diff --git a/stdlib/SparseArrays/src/sparsematrix.jl b/stdlib/SparseArrays/src/sparsematrix.jl
index 41d0414b662ea..bcc518f527f63 100644
--- a/stdlib/SparseArrays/src/sparsematrix.jl
+++ b/stdlib/SparseArrays/src/sparsematrix.jl
@@ -2073,7 +2073,7 @@ function _findr(op, A, region, Tv)
             throw(ArgumentError("array slices must be non-empty"))
         else
             ri = Base.reduced_indices0(A, region)
-            return (similar(A, ri), zeros(Ti, ri))
+            return (zeros(Tv, ri), zeros(Ti, ri))
         end
     end
 
@@ -3303,6 +3303,10 @@ dropstored!(A::AbstractSparseMatrixCSC, ::Colon) = dropstored!(A, :, :)
 
 # Sparse concatenation
 
+promote_idxtype(::AbstractSparseMatrixCSC{<:Any, Ti}) where {Ti} = Ti
+promote_idxtype(::AbstractSparseMatrixCSC{<:Any, Ti}, X::AbstractSparseMatrixCSC...) where {Ti} =
+    promote_type(Ti, promote_idxtype(X...))
+
 function vcat(X::AbstractSparseMatrixCSC...)
     num = length(X)
     mX = Int[ size(x, 1) for x in X ]
@@ -3317,7 +3321,7 @@ function vcat(X::AbstractSparseMatrixCSC...)
     end
 
     Tv = promote_eltype(X...)
-    Ti = promote_eltype(map(x->rowvals(x), X)...)
+    Ti = promote_idxtype(X...)
 
     nnzX = Int[ nnz(x) for x in X ]
     nnz_res = sum(nnzX)
@@ -3369,7 +3373,7 @@ function hcat(X::AbstractSparseMatrixCSC...)
     n = sum(nX)
 
     Tv = promote_eltype(X...)
-    Ti = promote_eltype(map(x->rowvals(x), X)...)
+    Ti = promote_idxtype(X...)
 
     colptr = Vector{Ti}(undef, n+1)
     nnzX = Int[ nnz(x) for x in X ]
diff --git a/stdlib/SparseArrays/src/sparsevector.jl b/stdlib/SparseArrays/src/sparsevector.jl
index eecda6d72add8..d8745ae21e12d 100644
--- a/stdlib/SparseArrays/src/sparsevector.jl
+++ b/stdlib/SparseArrays/src/sparsevector.jl
@@ -1101,17 +1101,22 @@ function vcat(Xin::_SparseConcatGroup...)
     X = map(x -> SparseMatrixCSC(issparse(x) ? x : sparse(x)), Xin)
     vcat(X...)
 end
-function hvcat(rows::Tuple{Vararg{Int}}, X::_SparseConcatGroup...)
-    nbr = length(rows)  # number of block rows
-
-    tmp_rows = Vector{SparseMatrixCSC}(undef, nbr)
-    k = 0
-    @inbounds for i = 1 : nbr
-        tmp_rows[i] = hcat(X[(1 : rows[i]) .+ k]...)
-        k += rows[i]
-    end
-    vcat(tmp_rows...)
-end
+hvcat(rows::Tuple{Vararg{Int}}, X::_SparseConcatGroup...) =
+    vcat(_hvcat_rows(rows, X...)...)
+function _hvcat_rows((row1, rows...)::Tuple{Vararg{Int}}, X::_SparseConcatGroup...)
+    if row1 ≤ 0
+        throw(ArgumentError("length of block row must be positive, got $row1"))
+    end
+    # assert `X` is non-empty so that inference of `eltype` won't include `Type{Union{}}`
+    T = eltype(X::Tuple{Any,Vararg{Any}})
+    # inference of `getindex` may be imprecise in case `row1` is not const-propagated up
+    # to here, so help inference with the following type-assertions
+    return (
+        hcat(X[1 : row1]::Tuple{typeof(X[1]),Vararg{T}}...),
+        _hvcat_rows(rows, X[row1+1:end]::Tuple{Vararg{T}}...)...
+    )
+end
+_hvcat_rows(::Tuple{}, X::_SparseConcatGroup...) = ()
 
 # make sure UniformScaling objects are converted to sparse matrices for concatenation
 promote_to_array_type(A::Tuple{Vararg{Union{_SparseConcatGroup,UniformScaling}}}) = SparseMatrixCSC
diff --git a/stdlib/SparseArrays/test/sparse.jl b/stdlib/SparseArrays/test/sparse.jl
index 96630b4be0b8c..2e07f42182a5e 100644
--- a/stdlib/SparseArrays/test/sparse.jl
+++ b/stdlib/SparseArrays/test/sparse.jl
@@ -184,7 +184,7 @@ end
     sz34 = spzeros(3, 4)
     se77 = sparse(1.0I, 7, 7)
     @testset "h+v concatenation" begin
-        @test [se44 sz42 sz41; sz34 se33] == se77
+        @test @inferred(hvcat((3, 2), se44, sz42, sz41, sz34, se33)) == se77 # [se44 sz42 sz41; sz34 se33]
         @test length(nonzeros([sp33 0I; 1I 0I])) == 6
     end
 
@@ -1355,10 +1355,10 @@ end
 @testset "argmax, argmin, findmax, findmin" begin
     S = sprand(100,80, 0.5)
     A = Array(S)
-    @test argmax(S) == argmax(A)
-    @test argmin(S) == argmin(A)
-    @test findmin(S) == findmin(A)
-    @test findmax(S) == findmax(A)
+    @test @inferred(argmax(S)) == argmax(A)
+    @test @inferred(argmin(S)) == argmin(A)
+    @test @inferred(findmin(S)) == findmin(A)
+    @test @inferred(findmax(S)) == findmax(A)
     for region in [(1,), (2,), (1,2)], m in [findmax, findmin]
         @test m(S, dims=region) == m(A, dims=region)
     end
@@ -2224,7 +2224,7 @@ end
     # Test that concatenations of pairs of sparse matrices yield sparse arrays
     @test issparse(vcat(spmat, spmat))
     @test issparse(hcat(spmat, spmat))
-    @test issparse(hvcat((2,), spmat, spmat))
+    @test issparse(@inferred(hvcat((2,), spmat, spmat)))
     @test issparse(cat(spmat, spmat; dims=(1,2)))
     # Test that concatenations of a sparse matrice with a dense matrix/vector yield sparse arrays
     @test issparse(vcat(spmat, densemat))