Concrete patio construction in El Monte CA - a slab that sheds water and grips underfoot

Most people who call me about a patio have a cracked slab out back or a patch of dirt they're tired of tracking into the house. The price moves with the size of the patio, how much digging and base work your yard needs, how easy it is to get concrete to the back, and the finish you pick, plus anything that ties in, like concrete steps down from the back door. The schedule turns on whether the city wants a permit for your plan, the weather around pour day and the days the slab needs to cure before you set furniture on it. Your written estimate spells out what your price covers and what it doesn't.

I start by walking the yard with you and going over finishes, and for most yards I point people to a broom finish, the light texture you get by dragging a stiff broom across the wet surface, because it grips and it's forgiving. Then our crew digs out the patio area and packs the fill and any ground we disturbed, because the subgrade, the ground the slab rests on, has to hold it evenly or the slab bends and cracks. We set the forms and pour, and in summer we pour in the cooler part of the day so the heat doesn't rush the surface. After finishing we cut control joints, shallow grooves that give the slab a straight place to crack instead of a random one, and we keep the slab covered while it cures, the slow hardening that gives concrete its strength. If the budget gets tight, I'll tell you to cut the fancy finish before you cut the base, because nobody sees the base on day one and there's no going back to fix it once there's concrete on top.

A patio rarely stands alone. If you want the look of stone or brick, we also do stamped concrete on patios, and if you need a path from the driveway or side gate, we can pour a concrete sidewalk at the same time so the two meet cleanly.

Whether your patio needs a permit is the city's call, so the place to ask is the El Monte Building Department, which handles plan review, permits and inspections, and its counter staff tell you what other approvals apply. When the job needs a permit, we pull it and line up the inspections, and to get it the city has the contractor show a contractor license, a City of El Monte business license and proof of liability and workers' comp insurance naming the city. If the city wants reports or an engineer's plans first, we tell you at the start and help you get them. And if a big tree stands where the patio would go, check before anything else, because removing a protected tree in El Monte takes the city's review and approval.

Size is usually less of a squeeze than people expect, because El Monte's zoning code doesn't count a patio that's at least half open to the sky toward lot coverage, the share of your lot under roofed structures. Most backyards we see here have older slabs poured in pieces over the years, and we run into the same patchwork on jobs in Rosemead and Temple City.