Concrete and hardscape contractor in Winsted, MN

Winsted Lake and its shoreline

Winsted Lake is 382 acres with about four miles of shoreline and a maximum depth of 12 feet. The city sits on its west shore, there is a swimming beach at the city park, and lakefront homes line the water. A lake that shallow is hard on its banks. Wind builds waves across the whole surface, and in spring the ice sheet pushes against the shore as it breaks up. Soft banks slump, sod washes out, and a dock landing turns into a mud step. We set fieldstone or boulder riprap on filter fabric at the water line, build boulder walls where a bank has already given way, and pour lake-access steps and boathouse aprons on footings so they stay put through the freeze. Work below the ordinary high water level needs DNR approval, and we plan for that before we set stone.

Small-town lots, old and new

Winsted is a small town, under 2 square miles and around 2,400 people, with older homes in the core and newer ones toward the edges and the lake. The in-town work is the usual small-town concrete: a driveway replaced at 5 inches on compacted class 5, a detached garage slab that has sunk on one corner and needs a thickened-edge pour, a front walk brought back to grade with the city sidewalk. On the newer lots it is often the patio the builder never poured, or a driveway extension so two vehicles fit. None of it is complicated, but all of it depends on the base under the concrete, and that is where builder-grade work usually fell short.

Clay, frost, and fire pit patios

The ground under Winsted is glacial till, clay that holds water and heaves when it freezes, and we build to the same 42-inch frost depth Wright County uses for anything with a footing. Patios here are often built around a fire pit, and on a lake lot that patio usually sits on a slope. We terrace the slope with a boulder wall, set the patio on compacted base pitched so rain drains toward a swale and not toward the house or the lake, and build the fire pit from stone with a proper base so it does not tip with the frost. The concrete season runs from about mid-April into October, and shoreline stone goes in best at low water in late summer.

Concrete flatwork in Winsted

Winsted's concrete work is the lake-town kind: driveways and garage slabs in town, and patios, steps, and pads on lake lots where the slab has to be pitched and drained around a slope to the water. How we pour driveways, patios, and pool decks that hold up here.

Lake and shoreline work near Winsted

Winsted Lake is 382 acres and only 12 feet at its deepest, so its banks take wave action and spring ice push hard. We set fieldstone and boulder riprap on filter fabric, build boulder walls where a bank has slumped, and put lake-access steps and boathouse aprons on footings that hold through the freeze. Riprap, boulder walls, and what the permits look like.

Around Winsted

• Winsted Lake

What we build in Winsted

• Shoreline and riprap
• Waterfront hardscape
• Patios
• Fire pits
• Driveways

Everything we do, and jobs you can go look at.