Terms

These terms cover the use of this website and what the introduction it arranges is and is not. They take two minutes to read and save an argument later.

What this site does

Concrete Repair Syracuse arranges introductions between homeowners in Syracuse and the surrounding Onondaga County area and independent contractors who do concrete work. We do not pour, cut, lift, resurface or replace concrete ourselves. We hold no plant, we employ no crew, and we are not a party to the work. When you send a request we read it, work out which of the five jobs on this site it belongs to, and pass it to a licensed, insured contractor who covers your town. They survey it, they price it, they schedule it and they invoice you.

Your contract is with the contractor, and New York says what has to be in it

Whatever is agreed for the work is agreed between you and the contractor. Concrete flatwork on a home sits squarely inside New York's home improvement law: General Business Law section 770 names driveways, patios, porches and garages specifically, and an agreement above five hundred dollars is a home improvement contract under that article. Section 771 requires it to be evidenced by a writing signed by all parties, carrying the contractor's name, address and telephone number, the approximate start and substantial completion dates, a description of the work and the materials, the agreed price, a mechanic's lien notice in clear and conspicuous bold face type, and a statement of how money paid before completion is held. You have three business days to change your mind, in writing, and the contract is required to tell you so. We are not a party to that contract and can neither alter it nor enforce it for you.

Quotes, prices and what nobody can tell you in advance

Every price on a concrete job comes from the contractor, not from us. Nothing on this site is a price, an offer to carry out work, or a promise about what a job will cost. Two things genuinely cannot be known before someone opens the ground: what the base under a slab looks like, and where the water is going. New York State's Department of Transportation names three conditions that must all be present before frost heaving can occur, cold reaching the base and subgrade, a supply of water into the freezing zone, and frost-susceptible material lying in that zone, and identifies drainage as the condition a property can actually change. A quote that prices the concrete and ignores the water is a quote that will be revisited.

Permits, the right of way, and who is responsible

Permits are a matter between the contractor and the property owner, and this site does not obtain them. Two points are worth knowing before anybody quotes. Onondaga County states that it is a violation of New York Highway Law section 136 to construct within the county's road right of way without a permit from the county, with liability to a fine of up to $1,000 for each day of violation. And it has been long-standing county policy not to allow ditch enclosures, so piping a roadside ditch and paving over it to widen a driveway is not something to price on a county road. On a county highway the owner is also fully responsible for maintaining the driveway and its channelization from the right of way line out to the outside edge of the shoulder or curb, including the culvert under it.

Public sidewalks inside the City of Syracuse

This is in the terms as well as on the home page because it is the one thing here that costs us money to tell you. Under its Municipal Sidewalk Maintenance Program the City of Syracuse took responsibility in the second half of 2021 for the repair and replacement of existing sidewalks, funded by a yearly fee charged on every property in the city. If the broken slab is the public sidewalk and the property is inside the city, that is city work: a hazardous condition is reported to the city rather than quoted by a contractor. Owners still have to clear snow and ice from it, by 6 p.m. on the day after it accumulates. Outside the city it varies by municipality, so ask before agreeing to anything.

The standards and the figures quoted on this site

Every factual claim on these pages carries its source beside it, and those sources are published documents from the American Concrete Institute, the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, NOAA, New York State and Onondaga County. They are quoted so that you can check them. They describe what published guidance and code require; they are not a promise about your particular slab. A specification is not an outcome: concrete is a variable material sitting on variable ground, and the right specification improves the odds rather than removing them. Nothing here is engineering advice for your property, and a slab that has moved, a step holding somebody above a drop, or concrete carrying a structure is a question for a design professional.

Limits

This site is provided as it is. We take reasonable care that what is written here is accurate and current, and every sourced fact carries the date it was checked, but published guidance, county policy and municipal programs change, and we are not liable for a decision taken on the strength of a page that has since been superseded. We are not liable for the work, the workmanship, the timekeeping, the pricing or the conduct of any contractor introduced through this site, and nothing here creates a warranty of any kind on their behalf. Where liability cannot lawfully be excluded, it is not excluded.

Using this site

Use the form to ask about concrete work on a property. Do not submit somebody else's details as your own, do not use the form to send automated or commercial messages, and do not scrape, copy or republish the writing and the compiled source material on these pages. The wording, the layout and the assembled research here are ours.

Changes

These terms and the privacy policy are updated when what the site does changes, in the same edit as the thing that caused the change rather than at some later date. The version on the site is the current one.