We build patios out of concrete, and we build them to sit flat and stay flat. Marietta Professional Concrete is a concrete contractor, so a patio here starts as flatwork: a slab sized to the yard, reinforced, poured, and then finished the way you want to look at it. Some people want a plain broom finish and nothing else. Others want stamped concrete, colored concrete, or exposed aggregate running out from the back door. Whatever goes on top, the same slab has to be under it.
Every patio job runs in roughly the same order. We look at the ground, dig out and grade what is there, set the forms, lay rebar or wire mesh, pour, and finish. The pour itself is the short part of the week. Weather moves the schedule more than anything else does, and we let it. Concrete does not care about your calendar, and a slab poured into the wrong conditions will keep telling you about it for as long as it sits there.
Most bad patios fail in the same few ways. A thin slab, poured over ground that was never compacted, with no reinforcement in it, cracks and settles and eventually pulls away from the house. Water runs the wrong direction and stands right where the chairs go. Control joints get skipped, so the concrete picks its own crack lines instead. None of that is exotic or unlucky. It is what happens when the part nobody ever sees gets rushed to save a day.
Getting it right takes time more than it takes anything else. Excavation and base prep run longer than the pour, and the reinforcement goes in while there is still nothing to look at. Finishing has a window that opens once and closes on its own schedule, which is why stamped and colored work needs hands ready when the slab is ready. We would rather spend the extra hours on the ground under the concrete than come back later to a patio that moved.
We work in Marietta, Smyrna, Kennesaw, Roswell, Atlanta, and the rest of metro Atlanta, on the same terms in every one of them. Marietta Square is the historic downtown core, with retail and restaurant frontage around it, and the commuter corridors run from here toward Atlanta. Patios are most of what we are asked about, but the crew pours concrete driveways, sidewalk installation, concrete sidewalk repair, and commercial concrete as well. Call for a free estimate on the patio you have in mind.
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A patio is flatwork, and flatwork lives or dies on what goes underneath it. We strip topsoil, compact the base, and set forms to a slope that carries water away from the house. Slabs go down at four inches with wire mesh or rebar tied in, and control joints get cut early so the concrete cracks along a line we chose. Restaurant and retail frontage around Marietta Square gets the same commercial concrete detailing, sized for foot traffic.
Finish work is where a concrete contractor earns the job. Broom texture, exposed aggregate, and stamped concrete pressed while the slab is still plastic all behave differently underfoot, and stamped or colored work needs a release agent and a sealer to keep its tone. When a concrete sidewalk ties the patio back to the driveway, we pour both off the same batches so they match. Most trouble that shows up later, scaling and surface dusting, traces back to curing that got rushed.
We walk the yard with you and look at where water goes. Slope, downspouts, low spots, tree roots, and how the patio ties into the house and any existing concrete driveway all shape the layout. We check access for a mixer or a truck, since a narrow side yard changes the plan. We measure, note thickness and reinforcement, and talk through finishes: broom, exposed aggregate, or stamped and colored.
You get the scope in writing: dimensions, slab thickness, reinforcement, finish, joint layout, and what we haul off. No verbal handshakes on square footage. Patios often sit close to setbacks, and work near the right of way or a driveway apron runs through the City of Marietta for permits and inspection. We handle that paperwork and schedule around it rather than pouring first and asking later.
Old slabs come out whole, not patched over. Broken concrete traps water and telegraphs cracks straight back through anything poured on top. We excavate to grade, cut back soft spots, then bring in graded aggregate base and compact it in lifts with a plate compactor. Loose fill is the most common reason a patio settles. We set the base to drain away from the foundation before any forms go up.
Forms go in straight and staked tight, with grade checked across the whole pad so the finished surface pitches away from the house. We run rebar on chairs, or wire mesh where the load is lighter, held up in the slab instead of lying in the dirt. Concrete installation happens in one continuous pour where we can. Placement gets screeded and bull floated quickly, because concrete does not wait on anyone.
