Concrete footings in Lincoln CA - trenches and steel ready before the inspector arrives

Most people call us because they've got plans for a room addition, a garage, a wall or a slab foundation, and the footing is the first thing that has to be right. The price mostly comes down to how much footing your plans call for, how hard the ground is to dig, how much steel goes in and whether the concrete truck can get close or we have to pump or wheel it in. The schedule usually turns less on our work than on the permit review and the inspector's visit, because both have to happen before any concrete goes in. When I come out, I walk the job with you, look at your plans and put the estimate in writing, so you can compare it with anyone else's and ask good questions.

Footings get buried fast, so the care has to go in before the truck shows up, the same way a busy night in a kitchen is decided by the prep before service. We dig clean trenches to the lines on your plans and clear out the loose dirt, because concrete poured on crumbled soil settles right along with it. Then we set the forms, the boards that hold the wet concrete in shape, and tie in rebar, the steel bars that keep concrete from pulling apart when the ground moves. Once the trenches, forms and steel are ready, we call for the inspection and pour after it passes, then finish the top and let it cure, which is the slow hardening that gives concrete its strength. The digging and the steel are where a cheaper quote usually saves its money, and they're the last place I'd cut, because nobody can see them or fix them once they're under concrete.

Footing work often ties into other jobs. If an older footing has dropped and the house above it has settled, foundation raising may need to happen before anything new gets added. When a new footing has to run through an existing slab or patio, we use concrete cutting to make a clean opening so the concrete around it stays sound.

Lincoln requires a building permit whenever a structure is built, enlarged or altered, and its list names new homes and room additions rather than footings on their own, so whether your footing work needs its own permit isn't settled until someone checks for your address. Before we start, we check with the city or county office that covers your property, and when a permit is needed we take care of the paperwork and inspections with you. If the rules for your project are unclear, the city asks owners to check with its Building Division before work begins. Lincoln designs for earthquakes rather than frost or snow, which is why the footing inspection looks for seismic hardware, the anchors and ties that hold the framing to the concrete, set in the forms before the pour.

The ground is the other thing to watch. Placer County notes that some soils shrink and swell over time and can damage foundations, and they're generally found in low-lying areas of the western county from Rocklin to the county line. We're based in Lincoln and work across the cities around it, and the same kind of ground comes up on jobs in Roseville and Rocklin, so if your lot sits low, I'll take a closer look at it during the estimate rather than guess.