Foundation installation in Saratoga CA - a foundation built for the lot it sits on

Most people who call us have plans drawn or on the way, and a lot that slopes, sits near a creek or has big trees close to where the house will go. The price mostly follows the size of the footprint, how steep the lot is and how deep the engineer wants the concrete to go, while the schedule turns on the city's reviews and on the other trades finishing their part before we pour. If your plans show one flat pad instead of walls and footings, our slab foundation building page covers that job, and either way the estimate I write at your property is where you get your own number.

I start by going over the engineer's plans and the soil report with you, because those two set how deep we dig and how much steel goes in. Our crew lays out the footprint and digs the footings down to the firm, undisturbed ground the plans call for, since a foundation sitting on loose fill settles right along with it. On a sloped lot we'll often step the foundation with the grade, following the engineer's plans and the soil report, instead of carving the hill flat. We build the forms, tie in the rebar, the steel bars that keep concrete in one piece if it cracks, and line up timing with your plumber and electrician so their work under the slab or in the walls is done before we pour. I'm there to check the forms and watch the pour, and then the concrete cures, a slow hardening it needs before framing goes on top.

Some projects don't need a full foundation. A deck, a porch or a garden wall may only need concrete footings, the buried pads or strips that carry a post or a wall, and we pour those on their own. On larger properties we also handle concrete parking lot building for guest parking or a work yard, and planning it with the foundation lets us sort out the grading for both at once.

Saratoga asks for geotechnical clearance, a review of whether the ground can hold the building, when a new house, basement or addition sits where the land could slide or where loose, wet soil can lose its strength in an earthquake. The city names hillsides and lots close to creeks as examples, so if that sounds like your lot, plan for the city's geotechnical clearance early, before you pick a start date. We check early on what the city wants for your job, handle the contractor's side of any permit and help you with the parts that fall to you as the owner.

We're based in Saratoga and work across the cities around it, and a lot of the lots we see here climb with the hill and sit on narrow streets, so I look at how a concrete truck or pump will reach the forms on that first visit. We run into the same steep lots and tight access on jobs in Los Gatos and Cupertino.