Winter is for the inside. Garage and basement floors, broken out and poured new, done before spring.
A garage floor takes more abuse than any slab on the property. Salt and slush off the car all winter, the weight of the car every day, and usually a base that was never built for any of it. A basement floor is the opposite problem: nobody looks at it until they want to finish the basement, and then it turns out to be thin, cracked or sloping the wrong way.
Both are inside jobs, which means frost does not stop them. We break out the old floor, fix what is underneath it, and pour a new one, through the winter while the outside work waits for spring.
Not every crack means a new floor. Hairline cracks in an old slab are normal and a patch or a sealer is often the honest answer. A floor needs to come out when sections have heaved or sunk, when cracks keep opening wider every year, when the slab has pulled away from the walls, or when water sits in the middle of the garage instead of running to the door or the drain.
We tell you which one you have at the site visit. If it can be fixed, we will say so.
The old slab gets broken out and hauled away. Then we look at what it was sitting on, because a floor that failed usually failed from the bottom. The base gets rebuilt and compacted, and the new slab is set to slope to the door or to the floor drain so water leaves instead of sitting.
Then we place and finish it, and tell you the day you can park on it. Parking on it early is the most common way a new garage floor gets damaged, so that date is written down, not guessed.
In a basement the job is access. Everything comes in and out through a door or a window, so we plan the break out and the pour around how material can actually get in and out of the house before anything gets touched.
If the basement is being finished, the floor is the moment to get everything under it right: drains, plumbing rough ins, and insulation and a vapour barrier under the new slab. We plan the floor around the rest of the work so nothing gets torn up later.
We started in concrete, but we are a general contractor and we run full interior renovations. If the floor is the first step of finishing a basement or rebuilding a garage, we can take the whole job: the floor, the framing, the trades and the finishes, planned as one project with one firm price and one project lead.
One team running it is what keeps the order right. The floor goes in knowing where the walls, the drains and the bathroom will be, instead of being poured first and cut up later.
Outside work in Ontario stops when the ground freezes. Inside work does not, which is why winter is when garages and basements get done. You get the floor finished, and your spring calendar stays free for the outside projects.
An unheated garage in January is still cold enough to hurt fresh concrete, so we heat and protect the space before and after the pour, following the same cold weather rules we use outside (CSA A23.1).
A number off a website is a guess, and guesses turn into surprises on the invoice. Every job is priced to what is actually in front of us. These are the things that move it:
The site visit is free. The quote comes back itemized, with the HST and the total including HST shown, inside 48 hours. What you sign is what you pay.
Yes. We heat and protect the garage before and after the pour so the concrete cures properly, following the same cold weather rules we use on outside work (CSA A23.1).
Sometimes. Hairline cracks in an old slab are normal and often only need a patch or a sealer. If sections have heaved, sunk or keep opening up, the floor needs to come out. We tell you which one at the site visit.
Yes, the floor has to be clear before we start. We give you the dates in writing so you can plan around them.
Yes. We are a general contractor and run full interior renovations, so the floor, the framing, the trades and the finishes can be one project with one price and one project lead.
We give you the date when the floor is poured. It depends on the mix and the temperature, and parking on it early is the most common way a new floor gets damaged.
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