Concrete Contractor in Duarte, CA - Driveways and Patios Built on Solid Ground

The city's own permit list doesn't settle it for driveways or patios, so it's worth asking before any work starts. Duarte's Building & Safety Division issues permits to build, alter, repair or demolish a building or structure, and its examples are things like roofs, windows, stucco and enclosed patios. Grading and drainage work need their own separate permits, and any work in the city right-of-way along the street needs a Right of Way Permit pulled by a licensed contractor from the Public Works Division. City Hall's number is (626) 357-7931 if you want to ask directly.

Some homes with a Duarte mailing address sit inside L.A. County boundaries and outside the city's jurisdiction, generally west of Mountain Avenue and south of Duarte Road. The city sends those owners to the L.A. County Department of Building and Safety at 626-574-0941. If you're anywhere near that corner of town, that's the office to call first.

Usually, yes. The California Contractors State License Board requires a license when a job needs a building permit, uses employee labor or costs $1,000 or more in labor and materials, and a home improvement contractor has to hold it before handing you a bid. A bigger job can't be split into smaller pieces to get under that $1,000 line, and Duarte also requires a city business license, paid before work starts, from anyone doing business in the city. We're fully licensed and insured.

It comes down to the size of the slab, how much old concrete has to come out, how much the ground under it needs and the finish you choose. A plain broom finish costs less than stamped or colored concrete, and if the budget has to give somewhere, I'd rather cut the finish than the base, because the base decides whether the slab lasts. You get your own number in writing once I've seen the job.

Usually it's the ground under the slab, because a base that was raked flat instead of dug out and packed settles over time and takes the concrete with it. Control joints cut late or skipped altogether add cracks in places nobody picked. Concrete cracks some no matter what, so the goal is cracks that stay small and land where we put the joints.

You do if the work means removing a tree on your property, oaks included, or trimming more than a quarter of its foliage, because Duarte requires a city-approved Tree Permit for either one. Normal seasonal trimming of less than a quarter, done to accepted pruning standards, doesn't need one. Roots are a common reason an old slab heaves, so I'll point out any tree that's in play when I look at the job.