Concrete Contractor in San Bernardino, CA

Thickness moves the figure before size does: each inch added to a 4-inch slab is another quarter of the concrete, and more base beneath it. After that it is how much old surface has to come out, how deep the loose ground runs, and the finish. All four are measured on a free on-site visit and written down.

Access. A back garden a mixer truck can reach is poured in a morning; one behind a 36-inch gate on an older downtown lot is barrowed, and that is labor before it is material. Slope is the other one, since a lot falling toward the house needs drainage designed in. Both are looked at on the visit.

4 inches under cars, and 5 to 6 inches where a truck, an RV or a loaded trailer parks - which in a freight town is more driveways than most. An inch short shows nothing for a year or two, then cracks under ordinary use, and no repair puts it back. The thickness is written on your estimate.

Almost every failure starts under the slab rather than in it. Compacted base spreads the wheel load and drains water off the underside; without it the concrete bridges soft spots until one gives way. On valley fill we dig deeper and compact in lifts, because compaction is only worth what the layer below can hold.

Because concrete shrinks as it cures and will crack somewhere - a sawn groove decides where. They go 2 to 3 feet apart for every inch of thickness, so a 4-inch slab is jointed at roughly 10 to 12 feet. Cut on the day, the crack lands in a line you chose instead of wandering across the surface.

It can, and which way depends where you stand. The valley floor is fine sand and silt with water close beneath it, and that settles under load. Northwest toward the Cajon wash it is cobble and gravel, draining well and hiding soft seams. The foothill lots carry more clay. We open the ground on the visit rather than read it off the street.

Late fall to early spring, when the afternoon stays under 90 degrees and the slab cures evenly. San Bernardino runs past 95 through July and August and clears 105 in a bad week. We pour through the summer anyway, starting before 8 AM and keeping the surface wet for the full seven days.

Yes, and more often than one on the coast. Concrete is porous, so oil off a parked truck and water both soak in and stain for good, and the ultraviolet load this far inland fades color and stamped work faster. Reseal every 2 to 3 years, sooner on a slab that takes full afternoon sun.

3 to 5 working days on site for most homes, plus the cure. On the older blocks the first two days are demolition and digging fill out, which is the part that varies; a tract lot in Verdemont reaches base faster. Foot traffic at 24 to 48 hours, cars at 7 days, anything heavy at 28.

Not usually, inside your own lot line - the city's own exempt list covers driveways and sidewalks not more than 30 inches above grade. It does not name patio slabs, so we ask rather than assume. The curb, the parkway and the driveway approach are right-of-way and need an encroachment permit; a retaining wall over 4 feet from the bottom of its footing needs a building permit from Building and Safety. We file them.

Every job carries a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built. That means the base, the thickness, the joints and the finish, with the terms printed on the estimate you sign. It does not cover staining, ordinary wear, or ground movement past what the joints are there to absorb - and a hairline that lands in a joint is the joint working.

You call or send the form, hear back within 1 business day, and the site visit falls inside the week with the written estimate handed over on the spot. Any permit adds the city review, which we build into the start date. Work runs 3 to 5 days and ends with the walk-through on the day the joints are cut. Cars go back on 7 days after the pour.