Concrete & stamped flatwork · Saltfork & the two valleys · Family-poured since 1987
Three finishes. One crew. Zero subcontractors.
Tamp & Grain pours 4,000-psi air-entrained concrete and finishes it three ways — broom, exposed aggregate and stamped — with the rate card for each painted beside the truck door. Six inches of compacted aggregate under everything, control joints sawed on a mapped grid within twelve hours, and a five-year warranty that names its own exclusions.
Broom & plain flatwork
Driveways — 5-inch slab$9.75 / sq ft
Rebar grid at 18 in o.c., broom or salt finish
Walkways & aprons — 4-inch$11.25 / sq ft
Radius forms, integral colour option
Steps & landingsfrom $92 / step
Salt-finish treads, rail cores drilled and sleeved
Exposed aggregate
Patios & drives$13.50 / sq ft
Seed or integral aggregate, sprayed and brushed reveal
Borders & bands+$1.60 / sq ft
Contrasting reveal against a broom field
Reseal, high-solid acrylic$1.15 / sq ft
Three-year cycle, booked by us not you
Stamped & coloured
Ashlar slate, cobble, herringbone$14–16 / sq ft
Color hardener broadcast, powder release, matte or wet-look seal
Integral colour, any pour+$0.90 / sq ft
Through the mix, not on it
Tear-out & haul-away$2.40 / sq ft
Broken, hauled, dump fees in the number
The subbase sermon
The slab is a report on what is under it
Most concrete complaints are subbase complaints in disguise. Before a form board goes in we place six inches of three-quarter aggregate in lifts, compact it, and proof-roll the base with a loaded truck — if the base moves under the roller, we dig and re-place before we pour, because concrete does not fix ground. It only reports on it.
The no-surprise ticket
The per-foot number you sign is the whole number: forming, steel, finishing, jointing, wash-down and haul-off. The only line that can move is rock we cannot see — and we call before we dig it, not after.
The numbers on the truck door
Saltfork & the two valleys, 2025 — 2026
Recent pours
Six slabs from the last two seasons, from farm aprons to a stamped courtyard that gets photographed more than the house. Ask for the street — our customers like showing their concrete off more than we do.
How it goes
Form, pour, finish, cure-and-seal
The same sequence on every job — the only variable is your project.
Day 0
Form & subbase
Aggregate placed in lifts and proof-rolled with a loaded truck; forms set to the string line; rebar chaired at eighteen inches on centre. Nothing pours until the base would carry the mixer itself.
Day 1
The pour
One continuous placement — 4,000 psi, 5.7 percent entrained air so freeze-thaw works on the mix instead of through it. Screeded, darbied and edged while the sheen is still on the surface.
Hour +4
Finish & joints
Broom, expose or stamp; on stamped work the release agent is broadcast ahead of the mats so the pattern lifts clean. Control joints sawed within twelve hours on the mapped grid — the crack goes where the joint is.
Day 28
Cure-and-seal
Sealed with a high-solid acrylic at full cure — foot traffic at three days, mower at five, vehicles at seven. The reseal call in year three comes from our calendar, not your memory.
Before you call
Straight answers
Will it crack?
Every slab moves; a jointed slab moves where the joints are. Control joints are sawed within twelve hours on a grid mapped to your slab geometry — usually every ten to twelve feet — so movement lands in a groove, not across your finish. Cracks outside the joints inside five years are the warranty, in writing.
Stamped or exposed — which lasts better?
Both are the same 4,000-psi slab underneath; the difference is the surface. Exposed aggregate hides wear and salt the best; stamped rewards the eye and wants its three-year reseal kept. The honest answer is the one your driveway will lead — we pour both and warranty both the same.
What does the release agent do?
On stamped work it is the powder broadcast between the fresh surface and the mats — without it the concrete lifts with the stamp and the pattern tears. It also tones the surface; the colour is chosen with the hardener, and the whole thing is washed and sealed at day 28.
How soon can we drive on it?
Vehicles at seven days and full design strength at twenty-eight; concrete reaches about seventy percent in a week, and the calendar is chemistry, not a mood. The sealer visit books itself at handover.
How small a job will you take?
About 200 square feet — a walk, a landing, a pad. Below that the truck minimums punish the per-foot price and we will say so on the phone rather than pad the quote to look reasonable.
Three outfits quoted. Tamp & Grain was the only one that got down and looked at what was UNDER the old drive before naming a number. Two winters later the slab is the same colour it was poured, and the joints are the only lines in it.
The stamped patio was the splurge; the release colour they talked us into is the reason it reads like stone instead of like a stencil. The reseal call arrives before I remember it is due.
They poured the courtyard between Sunday services and had the walks open by Wednesday choir. The joint layout was drawn on the plan and sawed exactly where the drawing said — I checked, against the drawing.
Pouring season runs April to November · stamped work books five weeks out · the spring calendar opens March 1 and the measure visits go in call order
Three cards. One number. One crew.
Send rough dimensions and a photo — the per-foot estimate comes back the same day and the measure books within the week. The phone is answered by someone who pours. pours@tampgrain.example