Concrete sidewalk building in La Palma CA - a walk built for what crosses it

Most people call when the old walk has cracked, lifted at a joint so it catches a toe, or holds a puddle by the front door after the sprinklers run. The price moves with the size of the walk, whether the old concrete has to come out, how thick it needs to be, whether it gets steel inside and any finish beyond a plain broom texture, while the schedule turns on the cure time and, when the walk meets the public sidewalk, the city's inspection. I come out, measure it and hand you the estimate in writing, so you know the number and the plan before anything gets poured, and if the walk ends at a porch, we can rebuild the concrete steps in the same job.

We start by asking what will really cross the walk, because a path for feet and a walk a car rolls over now and then need different builds. Then we mark the line and check where the water runs, so the finished walk falls away from your house instead of toward it. Our crew digs out to firm ground and packs the subgrade, the layer the slab sits on, because a base that's only raked level settles with the dirt and takes the concrete down with it. We set the forms and lay rebar or mesh where the walk needs it, since the steel holds the slab together if it does crack. After the pour we give it a broom finish, a light texture that gives your shoes grip when it's wet, and cut control joints, grooves that give the concrete a straight place to crack instead of a random one. Then we protect it while it cures, the stretch of days it needs to harden before it takes weight, and clean up before we leave. If the budget gets tight, I'll tell you to save on the finish and keep the base, because you can dress up a surface later, but a bad base means tearing the whole walk out.

A new walk often runs past other concrete that's tired too. If the walk leads to a garage with a cracked or sunken slab, we also pour garage floor concrete, and if you want the walk to look like more than plain gray, our decorative concrete work adds color, borders or a pattern.

If any part of your job reaches into the public right of way, the strip along the street that belongs to the city, the City of La Palma requires an Encroachment/Excavation Permit before work starts there, and you can see the process on the city's Public Works permits page. The city takes those applications online only, inspects all permitted work and has an inspector watch the concrete go in, with the inspection called in 24 hours before work begins. Permitted work runs 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, with no work on Sundays or federal holidays, and Friday or Saturday work needs 48 hours' notice to the inspector. So when your walk ties into the public sidewalk, we set our schedule around the inspector, and we handle the application, book the inspections and tell you ahead of time if you need to be home for one.

Most walks we replace around here run from the driveway to the front door or down the side yard to a gate, and plenty of them were poured thin or have joints that opened up over the years. We see the same kinds of walks on jobs in Cypress and Buena Park, since we're based in La Palma and work in the cities around it and plenty of others nearby.