Concrete cutting in Saratoga CA - clean cuts planned around buried lines and drains

Most calls start with a section that has to go, like a sunken stretch of driveway, a patio slab in the way of a new drain line, or a wall that needs a doorway. The price moves with how thick the concrete is, whether there's rebar inside, the steel bars that help hold a slab together, how long the cut runs, whether we're working inside or outside and what happens to the pieces afterward. The schedule mostly turns on who's finding the buried lines and whether the city needs to weigh in, and I check early on what the city wants for your cut so a permit question doesn't stall you later. You get your own figure when I come out and write the estimate.

Before we cut, you and I settle who's finding any lines buried in or near the concrete, because a saw blade can't tell a water pipe from gravel. Then I mark the cut line with you, so we both agree on exactly where the opening goes. For work inside, I'll tell you which saw we're bringing and why, since the wrong saw in a closed room is a problem for the air you breathe. Outside, we cover nearby storm drains so the gray slurry the saw throws off, a mix of water and concrete dust, doesn't wash into them, and we pick a spot on your lot for the cut pieces. Then we make the cut, lift the pieces out, and wash down and sweep up before we leave.

A cut is usually the first step of something else. When we take out part of a driveway, the new section is poured as part of our concrete driveway building work, and a cut through an old patio often leads into concrete patio construction. On those pours, I'd rather spend your money on the subgrade, the packed ground the slab sits on, than on a fancier finish, because a base that's only raked level settles with the dirt and takes the new concrete down with it.

Near the street, the first question is whose ground the cut is on. Saratoga says the property line usually sits 5 to 10 feet from the edge of the street, so a cut at the end of a driveway or along the curb can land outside your lot, and the city requires an encroachment permit, its sign-off for building on public land, for any construction past that line. The city's list names driveway, curb, gutter and sidewalk work, not cutting by itself, so whether your cut needs that permit isn't settled until it's asked. If the concrete we cut out near the curb will be replaced, the city's Public Works department asks owners to talk with it before putting in concrete within 15 feet of the street edge, so that call comes first. A cut through a wall or a foundation is a question for the city's Building Division, since the city says structural changes generally need a building permit. When a permit applies, we handle the contractor's side of it and help you with the parts that fall to you.

The city's rules shape the day itself, too. We keep the saw inside Saratoga's construction hours, listed in the questions below, and because the city allows dumpsters only on private property, the pieces wait on your lot until they're hauled. We're based in Saratoga and work across the cities around it, and we run into the same driveway and curb cuts on jobs in Los Gatos and Cupertino.