Foundation installation in La Palma CA - a slab poured on solid, well-packed ground

Maybe you're adding on, building a garage or putting up a new house, and you want the base under it done once and done right. If your house is already up and settling, that's a different job called foundation raising. The price of a new foundation moves with its size, the slab type, how much digging and packing the ground needs, the plans the city wants to see and how easily a concrete truck can reach the spot. The schedule mostly turns on the city's plan check and inspections, the weather and the time the concrete needs to cure. I'll come out, look at your lot and give you your number in writing.

I start by walking the lot with your plans, because the footprint, the soil and where the water runs all shape the slab before any concrete shows up. Then our crew digs out to firm ground and packs the subgrade, the soil the slab sits on, since a base that's only raked level settles with the dirt and takes the foundation with it. That base is the part nobody sees once we pour, and it's the first thing people want to trim from a budget. I'd rather spend on the ground under your house than on anything you'll see on top. Once the base is packed, we set the forms and the rebar, the steel that holds the concrete together when the ground pulls at it, then pour early in the day, because midday heat dries the top too fast and leaves it weak. After that comes curing, the care concrete gets while it hardens, and we take it seriously because proper curing makes a foundation stronger, more durable and more watertight. I'll tell you before the pour exactly how we'll care for your slab while it hardens.

Most foundation jobs come with work around them. An addition, a garage or a wall often sits on concrete footings, the deeper strips of concrete that carry weight down into firmer soil, and we pour those with the same care. For property owners putting up a building, we can also handle concrete parking lot building once the foundation is in, so one crew knows how the grades meet.

Before we pour a foundation in La Palma, the plans go through the city. The city's Building & Safety Division does the plan check, issues the permit and inspects the work, and almost all improvement plans need plan check before a permit is issued, so I plan on it for every new foundation. The city takes applications and handles inspections online through OpenGov, with help at 714-690-3340 if you're applying yourself, but when a job needs a permit we handle the application, book the city inspections and tell you ahead of time if you need to be home for one. Some lots also sit in areas the state maps for liquefaction, where soil can lose strength and act like a liquid in a strong earthquake. A property in one of those zones may need to study and reduce that hazard during permitting, so it's worth finding out early whether yours is one.

We're based in La Palma and work in the cities around it, and soil can change from one lot to the next, so I look at the ground on every job instead of assuming. Foundations we pour in Cypress and Buena Park get the same walk-through, the same packed base and the same talk about slab type before we set a form.