Concrete steps construction in Ventura CA - a solid entry built on packed ground

Most people call us because their old steps have cracked, sunk at one end or started pulling away from the house, and when steps go like that within a few years, they're usually sitting on loose fill or too shallow a base. The price moves with how many steps you need, how tall they run, whether poured or precast suits your entry and whether old concrete has to come out first. The schedule mostly turns on curing, the wait while fresh concrete gains strength before it can take weight, so precast set on a ready base usually gets you back through your front door sooner than a pour. I'll come out, look at your entry and give you your own figure on site.

I start by measuring the entry and laying out poured and precast side by side, so you can see which one fits your door and your budget before anything gets torn out. If old steps are there, we break them out and haul them off, then dig down to firm ground, because steps that crack early usually sit on a weak base, and I'd rather take my time packing the subgrade, the ground the steps sit on, than rush it. For poured steps we build the forms, set rebar, the steel bars that hold the concrete together if it ever cracks, and pour early in the day so summer heat doesn't leave a weak, dusty top. We give the treads a broom finish, a light texture so your shoes grip when they're wet, pitch them slightly so water runs off instead of toward the door, and leave the forms on until the concrete has cured. Precast steps go onto the same packed base and get leveled and set in place.

Steps never stand alone, because they have to meet a door, a porch or a floor at just the right height. On a new addition, I'd rather plan them along with the slab foundation building than come back later and fit them to whatever height got poured. The same goes for new homes and bigger additions, where our foundation installation work sets the floor level the top step has to reach.

I can't settle from here whether your steps need a permit in Ventura. The city's Building and Safety Division handles permit plan check and issuing permits, and the list it puts out names new buildings, additions and tenant improvements, not steps. The question for your address goes to City of Ventura Permit Services at 805-654-7869, and when a job does need a permit, we figure out which city or county office covers the address and take care of the paperwork with them. On a single family home or a duplex, the city lets either the owner or a licensed contractor pull the permit, but triplexes, fourplexes, condos, townhomes and businesses go to licensed contractors only. The city also enforces the state building codes with its own changes, and whoever applies has to give the inspector access to the work, so plan on the steps and the path to them staying clear on inspection days.

We're based in Ventura and work across the cities around it, and a lot of the steps we replace sit at the front door of older houses, where the original set has settled away from the threshold or cracked across a tread. We see the same thing on jobs in Oxnard and Camarillo, and we handle it the same way there, by getting rid of the loose fill before anything new goes in.