Concrete Parking Lot Building in Glendora CA - pavement that fits your traffic

Most owners who call me have one of two things: a lot that's cracked and settling, or a stretch of bare ground they'd like paved for customers or tenants. The price mostly turns on the size of the lot, how thick it has to be for the heaviest vehicles, how much ground work the site needs and the surface you choose. The schedule turns on that same ground work and on the wait for the concrete to harden before cars go back on it. If old asphalt or broken concrete has to come out first, our concrete cutting work is usually where the job starts, and I'll give you your own figures in a written estimate that lists what's included.

Before we price a lot, I ask which vehicles will use it and whether it serves the public. That way the pavement and the layout fit the traffic, with heavier lanes where trucks run. National concrete industry guidance suggests marking those truck lanes on the plans so the builder can use different thicknesses for different loads, and on a large lot that can save the owner a good deal of money. Next, our crew prepares the subgrade, which is the ground the slab sits on. We dig out the soft spots and pack the ground so the soil, the moisture and the firmness are the same across the whole lot, because concrete settles unevenly over ground that isn't. After that we set the forms and pour. We give the surface a broom finish, a light ridged texture that helps tires and shoes grip. Then we cure the concrete, keeping it damp and protected while it gains strength, which the same guidance calls a very important step for a pavement that lasts. If a budget has to be trimmed, I'd much rather keep the money in the base than in a fancier surface, because nobody sees the base on the first day but it decides how the lot holds up for years.

A parking lot often comes with other concrete work around it. Lamp posts, signs, carports and low walls usually sit on concrete footings, and we can pour those as part of the same job. If a building beside the lot has settled and its entrance no longer lines up with the new pavement, foundation raising can bring it back up before we set the finished grade.

If your lot serves a business that's open to the public, California's accessibility requirements in the state building code have to be considered when the lot is designed, built and later altered, and that includes the accessible parking. This isn't something to sort out after the pour, because a contractor who ignores an accessibility rule risks discipline from the state licensing board and civil liability. I plan those features into the layout at the estimate so they're priced in from the start.

Water is the other thing I look at on every lot here. The Los Angeles regional water board lists Glendora in the Upper San Gabriel River Watershed Group, and a wide slab sheds a lot of rain, so I check where the water will run before we set the grade and make sure it falls away from buildings. We're based in Glendora and work across the San Gabriel Valley and the Pomona area. We plan drainage the same way on lots in San Dimas and Covina, and in many cities that don't have their own page here.