Concrete driveways
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Concrete in Frederick & Central MD
Concrete patios
A concrete patio is the cheapest durable outdoor floor there is. The two things that decide whether you like it in five years are its size and where it drains to.
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Quick answer
How much does a concrete patio cost in Maryland?
Plain broom-finish concrete runs $8 to $15 per square foot installed, so a typical 300 square foot patio lands between $2,400 and $4,500. Stamped or decorative finishes are $15 to $25 per square foot. Clay subgrade preparation adds $2 to $5 per square foot, and removing an existing slab is $3 to $8. Those are 2026 Frederick-area ranges and a site visit replaces them with a real number.
The work
What concrete patio actually involves.
Concrete is the honest budget answer for a patio and we are happy to say so on a site that also sells pavers. At $8 to $15 a square foot for plain flatwork it is roughly half the cost of a paver installation, it goes in faster, and done properly it lasts decades. What it gives up is repairability — a slab that cracks has cracked, and a patch is visible in a way a reset paver never is. Which is the right trade depends on your budget and how long you plan to be in the house, not on which one we would rather sell.
The mistake that costs people most is size, and it costs nothing to avoid at the quote stage. A patio sized to look balanced on a drawing is very often too shallow for a table with chairs that pull back, or just deep enough for the furniture with nobody able to walk behind it. We would rather set the outline out on the ground with your actual table in mind and have the conversation then, because concrete is the one surface where extending it later always shows.
The second thing is water, and specifically where the patio sends it. A slab falls away from the house so water does not sit against the foundation, it gets an isolation joint where it meets the building so the two can move independently, and any downspout discharging near it gets extended past the slab rather than under it. A patio that puddles against a wall is a patio that was poured level for the sake of looking level.
Sized around the furniture and the door, not the plan
Pitched away from the house, with an isolation joint
Broom, exposed or decorative finish — your choice
What concrete patio costs in Maryland
Frederick-area residential concrete patios, installed, 2026. Carried from our concrete page. Removal of an existing slab, poor access and heavy grading are extra and get quoted after a site visit.
- Plain concrete patio or walkway
- $8 – $15 per square foot
- Stamped or decorative concrete
- $15 – $25 per square foot
- Typical 300 sq ft patio
- $2,400 – $4,500
- Subgrade prep on clay soil
- +$2 – $5 per square foot
- Tear-out of existing slab
- $3 – $8 per square foot
- Exposed aggregate finish
- +$2 – $5 per square foot
Ranges, not quotes. Real numbers come from a walkthrough — access, condition, height and finish level move a price more than square footage does. Estimates are free and in writing.
Get your numberFull concrete patio cost guide for MarylandPrefer to just talk?
Call and describe the job. You’ll get a straight answer on whether it’s something we do and roughly what it runs.
(301) 524-1729
Self-performed
Concrete patios
What’s included
Everything the concrete patio scope actually covers.
Written into the estimate, not assumed. If something on your job is not on this list, it gets priced and named before anyone starts.
Outline set out on the ground first
01Before any digging, the shape goes down on the ground so you can stand in it with the furniture in mind. Depth for a table with chairs pulled back, room to walk behind them, and a sensible relationship to the door and the steps. This costs nothing at quote stage and is the thing people most often wish they had done.
Subgrade prepared, clay allowed for
02Organic material out, subgrade cut and the top replaced with compacted stone where the ground is clay. Less depth than a driveway needs because the loads are furniture rather than vehicles, but the same principle — a slab on unprepared clay rides the swelling and shrinking until something gives.
Pitch away, and an isolation joint at the house
03A consistent fall away from the building, enough to shed water and too little to notice underfoot. Where the slab meets the house it gets an isolation joint, so the patio and the foundation can move independently instead of the patio pushing against the wall or cracking along it.
Control joints that govern the cracking
04Panels sized sensibly for the slab, joints cut deep enough to actually control where it cracks, and attention to re-entrant corners — the inside corner where a patio wraps around a bay or a bulkhead is where a crack will start if nothing tells it otherwise.
The finish you actually asked for
05Broom finish as standard, which is the practical choice and the least slippery when wet. Exposed aggregate, a smoother trowelled finish for a covered area, or a stamped and coloured surface if that is what you want — the decorative page covers that properly, including what the re-sealing commitment looks like.
Cured, not just left to dry
06Concrete gains strength by hydrating, not by drying out, so a slab that loses its surface water too fast in July gets a weak, dusty top layer that scales later. Curing is managed rather than assumed, and in hot or windy weather that changes how we schedule the pour.
On the job
Concrete work across Frederick & Central MD.
What the trade looks like at each stage. Photos of our own recent jobs come out at the walkthrough, on the actual house.
Straight answers
Concrete patio questions
Not covered here? Call and ask — you’ll get a real answer, not a “depends on the job”.
Concrete is roughly half the cost, goes in faster and lasts decades when the base is right. Pavers cost more, handle freeze-thaw movement better because the surface is segmental rather than continuous, and can be lifted and reset invisibly in sections. The real question is repairability against budget. We build both and we will give you the straight answer for your situation — the blog post on this site compares them properly, and the pavers page carries those ranges.
Almost certainly, somewhere, eventually — concrete shrinks as it cures and moves with temperature, and a slab that never cracked would be unusual. The question is whether it cracks where somebody decided or where it chose. That is what control joints are for, and it is why we set them out as panels rather than cutting them wherever is convenient. A hairline crack along a joint is the system working. A crack across a panel at a corner is usually a joint that was not there.
Bigger than most people guess, which is why we set the outline out on the ground before quoting. A dining table needs enough depth for chairs to pull right back and for somebody to walk behind them, and a patio sized to the table footprint plus a foot is one where every meal involves shuffling. It costs almost nothing to add a few feet during the pour and it is impossible to add invisibly afterwards, so the conversation belongs at the start.
Same crew, same visit
The rest of the concrete work.
Most concrete jobs are two or three of these at once, which is why they are priced and scheduled together rather than as separate call-outs.
From the field
Read up before you book.
Longer answers than a quote page has room for — how the work fails, what putting it right actually involves, and when waiting is the honest call.
Sources worth your time
Check us, and check the work
None of these are ours. They are the offices and standards bodies that set the rules we work to, so you can verify what we say rather than take it.
Portland Cement Association
Plain-language technical material on curing, control joints, de-icer damage and scaling. Independent of anybody selling a driveway, which is why it is worth reading before deciding whether yours needs replacing.
OpenNational Ready Mixed Concrete Association
Where the mix arrives from. Useful background on air entrainment, slump and why adding water at the truck to make concrete easier to place is the one request we will decline on an exterior slab.
OpenNational Association of Home Builders
Where the residential-construction standards and material research behind these decisions are published.
Open
Talk to the people doing the work
Get a straight number for the whole job.
Tell us what needs doing. We’ll walk it with you, sequence every trade it touches, put the price in writing, and leave you to decide.
Get a quote
Let’s price your project.
Two short steps. No obligation, no pressure — just a clear number and a straight answer about what the job involves.
Tick as many as you like. Most jobs are two or three of them at once, and I sort out the detail when I come and look. Nobody gets turned away for choosing the wrong box.
