Concrete parking lot building in Duarte CA - a lot that holds up to daily traffic

Concrete usually comes out ahead if you're keeping the lot a long time, and asphalt makes sense when the day-one price matters most. One parking guide puts concrete's life at 25 to 40 years against 15 to 25 for asphalt, and says its lower upkeep often brings the total to the same or less over 30 years or more. Asphalt costs less upfront, so it comes down to how long you plan to own the lot.

The cost comes down to the lot's size, what has to be torn out, how much grading the drainage needs and how thick the slab has to be for your traffic. Work that reaches the strip the city owns along the street adds a permit and some time. I give you the figure for your lot once I've seen it.

New concrete pavement needs at least 7 days of curing before traffic goes back on it, and it takes 28 days to reach full strength. Plan on the lot being closed for that first week with somewhere else for customers or tenants to park, which is part of the parking plan we work out with you.

Most parking lot jobs touch at least one city permit, because grading, drainage and landscaping each need their own, and any work in the City right-of-way needs a Right of Way Permit from the Public Works Division. Only a licensed contractor can pull that Right of Way Permit, so ask who's pulling it. For a bigger project, the city suggests a pre-application review with a planner, who can help find your property's zoning and setbacks.

A licensed concrete contractor, since the state contractors board defines that license as forming, pouring, placing, finishing and installing pavement and flat concrete work. In Duarte the building permit can go to a General Building contractor with a Class B license, or to a homeowner improving their own principal residence who meets the owner-builder conditions on the city's permit application. A business lot isn't a principal residence, so it needs a licensed contractor, and we're fully licensed and insured. Unlicensed help is limited to jobs up to $1,000 that need no permit, where the person employs no one.

You can't keep concrete from ever cracking, but you can decide where it cracks and keep the pieces from moving. That's the job of control joints, grooves cut into the slab soon after the pour so the shrinking concrete cracks along them in a straight line instead of across a parking space. After that, keep traffic off until the cure is done and don't let water sit at the edges, where it can soften the ground under the slab.