Concrete contractor in Hayward - driveways and patios built to drain away from the house

A lot of what we see in Hayward is driveways and patios as old as the house, cracked into pieces with one corner sunk and a puddle by the garage after every rain. Usually the old slab went in without much thought for where the water goes, so it either drains toward the house or lets water run underneath and wash out the subgrade, the dirt the slab sits on. Before we form anything, I walk the yard and look at where the roof, the lawn and the neighbor's lot send their water, then set the new slab to fall away from the house and off the property. Back on the farm we learned that a feed pad holding water turns to mud around the edges, and a driveway's no different.

Hayward also sits close to the Hayward fault, and up in the hills plenty of yards are cut into slopes. That's why walls, steps and foundations here get footings dug down to firm ground and rebar, the steel tied inside the concrete, so the work has something holding it together when the slope pushes or the ground shifts.

Permits in Hayward go through the city's Permit Center, so before we break ground I check with them on your job rather than guess, and when it needs a permit we pull it as your contractor and handle the paperwork and inspection calls for our part. That puts the permit ahead of the dig on your calendar. Two things you can check on any contractor here are a California contractor license from the state licensing board and a Hayward business license, which the city requires of every business working inside city limits, even one based in Orinda like us. We're licensed and fully insured, and our work is backed by our satisfaction guarantee. The price mostly moves with the size of the job, the tear-out and hauling, how deep the base has to go and how close the truck can get, while the schedule turns on the permit, utility marking, a dry day to pour and the curing wait, the days concrete needs to harden before it takes weight. Your written estimate spells out what's included for your job.

Hayward is a regular drive for us from Orinda, the same as Oakland and up north to Richmond. What matters more than the drive is your street. On the hillside streets a concrete truck often can't back up to the forms, so we pump the concrete or wheel it in, and on the flat blocks toward the bay we look at where the curb and gutter sit so your driveway sends water into the street instead of back at the garage.

Hayward runs from flat neighborhoods toward the bay up into the hills on the east side, and our jobs change with that. Down on the flatter blocks it's mostly single-story houses from the postwar years with long driveways, side walks and backyard patios, a lot of them still on their first slab. That's flatwork, the driveways, walks and patios that lie flat on the ground, and it's most of what we pour here. Up the hill, lots get tighter and steeper, with stepped driveways, retaining walls and stairs up to the front door, and along the busier roads there's a mix of shops and small commercial lots between the houses.

We see a lot of the same in San Leandro next door. On the flat lots the job is mostly about getting the base right and the water moving off, and on the slopes it's about holding the ground back and getting concrete to the forms.