Concrete parking lot building in San Gabriel CA - a slab built for the cars it carries

Maybe you own or manage a building and the old lot is cracked, sinking at the edges or puddling by the entrance every time it rains. The price mostly comes down to the lot's size, what will drive on it, since heavier traffic means a thicker slab, how much old paving has to come out and how much grading the drainage needs. The schedule turns on any permit review the city needs and on curing, the days the concrete needs to gain strength before cars go back on it. The on-site estimate is where you get the figure for your own lot.

The first thing I ask is what will drive on the lot, because that shapes the whole design, from how thick the slab is to whether it needs rebar, the steel bars that help hold a slab together. We also plan up front how the lot stays closed while it cures and how runoff stays out of the street while we work. Then we check where the water runs now and set the grades so it heads to the drains and away from the building. We dig out to the subgrade, the soil the slab sits on, pack it hard and add base where the ground calls for it, because a slab poured on raked dirt settles right along with the dirt. We pour early to stay out of the midday heat that leaves a weak, dusty top, give it a broom finish so tires and shoes grip when it's wet, and cut control joints, shallow grooves that give the slab a planned place to crack, before it picks a spot on its own. If the budget gets tight, cut the finish and keep the base, because nobody sees the base on day one, but a lot that sinks gets torn out and paid for twice.

A lot often comes with other work around it. If you want light poles, a carport or a wall along the edge, we pour the concrete footings for them in the same job. If the building beside the lot has settled and the old pavement went down with it, ask us about foundation raising before we set new grades against the building.

In San Gabriel, grading and drainage work goes under a grading permit from the city's Building Division, on plans the Engineering Division reviews, and any work in the public right of way, the street side of your property, goes through Engineering. On grading and drainage work, the engineer of record, meaning a civil engineer, geotechnical engineer or land surveyor, does and certifies the inspections, so it's worth sorting out early who fills that role. Size matters here too. The city's code counts creating, adding or replacing 5,000 square feet or more of paving on an already built site as redevelopment, while routine repair that keeps the old line and grade doesn't count, so tell us how big the lot is when you call and we'll go over what applies at the estimate.

The city also wants runoff kept out of the street while the work goes on, with sandbags at least two high as the minimum and more on bigger projects, so we bag the edges before anything gets washed down. We're based in San Gabriel and see a lot of small lots behind shops, offices and apartment buildings, often tight to the street, and we do the same work in Rosemead and Temple City.