Concrete contractor in Milpitas, CA - slabs that drain right and stay put

It might, and the city's Office of Building Safety is the place to ask, because its list of permit-free work names things like painting and tiling, not driveways or patios. If a permit is needed, it has to be issued before any work starts, so ask early.

Yes, a property owner can get permits for any work, and a licensed contractor acting as your agent can get them for the work their license covers. If you'd rather not, we pull it and set up the inspections, and work that reaches the sidewalk or street we plan with the city's public works office from the start.

Yes, for any job worth $1,000 or more in labor, materials or both, the state licensing board says it must be done by a state-licensed contractor. Splitting a job to stay under that is illegal, and work that needs a permit or workers needs a license at any price. We're licensed and fully insured.

It can, because about a quarter of Milpitas sits in a mapped FEMA flood zone, and building, re-grading or placing fill there falls under flood rules. Your own lot may or may not be in it, so the city says to check with its Land Development Engineering Division first, and we'd rather know before we haul in base.

The price comes down to the size, how much concrete comes out and how much the base needs digging out and packing, so your number comes from the estimate. Stamping or color raises it and a broom finish keeps it lower, but the base is the last place I'd cut, because a nice top on soft dirt settles right along with it.

Some cracking is normal in concrete, so the job is deciding where it goes, and we cut control joints, shallow grooves that give a crack a straight line to follow. The rest is a packed subgrade, the ground the slab sits on, and keeping cars off while it cures and gains strength. That wait, plus any permit, is what sets your schedule.