Concrete Contractor in San Dimas - Driveways and Walls Built for Sloped Lots

Toward the foothills, many San Dimas homes sit on sloped ground, so the driveway climbs from the street and the backyard steps down in terraces held by low walls. On a slope, water decides where concrete fails, so before we set forms I look at where it runs off the roof and down the yard, and we pitch the new slab away from the house. Where an old wall is leaning or a terrace has slumped, I'd rather rebuild the wall and the drainage behind it first than pour a new patio against ground that's still moving.

On the flatter streets, much of the concrete we're asked to replace has cracked, dropped at the joints or lifted over tree roots after many years of use. We break it out, dig past the loose dirt to firm subgrade, the ground the slab actually sits on, and pack a new base, because a slab poured over loose fill settles right along with it.

In San Dimas, building permits come from the Building & Safety Counter at City Hall, and the city typically requires one for any home improvement, repair or new construction, so the permit and its inspections often set the start date more than our calendar does. Either you or a licensed contractor can pull it, and a contractor has to show a current state contractor's license, a current San Dimas business license and proof of workers' compensation insurance. Before you hire anyone, please check the state license with the Contractors State License Board and ask to see the city business license. We're fully licensed and insured, we check with the city on every job, and where a permit is needed we handle the application and set up the inspections.

What moves the price here is mostly what's under and around the slab, such as how much old concrete comes out, how much base work the ground needs, how steep the lot is and whether a wall or steps come with it, and the written estimate I leave you puts a figure on your job. The schedule also turns on curing, the days the concrete needs to harden before you use it. On the narrower streets up in the hills, we plan where the concrete truck can park and protect the curb and your neighbors' driveways, because a pour day affects the whole street. We do this same work in Claremont and Glendora, and our home base in La Verne is only a few minutes away.

San Dimas is mostly a city of single-family homes, and on our jobs here they tend to fall into two kinds. On the flatter streets, many are older single-story houses with their original driveways, patios and walks, and up the slopes toward the foothills the homes are often newer and larger, some on wide lots with room for a trailer, a workshop or horses. Nearly all of them are lived in every day, so we keep the work area tidy and the street clear for the neighbors.

We work here much as we do in La Verne and Pomona, but the ground shapes more of the job in San Dimas. A driveway that climbs, a patio on a terrace or a wall behind a hillside lot asks for more digging, more base and more thought about where the water goes than the same slab on flat ground.