Concrete contractor in San Leandro - new driveways and walks on solid ground

Most of San Leandro sits on flat ground running gently toward the bay, and a lot of the driveways and walks we see here were poured decades ago. On a flat lot the water doesn't have anywhere obvious to go, so it pools against the garage door or the back step, soaks under the slab and softens the dirt it sits on. Add a base that was raked level instead of dug out and packed, and you get the sinking panels and long cracks people call us about. Before we set a single form I look at where your water runs, then we dig down to firm subgrade, the ground the slab actually rests on, pack a base on top and give the new concrete enough fall to send rain toward the street or a drain instead of your house.

We see a lot of older raised-floor homes in San Leandro, and the city even offers owners a course on strengthening the ones that weren't built to modern earthquake standards. On those houses our work tends to be front steps, porch slabs and footings, so we check what the new concrete ties into, and when an engineer is involved we build from their plans.

Permits here go through the city's Permit Center, where the Building Official issues the permit to build, alter, repair or tear down a structure, so on permitted work the start date waits on the city's sign-off. When your job needs one, we pull it as your contractor, handle the paperwork and inspection calls for our part, and check with the Permit Center on your job before we start instead of guessing. The city issues building permits only to a California-licensed contractor or the property owner, and anyone doing business in San Leandro needs a city business license before starting, so both are fair things to ask whoever you hire. We're licensed and fully insured, and our work is backed by our satisfaction guarantee. Your price mostly moves with the size and thickness of the slab, how much old concrete comes out and gets hauled away, how much base the ground needs and the finish you pick, while the schedule turns on the permit, utility marking, the weather and curing, the stretch new concrete needs to harden before you walk or drive on it. I put all of that in a written estimate after walking your job.

We're a concrete contractor based in Orinda, over the hills, and we pour the same kinds of driveways and walks in Oakland to the north and Hayward to the south. San Leandro's edges run right up against unincorporated neighborhoods, so if you're not sure your address is inside the city, the city's building page has a lookup to check, because its permit and business rules apply only inside city limits. On residential streets lined with parked cars and street trees, I also plan where the concrete truck parks and how far the chute reaches before pour day, since that decides how we get concrete to the back of a narrow lot.

San Leandro is mostly settled neighborhoods of single-family houses between Oakland and Hayward, with shops and light industry along the main roads and flat ground running west to the shoreline and Marina Park. A lot of the houses are older, from small raised-floor homes with front steps to mid-century houses with attached garages, and many still have their original driveways and walks, a lot like the older blocks we work on in Alameda.

Old slabs on flat ground mean most of our jobs here start with breaking out what's there and seeing what it sat on, and that tells me how much base the new pour needs and where the water has to go.