Concrete contractor in Pleasanton, CA - slabs laid out right before the pour

A Pleasanton driveway is priced on its size and thickness, how much old concrete has to come out, the digging and base your ground needs, and the finish you pick. A plain broom finish, a light texture dragged across the surface for grip, costs less than stamped or colored concrete, and a spot the truck can't reach adds pumping or extra hand work. I measure on site and write the estimate line by line, so you can see what each part costs before you decide.

Check with the city before any digging starts, because Pleasanton's guidance says all development in the city requires a permit, and its list of permit-free work names things like small sheds and fences, not concrete flatwork such as driveways, patios and walks. Before we start, we confirm which office covers your address, and when a permit is needed we take care of the application and the inspections and keep you posted.

Call the city's Building Inspection Division at (925) 931-5300, or the Planning Division at (925) 931-5600, before you alter, fill, regrade or build on your property, an easement or the public right-of-way. Even when a building permit isn't required, the city notes a planning or zoning permit may be, and a dumpster on the street for a tear-out takes an encroachment permit for the right-of-way.

Yes in most cases, because the state licensing board requires a license whenever the project needs a building permit, uses any other workers, or costs $1,000 or more in labor and materials. A job under that amount is exempt only if it also needs no permit, uses no employees and isn't advertised as licensed work, and a crew pouring a slab doesn't fit that. The City of Pleasanton separately requires anyone doing business in the city to hold a city business license, including contractors based elsewhere. We're licensed and fully insured.

You can usually walk on a new driveway well before you can drive on it, because curing, the slow hardening after the pour, keeps building strength for days, and a car on a young slab can crack it. I'll tell you the walk and drive waits for your slab before we pour, since the thickness, the mix and that week's weather all shift them. On hot days we pour early, because a slab finished in midday heat can dry out weak and dusty on top.

Concrete shrinks as it dries and moves a little with the ground, so most slabs crack somewhere, and a new patio can too. What we control is where the cracks go and how wide they get. We cut control joints, shallow grooves that give the slab a straight place to crack, before the concrete gets too hard, add rebar, steel bars that hold the pieces together, where the slab calls for it, and pour on a packed base. Many of the old patios we break out cracked in random places because the joints were cut late or skipped.