Stamped concrete services in Lincoln CA - a patterned slab built on solid ground

Most people call us because a plain slab has cracked, sunk or just looks tired, and they want something nicer than another broom finish, the light swept texture that gives plain concrete its grip. The price moves with the size of the area, how much old concrete has to come out, how much digging and base the ground needs, and how detailed you go on pattern and color. The schedule turns on the tear-out, on whether the city has to sign off on anything near the street, and on the curing wait before you can use it, which is the slab gaining strength. I'll tell you which of those apply to your yard when I come out and put it in writing. If you're starting from bare dirt out back, our page on concrete patio construction covers the slab side in more depth.

A stamped job is a slab first, so I price the groundwork and reinforcement before we ever talk color and pattern. Our crew digs out to firm ground, checks where the water will run so the slab falls away from your house, and packs the subgrade, the layer the slab sits on, instead of just raking it level. We set the forms and the rebar, the steel that holds the slab together if it does crack, then pour, color and press the mats in while the concrete is still soft enough to take the pattern. Before the pour I walk you through color choices, where the control joints, the cuts that give the slab a planned place to crack, will land in the pattern, and the resealing it'll want later on. After the pour we seal it and let it cure, which is the wait while it hardens before you put weight on it. It's like a kitchen, where the prep before service decides how the night goes, and if a budget has to give, I'd rather simplify the pattern than skimp on the base, because nobody sees the base on day one but everybody sees it when the slab settles.

Stamped work often ties into other concrete around the house. If your patio meets a front walk that's heaved or cracked, we can pour a new concrete sidewalk as part of the same job so the levels and edges line up, and if the garage slab is pitted or stained, our garage floor concrete work can be planned right alongside it.

The city of Lincoln says concrete walkways and patios that aren't part of an accessible route don't need a building permit, but any work in the public right-of-way, the strip along the street the city controls, needs an encroachment permit. So if your stamped walk or patio reaches the curb or the public sidewalk, the second rule is the one to watch. Before we start, we check with the city or county office that covers your address, and when a permit is needed we take care of the paperwork and inspections with you.

What moves a slab around here is usually the soil. Placer County's planning report generally puts soils with moderate to high shrink-swell potential, clay that swells when it's wet and shrinks when it dries, in the low-lying western part of the county from Rocklin out to the county line, and the city's design criteria list no frost line, so it's moving ground, not freezing, that we build against. We dig out soft dirt and pack the base firm before any color goes on, and we see the same kind of ground on jobs in Rocklin and Roseville.