Slab foundation building in Ventura CA - a slab that holds your house steady

Most people call me when they've got plans for a new house, an addition or a rebuild and need someone to put down the slab the walls will stand on. The price mostly turns on the slab's size, what the ground under it is like, how much digging out or fill the lot needs and which kind of slab your soil calls for. The schedule turns on the permit and plan review, any grading the lot needs and the wait while the concrete cures before the framers can load it, and some homes also need concrete footings under heavy posts or walls. Your own figure comes from the estimate, once I've walked the lot and seen your plans.

I start every slab with the ground, so before we talk slab type I look at what's known about the soil under your lot. Then we lay out the slab, dig out the soft dirt and pack the subgrade, the ground the slab sits on, because a base that's only raked level settles right along with the dirt under it. We set the forms and check where the water will run so it drains away from the house, then lay the vapor barrier, a plastic sheet that keeps ground moisture out of your floors, and tie in the rebar, the steel that holds the concrete together when the ground pushes on it. Right before the pour I walk the barrier looking for holes and open seams, since a torn spot is easy to tape now and impossible to reach once the concrete is on it. We pour in the cooler part of the day when we can, finish the surface flat for the floors going on top and let it cure, which is the wait while the concrete gains strength. If the budget gets tight, I'd rather you trim almost anything else before the base, because the finish shows on day one but the base is what your house sits on for good.

Not every house belongs on a slab. When your plans call for a raised floor or stem walls, that's foundation installation, and I'll tell you at the estimate which one your lot and plans point to. For small businesses putting up a shop or office, we can pour the building's slab and the concrete parking lot around it with the same base work under both.

The City of Ventura reviews plans for its more complex permits, and its list names new construction, additions and residential alterations but doesn't name slab foundations on their own, so whether your slab needs a permit of its own is a question for the city, not something I'll guess at. The earthwork is clearer. The city requires grading plans and permits for sites where soil gets dug out or filled, and hillside lots carry their own grading requirements. Ventura County also maps zones where the ground could turn soft or slide in a strong earthquake, and state law has cities and counties use those zones when they issue construction permits, so a house on a lot inside one may need its foundation soil investigated and a plan to deal with what's found. That's why I look up the address and ask about the soil before we settle on a slab type.

On jobs around Ventura we see everything from flat lots near the coast to sloped lots up against the hills, and the sloped ones usually mean more digging, more fill and more planning before a single form goes in. We work across Ventura and the cities around it, and the same soil questions come up on slabs in Oxnard and Ojai.