Concrete Patio Construction in Ventura CA - a patio built on a solid base

Most folks who call me have either bare dirt out back or an old slab that's cracked, sunk at one end or holding puddles by the back door. The price turns on the size, how thick the slab is and what goes inside it, the finish you pick, and how much the ground needs before we can pour, like breaking up old concrete, pulling roots and rocks, or grading a slope. The schedule turns on that same prep, the weather, and the days the slab needs to cure and gain strength before you use it, and I'll give you your own number once I've come out and looked at the yard.

We start by digging out the soft dirt and packing the subgrade, the ground the slab sits on, because a base that's only raked level settles later and takes the concrete down with it. Then we set the forms and the screeds, the guides that keep the surface flat, and talk through what your patio will really carry, since most backyard patios don't need the heaviest reinforcement. We pour in the cooler part of the day when we can, because a slab that dries too fast in the heat ends up with a weak, dusty top, and we usually finish it with a broom finish, a light texture that keeps it from getting slick when it's wet. Control joints, the shallow cuts that give the slab a place to crack, go in on time and where we laid them out with you, and before we pack up I'll tell you when it's fine to walk on and when to bring out the heavy stuff. If the budget gets tight, I'd rather trim the finish than the base, because a plain slab can be dressed up later, but a bad base means tearing the whole thing out.

A lot of patio jobs tie into something else. If you want the look of stone or tile, we can pour your patio as stamped concrete instead of a plain slab, and if you need a path from the driveway or side gate, our concrete sidewalk building work lets us plan the walk and the patio together so they meet clean.

The city's Permit Services office lists a standard plan for residential patios and porches among its patio cover documents, so if you're thinking about a roof over the patio, that's where the city's rules start. If you have any permit question about your patio, that office is the one to ask, and when a job does need a permit, I find out which city or county office covers your address and take care of the paperwork with them.

Home slabs around Ventura run four to six inches thick, and patios sit at the thinner end since they carry chairs and grills, not cars. Plenty of the backyards we see have an old slab, roots or rocks that have to come out before we can start, and we run into the same thing on jobs in Oxnard and Camarillo.