Concrete contractor in Milpitas, CA - slabs laid out to drain away from your house

Your figure comes from the estimate after I measure, because the biggest swings on a driveway here are things only a site visit shows. Tearing out and hauling off the old slab, digging past soft dirt to firm ground, adding rebar and choosing a broom finish, the rough texture that gives tires and shoes grip, or a stamped one each show up as separate lines. That way you can see exactly what a cheaper option would leave out.

Ask the city's Office of Building Safety, which handles permits, plan review and inspections in Milpitas, and keep in mind the permit has to be issued before any work starts. The city's list of work that needs no permit covers finish work like paint, tile and counters, and it doesn't settle every driveway or patio, so we confirm which office covers your address before we begin. When a permit is needed, we take care of the application and the inspections and keep you posted.

Under the residential code the city follows, a retaining wall no more than 4 feet tall, measured from the bottom of the footing to the top of the wall, needs no building permit unless it holds back an added load, like a slope or a driveway above it. A taller wall, or one with that kind of load behind it, isn't on the exempt list, so plan on a permit. Those are also the walls where the footing and the drainage behind them matter most.

You can apply yourself, because the city lets a property owner get permits for any work done on their property. A licensed contractor working as your authorized agent can also get permits for the work their license covers. That's how we handle it, so the application and inspections stay with the crew doing the work.

Yes, the state licensing board requires a state-licensed contractor for any construction job worth $1,000 or more in labor and materials, and splitting a job into smaller pieces to stay under that line is illegal. If the work needs a permit or brings in workers, a license is required whatever the job costs. Milpitas also issues its own business license and may ask a contractor for proof of the state license first. We're licensed and fully insured.

Work inside the mapped flood zone falls under both federal and city floodplain rules. If improvements to a house cost 49 percent or more of its market value before the work started, the house has to meet the same flood construction rules as a new building, and the city counts improvements together over 10 years, so several smaller jobs can add up. That mostly matters for additions and foundation work, and we check where your address sits before we plan it.