Concrete cutting in La Verne, CA - clean openings, scanned before the saw starts

Most calls come in when a bigger project is already underway, such as a new doorway in a garage wall, a drain line that has to pass through the slab, or a cracked section of garage floor that needs to come out without disturbing the rest. The price moves with how thick the concrete is, how many feet of cut there are, whether it's a floor or a wall, how much steel sits inside and how easy the spot is to reach. The schedule turns less on the sawing than on what has to happen before it, such as the scan, an engineer's approval for a structural opening and, near the street, the city's permit. The written estimate I leave after my visit gives you the figure for your own job.

Before any saw touches the concrete, we scan for steel and buried lines and mark what we find, because hitting rebar, the steel rods that hold a slab together, or a live wire is a mistake you can't take back. If the cut is structural, it waits until the engineer approves it. Then we pick the tool for the spot, which is a walk-behind flat saw for slabs, a wall saw riding a track bolted to the wall for door and window openings, or a core drill for round holes. We keep the dust down while we work and collect the slurry, the gray water and grit the blade throws off, so none of it reaches a drain, and then we lift out the cut pieces, haul them away and clean up.

Cutting is often the first step of a larger job. We saw out a broken section cleanly before pouring a new concrete driveway, and we cut an old slab back to a straight edge when we extend or replace a concrete patio, so the new pour meets a clean face rather than a jagged one.

We check with the city on every job before we book the cut. When the work reaches the public right of way, such as a cut at the curb or in the public sidewalk, the City of La Verne Public Works Department issues an encroachment permit, and that permit covers right-of-way work only. Its conditions shape the day. Storm drain inlets have to be covered or bermed with sandbags before any sawcutting, the area is swept or vacuumed afterward, and Underground Alert has to be contacted at least two working days before work begins. Where a permit is needed, we handle the application, make that call and set up the inspections.

Around La Verne, many of our cutting calls are about older driveways and walks with a lifted or broken panel, and garages or back rooms being opened up during a remodel. We do the same work in San Dimas, Claremont and the other cities nearby, and each of those jobs starts the same way, with the scan.