Questions & answers
The questions we get asked before, during and after a pour
No sales answers. Where the honest answer is “it depends,” we say what it depends on, and where a number is a rule of thumb rather than a promise, we say that too.
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Before the job
Quoting and scheduling
Scope, paperwork and dates. Further down: on the job, then after the pour.
What do you need from me to put a number together?
Drawings if you have them — foundation plan, slab details, structural notes and any spec section covering concrete. With no drawings, dimensions and a few photos of the site get us most of the way there. Past that we need three things: what goes on top of the concrete, how a ready-mix truck or a pump can reach it, and the date you need it done. Anything still unknown gets priced as a listed assumption, so you can see exactly what we assumed.
Do you do the excavation and grading, or just the concrete?
Both, depending on the job. On residential and smaller commercial work we usually dig the footings, cut the pad and prep the subgrade ourselves. On larger sites the site contractor brings the pad to a stated elevation and we take it from there — proof-rolled, compacted and within tolerance. Either way the quote states in writing where your scope stops and ours starts, because that line is where most concrete disputes begin.
Do you handle permits, engineering and testing?
We build to the engineer’s drawings; we don’t stamp them. A designed footing, a retaining wall or a slab carrying a rated load has to come from a licensed engineer — yours, or one you retain directly. We pull the permits that belong to our scope and call in the inspections tied to our work. Independent testing (cylinders, slump, air content, compaction) is normally the owner’s separate contract; we schedule around the tester and keep the mix tickets.
How far out are you booking?
It moves with the season and the weather. Right now the schedule is running roughly 2–4 weeks out for flatwork and 3–5 weeks for foundation work, but ask when you call and you’ll get a real date rather than a hopeful one. Two things shorten the wait: signing the quote early enough to hold a slot, and having the site genuinely ready on the day — the second is the far more common holdup.
Do you work as a sub to a general contractor, or direct for owners?
Both. For general contractors we run as a concrete sub: insurance certificates and W-9 up front, our schedule tied into yours, pay applications and lien waivers in the format you need. For owners, builders and homeowners we hold the contract directly and coordinate the excavator, the plumber’s under-slab rough-in and the pump ourselves. The concrete work is identical; what changes is the paperwork and who we take direction from.
Pour day
On the job
Weather, subgrade, access and the decisions that get made with trucks on the way.
What happens if it rains on pour day?
We make the call the afternoon before wherever the forecast allows, because canceling trucks at 6 a.m. costs everybody. Light rain on a slab already broomed and covered is survivable. Rain during placement or finishing is not — water worked into a fresh surface weakens the top layer, and you see it months later as dusting or scaling. If it is marginal, we say so and move the pour. A slab you will walk on for thirty years is not worth saving a day.
Can you pour in cold weather? What about hot weather?
Both, with precautions that sometimes carry a cost. Cold: the subgrade and forms have to be free of frost, the mix may need warm water or an accelerator, and the concrete has to be protected with blankets or heat while it gains strength — unprotected concrete below about 40°F gains almost none. Hot, dry and windy is the harder problem: plastic shrinkage cracks form when the surface dries faster than the slab can bleed, so we start early, use an evaporation retarder and cure immediately.
Who is responsible if the subgrade fails inspection?
Whoever built it — which is exactly why we walk and proof-roll the grade before any steel goes down, rather than finding the soft spot with trucks already on the road. If the grading was ours, correcting it is ours. If the site contractor left it soft, wet or below grade, we stop, document it with photos and elevations, and get it fixed before we place. Undercutting and re-compacting is cheap. A slab that settles later is not.
What are control joints, and why is my slab cut into squares?
Concrete shrinks as it dries, and it is far weaker in tension than in compression, so a slab restrained by friction, footings and walls relieves that stress by cracking. A control joint is a saw cut that creates a deliberate weak plane, so the crack forms straight and low where nobody sees it. Depth depends on the saw: about a quarter of the slab depth with a conventional wet or dry saw, roughly an inch with an early-entry saw that goes in within hours of finishing. Panels are laid out near square and sized to the thickness. Cut late, and the slab picks its own line.
What do you need from the site on pour day?
A clear route for a loaded ready-mix truck, or firm level ground for a pump to set outriggers down clear of overhead lines. A legal place to wash out. Water, and power if the work is decorative. Everything that goes under or through the concrete — plumbing, conduit, sleeves, embeds, anchor bolts — set and inspected the day before, not the morning of. And vehicles, dumpsters and stored material moved off the pour.
Once it’s down
After the pour
Curing, cracking, warranty and keeping a finished surface looking the way it did the week it went in.
How long before I can walk on it, drive on it, build on it?
Rules of thumb, not promises — mix, thickness and weather move all of them. Foot traffic is usually fine at 24 to 48 hours, once the surface no longer marks. Cars and light vehicles: about seven days. Loaded trucks, forklifts and equipment should wait for design strength, which most mixes are built to reach at 28 days. Framing on a foundation starts sooner. If the schedule cannot wait, we cast extra cylinders and break a set early, so the call runs on a number.
Why did my slab crack, and is that a defect?
Fine hairline cracking is normal, not a defect. Concrete shrinks about a sixteenth of an inch every ten feet as it dries, and that movement has to go somewhere. What matters is where the crack runs, how wide it is, and whether it is still moving. A crack that follows the joints is the system working. One that is wide, offset in height, or still growing points at a cause: soft subgrade, a re-entrant corner with no joint, panels cut too late, or water added at the truck.
Do you offer a warranty?
Yes — and the terms live in the contract rather than on a web page, so ask for the warranty language with your quote and read that, not this. As a guide, workmanship cover of about a year from substantial completion is normal in this trade, on our labor and our materials. What no contractor can honestly warrant is hairline shrinkage cracking, movement caused by soils or by work others performed, or surface damage from de-icing salt. Ask for the warranty language along with the quote and read it before you sign — ours is short on purpose.
How should I maintain decorative or sealed concrete?
Keep it clean and keep it sealed. Rinse it, sweep the grit off, and don’t leave leaf litter, fertilizer or rusting metal sitting on it to stain. Sealer is a wear layer, not a permanent coating: a stamped patio or drive typically wants re-coating every couple of years, sooner in full sun or heavy traffic. Never use de-icing salt, and keep it off entirely through the first winter — sand gives traction without attacking the surface. Plastic shovels, not steel blades.
Start your project
Send us the plans. We’ll send back a number you can build to.
Takeoffs, budget pricing, and scheduling for commercial, industrial and residential concrete. Tell us the scope and the date you need to be out of the ground — we’ll tell you honestly whether we’re the right crew for it.