Concrete floor installation in Duarte CA - a slab ready for your flooring

One local cost guide puts a concrete slab or pad in the Los Angeles area at about $7 to $14 per square foot, and that's the going rate in the area, not our price. The same guide puts a reinforced slab above a plain pad per square foot, and taking out an old floor or adding a moisture barrier moves the number too. I'll give you your own figure once I've seen the job.

Some cracking is likely, because the national concrete floor guide says random cracks should always be expected and reinforcement won't prevent them. What properly sized and placed steel should do is keep those cracks tight, and the guide treats visible random cracks in up to 3 percent of the floor's sections, the squares between the joints, as a reasonable result. Ask me how your slab will be reinforced and where the joints go, and know that our work is backed by our satisfaction guarantee.

One Los Angeles cost guide says a new slab should be walkable within 48 hours but takes a month to fully cure. The same guide suggests waiting a week before heavier loads, so plan on keeping the car, the shelving and the heavy furniture off it until then.

Plan around the months right after the pour, because the floor guide says it's normal for the slab to curl a little at the joints, lifting at the edges as the concrete dries unevenly, and that can clash with some floor coverings. If your flooring is the fussy kind, the guide calls for a careful look at joint spacing, the mix and the joint details, which is one more reason I ask what's going on top before we pour.

Have the moisture barrier placed in direct contact with the underside of the slab, because the floor guide says that's where it gives floor coverings and coatings the most protection. Ask whoever pours your floor where their barrier will go, and tell them about the flooring before the pour, not after.

Most Duarte addresses go through the city, but some homes with a Duarte mailing address, generally west of Mountain Avenue and south of Duarte Road, fall under the L.A. County Department of Building and Safety at 626-574-0941. Duarte requires a building permit to build, alter or repair any building or structure, and its list names garages and patios but not concrete floors, so the city's Community Development Department at 626-357-7931 ext. 230 or 235 is the place to ask, and rules on things like location and materials can apply even without a permit. Any plumbing, electrical, drainage or grading tied to the work needs its own permit in Duarte, and every city permit gets inspected at its major stages and closed out with a final inspection. We check all of this before anything is scheduled.