Concrete sidewalk building in Garden Grove CA - a walk that sits flat and drains

A concrete slab in Orange County usually costs about $7 to $14 per square foot, and that's the going rate around here, not our price. Reinforced concrete runs higher per square foot than plain, and those ranges don't include staining or stamping. Your own figure depends on the walk's size, the prep and the finish, and I'll write it up after I measure.

If the work is on the city's public right of way, yes, because Garden Grove's right-of-way permit covers sidewalk work there, and the city's Land Development Section handles street permits. When a job needs a city permit, we pull it and handle the inspections, and for a walk that stays on your own lot I'll check with the city instead of guessing. If you're not sure where your lot ends, the city's Engineering, Public Works office takes property line questions at (714) 741-5192, and the city recommends hiring a surveyor to mark the lines on the ground.

A new slab should be walkable within 48 hours, though concrete takes a month to fully cure. To be safe, it's worth waiting a week before heavier loads go on it, like a loaded wheelbarrow or a car at a driveway crossing. In hot weather, a concrete trade group's guidance is to cure slabs for at least 3 days using wet burlap and plastic sheeting, a liquid curing compound or water.

Tree roots and expansive soils, the kind that swell when they get wet, can move a walk over time, and low points along the route collect water or send runoff toward the house. That's why the route and the ground work under the slab matter more than making the concrete stronger, and why we settle the path before anything else. Along the street, the city's Streets Division maintains city sidewalk, and its work includes root pruning to keep roots from damaging the concrete.

In California it's the work of a concrete contractor, which the Contractors State License Board defines as one who forms, pours, places and finishes pavement, flat and other concrete work. A sidewalk is flatwork, the trade's word for walks, patios, driveways and other slabs, so it falls right in that line. We're licensed and fully insured, and it's fair to ask anyone bidding your walk about both.

Sometimes, and if a repair will do the job, I'll tell you that before I'd sell you a new walk. When the ground underneath has settled or roots keep lifting a section, a patch on top usually doesn't last, because the problem is under the slab. I'll look at it with you and tell you which one I think you've got.