Concrete Patios & Outdoor Spaces in Lexington, MO

Lexington sits on a Missouri River bluff, and that puts a patio on one of two very different grounds. Down near the river the ground is alluvial bottom with a high water table; up on the bluff where the old town stands it's loess — wind-laid silt, firm dry and weak wet. The compacted base a patio needs depends entirely on which one your lot sits on, so the first thing we do here is read the ground before we quote the pour.

This is a heritage river town — the Battle of Lexington site, the Lafayette County Courthouse with the cannonball still in its column, the Madonna of the Trail, blocks of massive 19th-century homes above the water. Those grand old lots sit up on the bluff loess; the newer, lower ground runs toward the bottoms. Same town, two ground rules. The rest of this page is how we build for each.

Water behaves differently on Lexington's two grounds, and the drainage answers each. On the bluff, runoff picks up speed on the slope and will cut a channel into loess if it's left to run — so we grade the pad to shed and route roof and surface water into a run that daylights well downhill of the slab. Down on the bottoms the ground can't take water in at all, so every drop has to be moved off the top and away.

Both start at the door. Every pad we pour falls about a quarter-inch per foot — positive drainage that clears a downpour fast — and the finished threshold elevation sits a safe step below the sill with the ground falling away, so water never backs toward the house. On the bottoms that grade is doing more work, because there's little natural fall to help it; on the bluff it's keeping the loess from washing. We tie the downspouts in either way so the roof's water leaves the patio for good.

In a town built around 19th-century brick and stone, a patio finish has to belong to its house. The everyday call is a broom vs stamped finish decision: a broom finish gives a clean, honest surface that suits a period home, while stamped concrete can pattern the pad to read like aged stone that ties into Lexington's historic look. On a larger pour we lay the control cuts out as a joint pattern continuity so the lines frame the space instead of crossing it at random.

We lay a small mockup on site before any stamp or color, so the texture and shade get judged against your own brick in your own light. Where the ground runs damp toward the bottoms, the sealer is chosen for its vapor transmission, letting moisture rise out through the slab instead of hazing under a sealed film. Our gallery shows stamped and colored patios we've poured around the metro, and the stained and colored options give another way to warm a pad to an old home.

Most patios in Lexington need a permit through the city, and near the historic district or a landmark home an attached cover can draw a closer look at setbacks and lot coverage. We pull the permit, lay the drainage out to clear it, and keep the work inside code and considerate of the setting.

Lexington sits in Lafayette County above the Missouri River off MO-13 and US-24, so the soil and frost rules are Missouri's — MoDNR guidance and a 36-inch frost depth we carry the footings and the compacted base below. Whether your lot is up on the bluff or down toward the bottoms, we read the ground first and build to it. Easy to get out, walk your lot, and hand you a written number before anything starts. Ford Concrete holds a 4.9-star average across 29 Google reviews from homeowners around the metro.