Decorative concrete in San Gabriel CA - a fresh look on a slab that holds up

Most calls we get are about a slab that's still flat but looks rough, faded, stained, chipped at the edges or just dated, or from owners who want a stone look on a new concrete patio. The price moves with the size of the area, whether we can work over the old slab or have to break it out, the finish you pick and how much prep the surface needs. The schedule turns on the same things, plus curing, which is the wait while new concrete hardens before you use it or color it, and any permit the city wants. Your own number comes from the estimate, once I've stood on the slab and looked at it.

I check that the slab underneath is sound before I talk about any overlay or stain, because a fresh look on a slab that's moving won't hold up, and if yours needs tearing out instead, I'll tell you that at the estimate. When it's sound, our crew cleans and preps the surface so the new layer grips, fills what needs filling, then lays the overlay or color and seals it. On a new stamped pour we dig out and pack the subgrade, the dirt and gravel the slab sits on, and set the slope so water runs away from the house instead of toward it. We add rebar, steel that holds the slab together, where the job calls for it, pour early so the midday heat doesn't leave a weak, dusty top, and cut control joints, shallow grooves that give the slab a straight place to crack, before it picks its own spot. If the budget's tight, I'd rather you spend it on the base than the pattern, because the base is the part nobody sees on day one and the first thing people want to cut, and it's what decides whether that pattern stays flat.

Decorative work often sits next to other jobs. On a sloped yard, a stamped patio usually needs a concrete retaining wall along the high side first, and an indoor slab too worn to resurface starts over with concrete floor installation before any stain goes on.

In San Gabriel, any work in the public right of way, the strip of public land along the street, needs a permit from the city's Engineering Division, and grading or drainage changes need a grading permit from the Building Division on plans Engineering has reviewed. The city usually wants planning approval before it issues a permit, and you fill out the application for your type of project at City Hall. Those rules don't spell out whether a stain or overlay on a backyard patio needs a permit, so check with the city rather than guess. Either you or a licensed contractor can pull a permit there, and before work starts we settle with you who handles any permit the city asks for and what it needs from us.

The city also requires job sites to be sandbagged at least two bags high so runoff doesn't reach the street, and bigger projects can need more, so when a driveway or walk runs toward the curb we plan for it when we set up. Around here we see plenty of older driveways and patios that are flat but worn, plus landlords who want a rental's walk or patio refreshed between tenants, and it's the same work on jobs in Alhambra and Temple City. We're based in San Gabriel and work in the cities around it across the San Gabriel Valley and nearby.