Concrete Contractors in Potosi, WI

Concrete Contractors in Potosi face a layout unlike most towns. It began as three 1830s settlements, Lafayette, Van Buren and Head of the Hollow, that joined as one village on February 19, 1841, at the point where Wisconsin's lead belt reaches the Mississippi. The joined village stretches along one road: Main Street runs roughly three miles, North Main and South Main, and local signs bill it as the world's longest. A 1950s Ripley's item made the narrower claim of the longest Main Street with no cross street. The 2020 count was 646 people.

What a long, narrow village means for a pour

When houses line one road in a hollow, the lots are often narrow, with hillside behind and the street in front. Practical issues come first:

• Truck access: where a ready-mix truck can park without blocking Main Street, and whether the chute will reach
• Pumping or buggies: needed when the slab is behind or above the house
• Runoff from above: water coming down the hill toward the back of the house
• Steps up the slope: often several sets between street, house and yard

We walk the lot and plan these before giving a price.

Steps and hillside walks

On hollow lots, steps carry people up the slope. Each set needs a solid base and even risers, and long runs benefit from landings. At every meeting point, walk to steps or slab to wall, a separation strip lets the two pieces shift independently.

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The brewery and the mining ridge

Beer was brewed in the Potosi Brewery building from 1852 until it closed in 1972. After restoration it reopened in 2008, as a brewpub sharing the building with the National Brewery Museum, and the company opened a separate production plant in 2015. Lead-era workings survive at the Potosi Badger Huts Site, about 100 diggings and shafts on 9.8 acres, added to the National Register in 1996. In old mining country, we watch for soft spots and fill when we excavate for a slab.

Driveways off Main Street

Many driveways rise or drop from the street. A slab on a slope needs a compacted base, steel, a broom finish for grip, and a grade that sends water to the side instead of down into a garage. If the low side of a lot needs building up, we bring it up with compacted base rather than loose fill.

Catfish country

Potosi bills itself as the Catfish Capital of Wisconsin, and its Catfish Festival usually falls on the second weekend of August, so a patio or walk wanted by then should be booked in spring. Plenty of homes have a boat, a trailer and a garage full of gear, and along a narrow hollow there is rarely enough flat ground to park all of it. A reinforced parking pad cut into the slope, with a retaining edge on the uphill side and drainage planned around it, can create that space. We look at whether the grade allows it before quoting.

River-level lots

Potosi sits at about 814 feet where the lead belt runs down to the Mississippi, and the whole village covers under two square miles strung along the hollow. Lots at the low end sit close to river level, while those up the hollow take water running downhill from the ridges. The two need different plans. On low ground we dig past wet, soft soil and rebuild with compacted stone so the slab does not settle unevenly. Up the hollow, the job is catching and redirecting runoff before it reaches the concrete, with a swale, a curb edge or a slab pitched to one side, so water does not wash out the base from below.

Permits

For anything at the street, the village tells us what permit is needed before we schedule.