Concrete driveway building in Monrovia CA - a slab that drains toward the street

Most people call us when the old drive has cracked through, sunk at one end or holds a puddle every time it rains. The price mostly turns on the size of the drive, how much old concrete we break out and haul away, how thick the slab needs to be for what you park, how much digging and base the ground needs, and whether the work reaches the curb. The schedule turns on that same street question, since the city may need to sign off first, and on the cure after the pour. Your estimate puts all of it in writing, removal and hauling included, so you know exactly what the price covers.

We start by asking what you park and where you want the water to go, because that sets the thickness and which way the slab falls. Then we break out the old concrete, dig down to firm subgrade, the ground the new slab sits on, and pack a base over it instead of raking loose dirt level, because a slab on unpacked dirt settles right along with it. We set the forms so the slab slopes away from the house and garage, lay rebar, steel bars that hold the slab together if it does crack, and pour early in the day when we can, since concrete that bakes in midday heat can end up with a weak, dusty top. Once it's floated smooth we pull a broom across it, and that light texture gives tires and shoes some grip when it's wet. Control joints are grooves we cut so the slab cracks along a straight line we picked, and we cut them before the concrete has a chance to crack on its own, then set joints where the drive meets the garage and the walk. After that the concrete cures, which just means it sits and gains strength before anyone drives on it. If the budget's tight, cut the finish, not the base. Nobody sees the base on day one, but it decides whether your drive stays flat.

A new drive is a good time to pour the slabs that tie into it. If you've wanted a concrete patio off the side of the house, we can form it while the old concrete is already coming out, and if you'd like the drive or its borders to look like stone or brick, stamped concrete presses that pattern into the top before it sets.

If your new drive reaches the street, the City of Monrovia has a say in it. The city issues the permit for building or rebuilding a driveway in a city street, curb cut clearance comes from its Public Works Department, and the city caps how many curb cuts a house can have. Applications are reviewed in the order they come in and can take up to two weeks, so we start on the city side early to keep the pour date. For street work under the city's encroachment permit, the city asks for a contractor holding a state Class A General Engineering license, and says a C12 Earthwork and Paving license is typically needed otherwise for digging and paving, so we sort out who pulls the permit and have it in hand before work starts. Whether the part of the drive on your own lot needs a permit is a question for the city's Building Services at (626) 932-5581, and we check with them before we set a date.

We're based in Monrovia and work across the San Gabriel Valley, and plenty of the drives we replace run back to a detached garage with the low spot right at the garage door, or were poured on raked dirt that's since dropped. We dig those out and set the fall toward the street, and we run into the same long, narrow drives on jobs in Pasadena and Sierra Madre.