, compacted in lifts, before any concrete goes down.

Get a Free Estimate

Industrial history and today's jobs

The General Motors stamping plant opened in 1936 and closed in 2009, and its 74-acre former site, known as Site 36, is being redeveloped. Reynolds Metals ran a plant here from 1942 to 1990. Gordon Food Service is now the city's largest employer, with about 5,000 workers, and Metro Health Hospital moved to southern Wyoming in 2007. That mix shows up in our work: neighborhoods built for plant workers in the north, newer subdivisions toward the south end, and plenty of homeowners who want a wider drive for a second or third vehicle.

What Wyoming homeowners ask us for

• Tear-out and replacement of cracked driveways and aprons on 1950s lots
• Wider drives and parking pads beside the garage
• New backyard patios, plain broom finish or stamped
• Front walks and stoops that have settled away from the door
• Detached garage floors and shed pads on older lots
• Section repair where a few panels have sunk or lifted

Call (616) 727-8573 to set up a visit. If the work reaches the public sidewalk or curb, we check the City of Wyoming's current permit requirements with you before scheduling the pour.