Concrete contractor in Arcadia, CA - driveways and foundations built on a solid base

Most of the Arcadia driveways and patios we're called about have cracked, sunk at a corner or started pooling water by the garage. Once we break them out, the cause is usually underneath, a base that was raked flat instead of dug out and packed, so the slab settled right along with the dirt. That's why I'd rather put your money into the subgrade, the packed ground the slab sits on, than into a fancy finish, because the base is hidden on day one and it's the first thing that gets cut when a budget is tight. We dig it out and pack it in layers, then slope the new slab so water runs away from your house. Where the job needs it we add rebar, steel bars inside the slab that keep a crack from spreading apart.

If you're thinking about widening the driveway or paving more of the front yard, the city's zoning rules apply to front yard paving whether or not the job needs a permit. We check the plan against them before we form anything, because tearing out new concrete is an expensive way to learn a rule.

Building permits here come from the city's Building Services Division, and it issues them once the plans are approved, so on a job that needs one, the schedule starts with that approval and not with the pour. State law lets a licensed contractor or the property owner pull the permit, and a contractor applying has to show a current state contractor's license, an Arcadia business license and a workers' comp certificate, so those are fair things to ask any bidder about. The state licensing board is the one that licenses contractors in California, and we're fully licensed and insured. When your job needs a permit, we pull it and line up the inspections, and work off your lot, past the property line, goes through the city's Engineering Division instead. The price moves with the size and thickness of the slab, how much old concrete comes out and how much base work the ground needs, and the schedule moves with the permit, any reports and the curing wait, all of which your written estimate spells out.

Arcadia sits right above our home base in El Monte, so our crew can be on site early on a pour day, which matters because the concrete truck runs on its own clock and the finishing has to keep up with it. On the residential streets here we plan where the mixer parks and how the concrete gets to the back of a deep lot, by chute, wheelbarrow or pump, since that choice moves both the price and the day. It's the same planning we do on jobs down in Rosemead and the other cities around us.

Arcadia is mostly single-family homes on quiet residential streets, with shops and offices along the main roads. Older ranch houses sit next to big newer homes, so the calls we get here run from replacing one tired driveway to pouring the foundation for a whole new house. Lots tend to be deep, with mature trees and a lot of yard between the street and the back fence.

Many houses here have a driveway that runs the length of the lot to a garage in back, much like in nearby Temple City. That's a long stretch of concrete, and on a lot this size the job is usually won or lost in the base under it, not in the finish on top.