Decorative concrete in Saratoga CA - a finish you picked before the pour

Most people who call us are looking at a cracked or tired slab and want something that looks finished, and they usually have a picture saved on their phone. The price mostly moves with the size of the area, the finish and color you pick, whether an old slab has to come out first, how much digging the base needs and whether steel goes in the slab. The schedule turns on the tear-out, a city permit if the work reaches the street, and curing, the stretch of days the concrete needs to gain strength before you use it. If you're set on a pattern, our stamped concrete page goes further into it, and I'll give you the figure for your own job once I've seen it.

I start by walking the area with you and talking through the finish, and for exposed aggregate we show you a shallow and a deep exposure side by side so you can pick the look before we pour. Then our crew digs out the subgrade, the ground the slab sits on, and packs it firm, because a base that's only raked level settles with the dirt and takes your pattern with it. We set the forms so the slab falls away from the house and water runs off instead of pooling against your foundation, and we add rebar, steel bars that hold the slab together, where the job calls for it. We pour in the morning so the top doesn't dry out ahead of the finishing, then press the stamp or wash the surface to bring out the stones. After that we cut control joints, shallow grooves that give the concrete a straight place to crack instead of a random one. If the budget gets tight, I'd rather you pick a simpler pattern than skimp on the base. Nobody sees the base on day one, which is why it's the first thing people want to cut, but it's the part that decides whether the slab stays flat. When the job's done, we go over sealing with you and when to keep cars and furniture off the new surface.

Decorative work often ties into other concrete on the property. When a yard slopes, concrete retaining walls hold back the grade so a patio has level ground to sit on, and the wall can carry a finish that matches. Inside, concrete floor installation can use the same color and exposure choices in a garage, studio or addition.

Front walkways and driveways are where Saratoga's rules come in. Any construction in the public right of way, the strip between your property line and the street, needs an encroachment permit from the city, and that line usually sits 5 to 10 feet back from the street edge, closer to the house than most people expect. Saratoga Public Works asks owners to check with it before putting in concrete, pavers or a retaining wall within 15 feet of the street edge, because a permit may or may not apply. We check early on what the city wants for your job, and when a permit applies, we handle the contractor's side of it and help you with the parts that fall to you as the owner.

We're based in Saratoga and work across it and the cities around it. A lot of what we pour here is a front walk that has to meet an existing driveway or a back patio stepping down a sloped yard, so we plan the finish around the edges it meets, and we see the same kinds of lots on jobs in Los Gatos and Cupertino.