Stamped concrete services in San Gabriel CA - color picked for how you'll use it

Most calls I get start with a patio that's gone flat and gray, or a driveway that's cracked enough to tear out anyway, and the owner wants something better looking than a broom finish, the rough texture we drag into plain concrete for grip. The price moves with the size of the area, how busy the pattern is, how many colors and borders you want and whether we're breaking out an old slab first. The schedule turns on the tear-out, the weather and curing, the wait before you walk or park on it while the concrete gains strength. Your own figure comes from the estimate, once I've stood on the spot and seen what we're working with.

We break out the old slab if there is one, then dig out and pack the subgrade, the base the new slab sits on, because a base that's only raked level settles and takes your pattern down with it. We set the forms so the slab falls away from the house, lay rebar, the steel inside that holds the slab together if it cracks, and pour early in the day, since midday heat leaves a weak, dusty top. How the color goes in matters as much as the pattern. Integral color is mixed all the way through, so a chip shows the same color, while color hardener is worked into the top for richer color and a harder wearing surface, though a deep gouge shows gray underneath. That's why I steer a driveway toward hardener and a patio toward integral color if chips worry you. Then we press the stamp mats in while the concrete's still soft, cut control joints, grooves that give the slab a planned place to crack, before it picks its own spot, let it cure and seal it. If the budget's tight, trim the pattern or the borders and leave the base alone, because nobody sees the base on day one but it's what keeps the whole thing flat.

Stamped work is flatwork, our word for flat slabs like patios, walks and drives, so it often sits next to other slabs worth a look. We can pour a new concrete sidewalk out front so the yard looks finished, and when a stamped driveway runs up to the garage, we'll tell you whether the garage floor concrete should be redone so the two slabs meet clean.

The city sets a few rules that shape a stamped job before we pour. A walkway up to 42 inches wide needs no permit, but if your driveway job means breaking, cutting or removing the curb, that takes a permit from the city's Community Development Director. Concrete pads beyond a legal walkway count toward lot coverage, which the Planning Division has to approve, and even approved extra concrete can't be used for parking, so a wider stamped pad out front can't become a second parking spot. For a patio or driveway beyond those cases, the city decides what it needs, and work that takes a permit usually goes through Planning first before you or a licensed contractor applies at City Hall, as the city's help for homeowners page lays out. Before work starts we settle with you who handles any permit the city asks for and what it needs from us. Construction is allowed 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, with none on Sundays or holidays, so we book pour days inside those hours and start early, ahead of the heat.

We're based in San Gabriel and work in the cities around it. A lot of what we see is older driveways and back patios that have cracked or sunk over the years, and owners who'd rather replace them with something that looks finished than pour plain gray again. We run into the same kinds of houses and front yards on jobs in Alhambra and Temple City.