Concrete Contractor in Azusa - Driveways and Patios Built for Foothill Ground

Many Azusa lots climb toward the San Gabriel foothills, so the ground under a driveway or patio is often sloped, rocky in places and soft in others, and storm water runs across it on its way downhill. That water is usually what we find behind a cracked or sinking slab here, working under a thin base until the dirt gave way. We dig down to firm subgrade, the native ground the slab sits on, pack a proper base over it and check where the water will run before we set forms, so the new slab falls away from your house and not toward it. We also cut control joints, shallow grooves that give the concrete a straight place to crack as it shrinks, so the cracks concrete usually makes tend to land in the joints instead of across the middle of your driveway.

Parts of Azusa also sit in earthquake fault zones, and the city maps other areas as prone to liquefaction or landslides, where loose, wet soil can lose its strength or slide in a quake. If your lot is in one of those areas, I'd rather know before we plan footings, a foundation or a retaining wall than after, because ground that can move asks more of what sits under the concrete.

In Azusa, the city's Building Official issues building permits, and the city requires one whenever a structure is built, altered, repaired, moved or demolished, with a separate permit for each structure or grading project. I'll tell you at the estimate whether I expect your job to need one, and when it does, we handle the application and the inspections with the city, so the permit review comes before the pour and becomes part of the schedule. Before you hire anyone, two checks are worth a minute. The state licensing board requires a contractor's license when a job needs a permit, uses employees or comes to $1,000 or more in labor and materials, and the city requires a business license from every business working in Azusa, including contractors based in other cities. We're licensed and insured.

What moves the price on an Azusa job is mostly the ground. The size of the slab, how much old concrete we break out and haul away, how deep we dig to reach firm ground and how much grading and drainage a sloped lot needs usually count for more than the finish, though a plain broom finish, the light brushed texture that keeps a slab from getting slick, does cost less than stamped or colored work. The schedule turns on the permit if there is one, the weather on pour day and curing, the wait while the concrete gains strength before it can take foot traffic or a car. We're based next door in Glendora and work in Azusa alongside Covina and San Dimas, so getting a crew and a concrete truck to your street is routine for us.

Azusa runs from the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains down onto the valley floor, and the houses change as you go. In the older part of the city we see a lot of early and mid-century homes with narrow driveways, original walkways and front steps that have settled over the years, while the neighborhoods closer to the hills and the newer tracts tend to have wider driveways, sloped yards and more call for retaining walls. There's also a fair share of rental properties and small businesses, which bring us walkways and parking areas as well as home jobs.

Because Azusa sits right beside Glendora and not far from Citrus, the ground here is much like what we work on close to home, but the slope on many lots means more digging, more grading and more attention to where the water runs before any concrete goes in.