Concrete sidewalk building in Alexandria VA - a level walk that sheds water

Yes, if the sidewalk is in the public right-of-way, because the city's Transportation & Environmental Services office issues permits for any work there, and that covers the street, the planting strip, the sidewalk and public alleys. The application needs a drawing of where the work and equipment will sit, plus a plan for keeping people and traffic moving past. We put that together for our part of the job and tell you up front if anything needs your signature.

Professionally installed concrete sidewalk across the US usually costs about $4 to $33 per square foot. Those figures come from winning bids on public sidewalk contracts, not homeowner surveys, and they aren't adjusted for inflation, so treat them as a wide yardstick rather than a quote. Where your walk lands depends on what I measure on site, and your written estimate gives you your own number.

It can on many streets, since in the Old and Historic and Parker Gray districts, sidewalks on what the city calls "all other streets" may be its standard running bond brick, its standard concrete or a brick and concrete mix, depending on the street around them. An existing brick sidewalk there is repaired and replaced in running bond brick, bricks laid in staggered rows, so concrete isn't the choice for that walk. The Board of Architectural Review lists flat, at-grade paving that isn't used for alleys, drives or parking among the work that needs no BAR approval.

Tell your contractor up front that you salt the walk, because freezing and thawing where deicers are used can cause scaling, where the top surface flakes away. A national study of concrete sidewalks looked at the materials and building steps that limit that damage, so it's worth asking which ones a crew would use on your walk. Mention it when I come out and we'll talk it through for your job.

Check whether the property sits inside the city limits rather than going by the mailing address, because large parts of Fairfax County carry Alexandria addresses that the Postal Service assigned by delivery zone, not city line. That matters because the address alone doesn't tell you whether the city's sidewalk rules apply. We're based in Alexandria and work across the cities around it in Northern Virginia and nearby Maryland, so if your city isn't listed, just ask.

Ask how the crew handles pours in cold and in hot weather and how it checks its own work, because research on concrete sidewalks ties both to how well the walk performs. It's also fair to ask about licensing, since a Virginia state license is only one step and a contractor also has to meet the licensing rules of each city or county where it works.