Timing is the whole job here. We float, edge, and cut control joints on a spacing that gives the slab somewhere to crack, then finish to whatever texture you picked. Stamped work gets released and detailed while the mix is still open. Curing continues after we leave, so we tell you when to stay off it and when furniture can go back. We walk the patio with you, check joints and drainage, and clean up around adjacent sidewalks and driveways.
Every patio quote comes down to a handful of conditions on your own property, and most of them you can walk out and look at before anyone gives you a number. Two backyards of the same size land far apart when one has an open side yard for a chute and the other has a narrow gate, a slope, and an old slab sitting where the new one goes. Here is what moves the price, and which direction it moves it.
| What changes the price | Which way | Why |
|---|---|---|
| An existing slab or patio in the footprint | Costs more | Breakout, load-out and haul-off are a separate day of work before any concrete installation begins, and a thick reinforced old slab takes longer to remove than thin flatwork. |
| How close the truck can park to the pour | Costs less when it is close | A chute straight into the forms is the fastest way concrete gets placed. Past chute reach, every yard moves by buggy or wheelbarrow, and the labor climbs with the distance. |
| Gate width and fence sections in the path | Costs more when narrow | The tightest opening on the route sets the equipment size. A three foot gate rules out a skid steer, so demo, spoil removal and grading all happen by hand. |
| Slab thickness and reinforcement the use calls for | Costs more as both go up | A patio carrying a hot tub, an outdoor kitchen or a fire feature needs more depth and rebar rather than wire mesh, and rebar tied on chairs is more material and more time. |
| Tree roots, stumps, irrigation or buried utility lines | Costs more | Roots and stumps have to come out down to subgrade so the slab is not sitting on something that will rot and settle. Marked lines mean digging by hand around them. |
| Which way the ground already drains | Costs less when it falls away from the house | Existing fall we can build on keeps the base simple. A low corner that holds water after a storm needs fill, compaction and sometimes a drain line before we form anything. |
| Finish: broom, stamped, colored or exposed aggregate | Costs more than a broom finish | Stamped concrete brings mats, release, sealing and a crew working a short window before it sets up. Colored concrete and exposed aggregate each add their own steps. |
When you set two bids side by side, compare the specifics: slab thickness in inches, rebar or wire mesh and how it is held off the ground, what the base is and how it gets compacted, where control joints fall, and whether demolition, haul-off and finish grading are included or left for you. Bids that spell those out can actually be compared. One that says "patio" and gives a total cannot.
Color is what drives surface temperature more than the concrete itself. A light gray or tan slab stays noticeably cooler underfoot than a dark charcoal or deep brown one, and a broom finish reflects more than a slick troweled surface. If the patio sits in full afternoon sun with no tree cover, we steer toward lighter colored concrete and talk through shade structures before we pour.
No, not invisibly. New concrete never matches old concrete exactly, because the original slab has weathered and the cement, sand and aggregate in a fresh batch come from a different source. What we can do is make the join look deliberate. We tie the new slab to the old with dowels, place a control joint on the seam line, and often change the finish or add a border so the transition reads as design rather than repair.
Slope, set before the first wheelbarrow arrives. We pitch the slab away from the house at a consistent fall across the whole surface, and we shoot grades with a level rather than eyeballing them. Where a patio wraps a corner or sits below the yard, we may run a drain line or a channel drain at the low edge. Water that leaves fast does not stain, freeze or undermine.
A broom finish is the workhorse. It grips when wet, hides scuffs, and there is no coating to peel off in five years. Exposed aggregate wears nearly as well and hides dirt better. Stamped concrete looks the best of the three and needs resealing every few years to keep its color, which is a real commitment, so we say that plainly before anyone chooses it.
Yes. Around a deck we form up to the posts and leave an isolation joint so the slab and the deck footings can move independently. Around a pool we keep the pour off the shell with the same joint, slope away from the water, and use a finish with real texture underfoot. Older Marietta houses often have decks that were added later, and the framing dictates how the forms run.
Start with the furniture, not the yard. A table with chairs pulled out needs more room than most people picture, and a grill needs standing space behind it. We walk the yard, lay out the footprint with paint or stakes, and let you stand in it. Marietta lots vary widely by neighborhood age, so the honest answer comes from the site.