Concrete Contractor in Virginia Beach - Slabs Built for Low, Wet Ground

If your property is in a Special Flood Hazard Area, yes, because the city requires a permit for every manmade change there, including grading, paving and digging. Outside those areas, the city's residential permit list names work such as structural changes, decks and foundation repairs but not a plain driveway or patio, so the Permits & Inspections Division at 757-385-4211 is the place to ask. When it isn't clear, I check with that office before we start, and when a permit is needed, we pull it and schedule the inspections ourselves.

Foundation work in a Special Flood Hazard Area needs a city permit, and how far the house has to meet flood rules depends on the size of the work compared to the building's market value. Under 50% of that value, the house has to be raised or flood-protected as far as the city's inspectors find possible, and at 50% or more, the changes must meet the city's floodplain regulations and the state building code. Foundation repairs are on the city's permit list anywhere in Virginia Beach, so we plan the permit into foundation work from the first visit.

Your contractor should hold a license from Virginia's Board for Contractors, which licenses businesses that build, repair or improve property owned by others. Each license has a class that sets how large a job it covers, Class C for contracts under $10,000 and Class B for contracts under $120,000, each with a twelve-month total limit, while Class A has no limit, plus a specialty for the type of work. A contractor pulling a residential alteration permit gives the city its class and registration number, and we're licensed and insured.

The price comes down to the size of the slab, how much old concrete has to come out, how much base work your ground needs and the finish you choose, so I give you a figure after I've seen the site. A broom finish, the light texture that gives shoes and tires grip, costs less than stamped or decorative work, while a flood-zone permit or a fix for water running toward the house adds to the job. The one place I won't save you money is the base, because that's what keeps the slab from sinking later.

You'll be off a new driveway for days rather than hours, and you can walk on it well before you can park on it. Curing is the slab slowly gaining strength, and a car's weight too soon can crack it or mark the surface. I'll give you the dates for your pour when we finish, so you can plan where to park until then.

Most cracking and sinking starts under the slab, with a base that was raked level instead of dug out and packed, or water left to sit beside and under it. On low, flat lots like many here, water that can't run off softens the subgrade, the soil and gravel the slab rests on, and the concrete settles with it. Joints cut late or skipped and pours in the midday heat add stray cracks and a weak, dusty top, which is why we plan the base, slope and joints before the truck comes.