r/Concrete_Contractor

Hey everyone, looking for some professional input from contractors on how to properly handle a broken underground concrete valve box.

The box is embedded right in the middle of an asphalt driveway where vehicles drive directly over it. We still have the thick, heavy metal cover plate, but the precast concrete housing underneath it is severely deteriorating. The top-left rim and side walls are completely crumbling away, meaning the plate no longer has enough structural support underneath it to safely hold vehicle weight.

We currently have the area blocked off with traffic cones so nobody drives or walks onto the unstable plate by mistake, but we need a permanent, long-term solution so we can fully use the parking spaces again.

Given that the plate is still perfectly fine but the underlying concrete shelf is failing in a heavy traffic zone, what is the right way to address this? Is a concrete structure in this condition salvageable to support the plate again, or is a full replacement of the precast box the only viable option?

Additionally, what specific type of contractor should I be reaching out to for this kind of repair (e.g., a commercial plumber, an excavation/site utility crew, or a paving company)?

Appreciate any insight or advice from those who handle utility repairs. Thanks!

Hi everyone.

We extended our patio in April with the idea of putting a covered roof over it. When the contractor poured the concrete, unfortunately we did not like the color. We picked the color terra-cotta. In the book it looked brown with a hint of red, but it came out very orange and red. We asked the contractor to not seal it as we planned to use this product from Brickform called Cemcoat Plus. We had to wait 28 days for the concrete to cure before we could do it so we moved forward with the next phase of the build, which was the roof. Talking to a local contractor who does concrete resurfacing he said that it was fine to move forward with building everything and then coloring the concrete at the end. All of that worked fine and we built the roof over the patio.

Fast-forward to now and I decided to apply the Cemcoat, the Antique It, and Sealer myself. The Cemcoat went on fine, the color looked pretty good, it was the desert tan, setting up a good base for the Antique It. So the problem starts with yesterday I applied the Antique It, and we let it dry for eight hours. It dried with this white smokiness all around the concrete as well as rings around a lot of of the impressions. So I did some further research and watching videos and read that if there’s some white lines that that it’s normal. So I decided to seal the concrete thinking that once the color is enhanced by sealing it that the white would subside and blend in and go away. Unfortunately they did not. The white rings and smokiness is still prevalent throughout the concrete. Also, I sprayed on the sealer with a pump sprayer and it seems to have applied well other than in the impressions. It has pooled in a lot of them and now they are this cloudy muddy pockets of sealer.

Any help is greatly appreciated. I’m thinking that I have to strip off the sealer and redo the Antique It, but I’m not sure why it came out the way it did the first time and I don’t want to do it again until I have some experiential insight.

Can anybody help me with the following?

1. Has this happened to anyone before?
2. Can anyone identify what caused this?
3. What’s my next best course of action?

Here’s the timeline and process that I went through for reference.

April 8th - New concrete is poured and stamped. We asked the contractor to not seal it.
June 20th - Power Washed the concrete
June 25th
- 9am - Applied Triple Seven Bond Coat Primer from Brickform
- 10am-12pm - Applied first coat of Cemcoat Plus.
June 26th
- 10am - Applied second coat of Cemcoat Plus
June 27th
- 11am - Applied Antique It. Allowed to dry for 8+ hours.
- 8pm - Applied Water Based Sealer.
- 11pm - Applied second coat of Water Based Sealer.

See pictures for further Details.

June 27th, yesterday, it was high humidity most of the day, like 70-90% humidity most of the day, so not sure if that was a factor.

But any help is greatly appreciated 🙏
Just want to get it done and move on to enjoying our patio this summer. Thank you.

Hi! I live in an old house with an old driveway. I think most of it is seriously like 100 years old and then there are some newer portions that i would guess to be maybe 15 years old?

For the past year or so I have noticed the top of one of the newer sections is essentially shedding away… is there anything I can do to maybe seal or coat this to slow it down or even stop it?

Location if it matters is Buffalo, New York. Thank you!