Getting there
Hutchinson sits southwest of us. From the shop it is about 16 miles on the county roads, or US-12 to Dassel and MN-15 south when we are hauling a full load. Figure 25 to 30 minutes either way. We are in Hutchinson often enough that a site visit is easy to line up.
Hutchinson's housing runs from pre-war to brand new
The median Hutchinson home was built in 1984, but the spread is wide. About 7 percent of the housing went up before 1940, another 12 percent between 2000 and 2009, and close to 8 percent in the 2010s. Each era fails differently. The old blocks near downtown and the river have narrow lots, detached garages on slabs that have sunk a few inches, and public sidewalks that were replaced piecemeal. The 1970s and 1980s ranches have original driveways at the end of their life, usually 4 inches thick with a garage apron that frost has lifted. The newer subdivisions have builder slabs that look fine until the base under them settles. We match the fix to the house: a new garage slab poured with a thickened edge on the old lots, a full driveway replacement at 5 inches on compacted class 5 for the ranches, and patios and walks behind the new houses that the builder never got to.
Otter Lake, Campbell Lake, and the Crow River
The South Fork of the Crow River flows around the north and east sides of downtown Hutchinson. The dam on Main Street, first built in 1857 and rebuilt as rock rapids in 2008, backs the river up to the west into Otter Lake and Campbell Lake. Together they cover about 642 acres with roughly 14 miles of shoreline, and they are shallow: 9 feet at the deepest, closer to 5 across much of the basin. Shallow water means the banks take wave action from every wind and get pushed by ice in spring, so the shoreline work here is riprap set on filter fabric, boulder walls where a bank has slumped, and lake-access steps on footings that hold. Work below the ordinary high water level needs DNR approval, and we plan the job around that from the start.
Frost, clay, and shop floors
Hutchinson sits on the same glacial till as the rest of the region: clay that holds water and heaves when it freezes. We build to the same 42-inch frost depth Wright County uses for anything structural. The other thing Hutchinson has plenty of is outbuildings. On the acreage lots outside town we pour a lot of garage and shop floors, and a shop slab is not a driveway. It gets compacted class 5, 5 to 6 inches of concrete with fiber or rebar depending on what will park on it, a thickened edge where a pole building's posts land, and floor drains pitched so meltwater off a truck goes somewhere. The concrete season runs from about mid-April into October, and a shop floor is a job we like to schedule early so the building can go up over it.
Concrete flatwork in Hutchinson
In Hutchinson the concrete work is the whole range at once: replacing 1980s driveways on the ranch blocks, pouring shop floors on the acreages outside town, and flatwork behind the new houses on the edges. How we pour driveways, patios, and pool decks that hold up here.
Lake and shoreline work near Hutchinson
Otter and Campbell lakes are a dammed stretch of the South Fork of the Crow River, wide and shallow, and their banks take wave action and level changes differently than a deep natural lake. We set fieldstone and boulder riprap on filter fabric, build boulder walls where a bank has slumped, and put in lake-access steps that stay put through spring. Riprap, boulder walls, and what the permits look like.
Around Hutchinson
- Otter Lake
- Campbell Lake
- South Fork of the Crow River
- Crow River Dam
What we build in Hutchinson
Questions from Hutchinson
Do you do shoreline work on Otter Lake or Campbell Lake in Hutchinson?
Yes. Both lakes are shallow reservoirs behind the Crow River dam, so their banks take steady wave action and ice push. We set fieldstone or boulder riprap on filter fabric, build boulder walls where a bank has given way, and pour lake-access steps on footings. Anything below the ordinary high water level needs a DNR permit, and we plan for that before we start.
Can you pour a shop floor outside Hutchinson before the ground freezes?
Usually, if we get the call by early fall. Our season runs from about mid-April into October. A shop slab needs the base compacted and dry, and we will not pour on frozen ground. In the shoulder weeks we use blankets and adjust the mix. If it is late October, we will tell you honestly whether it should wait for spring.
My Hutchinson house was built in the 1970s and the driveway is original. Repair or replace?
At 50 years old, replace. A 1970s driveway here is usually 4 inches on a thin base, and once frost has lifted the apron and the panels have settled unevenly, patching just moves the problem. We remove it, compact a class 5 base, pour 5 inches, cut joints on a grid, and pitch it away from the garage so meltwater stops running under the door.
Nearby
We also work in Winsted, Dassel, Cokato and Litchfield. All the towns we cover.