Concrete contractor in Elk Grove - driveways and patios on a packed base

Yes, in most cases. The Contractors State License Board requires a license when a job needs a building permit, uses employee labor, or totals $1,000 or more in labor and materials, and a bigger job can't be split into smaller contracts to get under that line. We're fully licensed and insured.

Yes, if it's your main home and you meet the board's conditions. You have to do the work before you sell, have lived there for the 12 months prior to completion of the work, and have used that exemption on no more than two structures in any three-year period.

The city adopts the Building Code through its own buildings and construction rules, the same set that covers grading and erosion control. The state's list of local building amendments shows Elk Grove has filed its own changes, so I check what applies to your job rather than guess.

The price turns on the size, the thickness, the base work your ground needs and whether an old slab has to come out. A broom finish, the light texture that gives shoes and tires grip, costs less than stamped or colored concrete, and if the budget's tight I'd trim the finish before the base, because nobody can fix a base once it's poured over.

You'll walk on it well before you drive on it, because concrete keeps gaining strength while it cures, the wait while the slab is kept from drying out too fast. Driving on it early is how edges chip, so I'll give you the walking and driving days for your slab before we pour.

It may get hairline cracks, because concrete shrinks as it cures, and I'd rather tell you that now. We cut control joints, shallow grooves that give the slab a planned place to crack, and use rebar, steel that holds the pieces together, over a packed base, which keeps cracks small and the slab from sinking.