Concrete Contractors in Olathe, CO

Olathe is a small farm town in the Uncompahgre Valley, and concrete contractors working in Olathe see everything from first-home driveways to equipment pads on irrigated fields. The statutory town sits at 5,358 feet in northeastern Montrose County, with the Uncompahgre River along its western edge. Montrose is 10 miles southeast and Delta 11 miles northwest, both by way of U.S. 50. Olathe covers about 1.5 square miles and grew from 1,849 residents in 2010 to 2,019 in 2020, a gain of about 9 percent.

A young town with families

Olathe's 2020 median age was 34.9, and about a quarter of residents were under 18. Households with kids use concrete hard: driveways double as play space, side yards need a firm path for bikes and trash bins, and back yards often need a flat slab for a basketball hoop or a trampoline border. For that kind of use we pay attention to:

• Width, so a second car and a bike rack both fit
• Thickness, with extra depth where a work truck or trailer parks
• A broom finish that grips when the surface is wet or frosty
• Joints at even spacing, so any cracks form in straight lines

From Brown to Olathe

The town began as Brown, with a post office that opened in 1883, and was renamed Olathe in 1896 after Olathe, Kansas. It was incorporated in 1907. That means the town has a core of older houses with old concrete steps, porches and walks alongside newer homes on the edges of town. Older flatwork usually needs one of three things: a single replaced panel, rebuilt steps on a compacted base, or a full replacement where the original slab was thin and has broken into pieces. We tell you which one applies before talking about price.

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Irrigated ground in the Uncompahgre Valley

The Colorado Geological Survey names the Uncompahgre basin as one of the areas where early fruit growers saw newly irrigated land sink, in places by as much as four feet, enough to reverse the flow of irrigation canals. It also lists lawn and landscape watering among the ways water reaches loose, silty soils today, and it recommends careful drainage and lower-water landscaping. Around a farm town, that is a practical warning. We compact a gravel base under every slab, keep it slightly above the surrounding grade, and keep spray heads, ditches and drip lines back from the edges.

Farm slabs for sweet corn country

Olathe is known for Olathe Sweet Corn, celebrated by a festival that began in 1992 and later moved to Montrose. Farm properties around town need concrete that can take work:

Equipment pads for tractors, planters and trailers, poured thick with rebar on chairs.

Wash and packing slabs sloped to drain, with a broom finish that stays grippy when wet.

Shop and barn floors with thickened edges at walls and doors, and a vapor barrier under enclosed space.

Truck aprons where loaded vehicles turn off the road.

Highways, town streets and permits

US 50 runs along the east side of town, with a business loop through it, and State Highway 348 runs as a country road toward Delta. A driveway that changes how you meet one of those roads, or a town street, may need approval from the agency that controls it. Olathe is in Montrose County, not Mesa County, so we do not assume Grand Junction-area rules apply. We check with the Town of Olathe or the right agency before quoting street-side work, and list any permit step on the quote.

Ash Mesa and drainage

Ash Mesa rises about 100 feet above town to the west, and properties at the foot of rising ground pick up runoff during storms and snowmelt. On those lots we pay close attention to grade: slabs set slightly high, a gentle swale on the uphill side where water comes across the yard, and downspouts carried well past the concrete.