Getting there
About 17 miles east of our shop, roughly 25 to 30 minutes. We take US-12 east to Montrose and Highway 25 north into Buffalo. Buffalo jobs are scheduled as full days and we try to group them with Maple Lake and Delano work.
Buffalo housing: new subdivisions on the edges, an older core, and two developed lakeshores
Buffalo has more than 6,000 housing units and is still adding them. The edges of town are where the new subdivisions are, and new construction is where a lot of our Buffalo work comes from: a driveway to pour once the builder's gravel drive has done its job, a patio off the walkout, a pool deck the summer after move-in. Downtown Buffalo, around the county government center, is older housing on a grid with the same aging concrete every town in the county has. Then there are the lakes. Buffalo Lake and Lake Pulaski are both inside the city, both have developed shorelines, and both have lots where the yard drops to the water and the bank needs holding.
New-construction concrete on Buffalo's clay
New subdivisions get built on the same glacial till as the rest of Wright County, and a new house does not change what the clay does. The builder's lot is often graded with fill that has not fully settled, which makes a driveway poured too early a driveway that cracks. We prefer to let the lot go through a season if the schedule allows, then strip and compact a real gravel base and pour at least four inches with a broom finish, pitched to the street. Pool decks are their own thing: the concrete has to slope away from the pool, the base has to drain so the slab does not heave against the coping, and the finish needs enough texture to be safe wet. We have poured pool decks with a paver soldier-course border around the edge, which gives a clean line against the coping and a place to make grade changes without a visible joint in the concrete.
Buffalo Lake, Lake Pulaski, and the shoreline lots
Buffalo Lake is about 1,550 acres inside the city, with Sturges Park on its shore and a walking trail that runs nearly two miles along the water. It is shallower, around 33 feet at the deepest point, and sits in the North Fork Crow River watershed. Lake Pulaski is about 700 acres and drops to 87 feet, with a public access and beach on the southwest side and a shoreline that is almost fully built out. The lots on both lakes are the established kind: older homes that have been remodeled, retaining walls that were built decades ago and are now leaning, and steps down to the water that have shifted. We rebuild those walls with boulders on a drained gravel base, add riprap where wave action is eating the toe, and reset steps into the slope so runoff does not undercut them.
Concrete flatwork in Buffalo
Concrete flatwork in Buffalo is the widest mix we pour anywhere: broom-finish driveways in the new subdivisions, pool decks with a paver soldier-course border, and stamped patios off the walkouts, all on a gravel base that drains because the clay under Buffalo does not. How we pour driveways, patios, and pool decks that hold up here.
Lake and shoreline work near Buffalo
Buffalo Lake and Lake Pulaski are developed lakes with a lot of older shoreline work reaching the end of its life. Leaning block walls and timber walls from decades ago are the usual call, and we replace them with boulder walls and riprap sized to the bank. Anything at or below the ordinary high water line needs a permit, and we will tell you which parts of your project that covers. Riprap, boulder walls, and what the permits look like.
Around Buffalo
- Buffalo Lake
- Lake Pulaski
- Sturges Park
- Highway 55
- Highway 25
- Wright County Government Center
What we build in Buffalo
Questions from Buffalo
We just closed on a new build in a Buffalo subdivision and the builder left a gravel driveway. How soon can you pour concrete?
It depends on how the lot was graded. Builder fill in a new subdivision keeps settling for a while, and a driveway poured on it before it stops moving will crack. If the lot was graded with compacted fill and has been through a wet season, we can pour right away. If it is fresh, we would rather wait a few months, and we will tell you which case you have on the site visit.
We are putting in a pool in Buffalo next spring. When does the concrete deck go in, and can you do the paver border?
The deck goes in after the pool shell is set and backfilled and the plumbing is tested, usually a few weeks into the pool build. We pour it sloped away from the pool on a compacted gravel base so it does not heave against the coping. A paver soldier-course border around the edge is something we have done before, and it gives you a clean line at the coping and a finished edge on the yard side.
The block retaining wall on our Lake Pulaski lot is leaning toward the water. Can it be fixed or does it come out?
A leaning wall almost always comes out. It leans because water built up behind it with no way to drain, and straightening it without fixing the drainage just starts the clock again. We take out the block, cut back the bank, set boulders on a gravel base with drained backfill, and add riprap at the toe if the water reaches it. Work at the water line needs a permit, which we walk you through.
Nearby
We also work in Maple Lake, Montrose and Delano. All the towns we cover.