Bare dirt, a cracked old slab or water pooling by the back door? We build a patio that drains away and stays flat.
Concrete patio construction in East Los Angeles, CA means we dig out and pack the ground, set forms, then pour and finish a flat slab, so you end up with an outdoor floor that holds up for years.
Most calls start with bare dirt, a cracked slab that's sunk at one corner, or water pooling by the back door after it rains. Concrete is the most popular patio surface and the most affordable one, so it's the usual pick when you want something that lasts without blowing the budget.
The price moves with the size, how much digging it takes to reach solid ground, how easy it is to get concrete to the back of the lot, and the finish you pick. The schedule turns mostly on whether your address needs a permit, which we sort out before we set a date. After I measure, you get a written quote that spells out what's included.
Most patios that crack or sink failed in the ground, not on top. These are the places we spend the time, because you can't see them once the concrete is poured.
The subgrade, the dirt the slab sits on, has to be dug out and packed hard, not just raked level, or the patio settles with the dirt. If the budget is tight, I'd rather you go simpler on the finish than skimp here, because nobody sees the base on day one and everybody sees it when it sinks.
Concrete shrinks as it hardens, so it's going to crack somewhere. Control joints are the grooves we cut to give it a straight, planned place to crack instead of a jagged line across the middle. When joints are cut late or skipped, cracks show up wherever they want, which is usually what happened to the old slab.
Concrete poured and finished in the midday heat can end up with a weak, dusty top that starts wearing early. When we can, we plan the pour for the cooler part of the day, so the crew isn't racing the sun and has the time to finish the surface properly.
Here's how a patio goes from your first call to the walkthrough. I handle the visit and the quote myself, and our own crew does the work.
Call (213) 338-1030 or use the contact form and tell us a little about the yard. We get back to you to set up a time for me to come out.
I walk the spot, measure, ask how you'll use the patio and find out which office handles your address. Then you get a written quote that spells out what's included, so you can compare it line by line.
Our crew lead runs the job from prep to cleanup with our own crew. Digging, packing, forms and any rebar, the steel that helps hold the slab together, are done before the truck arrives, since delays once it's here hurt the finished slab.
Before we pack up, I walk the finished patio with you and point out the joints and the slope so you know what you're looking at. We leave the yard cleaned up.
We talk through the finish with you before anything is poured, because a plain broom finish, the fine texture dragged across the wet surface, grips better underfoot than some stamped ones when it's wet. That matters most beside a pool or on a slope. If you want a pattern, our stamped concrete services cover the looks and the trade-offs.
A patio next to the house gets sloped away from it, so water doesn't sit against your foundation. National building guidance says slabs within 10 feet of the foundation should slope down and away from it, so we check where the water runs before we set the forms, not after the pour.
A patio usually needs a way to get to it. If you want a path from the driveway or the side gate, we can plan it with the patio so the two meet clean, and our concrete sidewalk building page explains how we handle walks.
The simplest finish, the lowest cost per square foot, and the one with the best grip when it's wet. It suits a patio that gets everyday use, a grill and a table, and it's easy to hose off.
A pattern or color makes the slab look like more than gray concrete, but it costs more per square foot installed than a plain patio. Pick the pattern with grip in mind, and plan on sealing it.
We get back to you within one business day to set up a visit. I come to your property, measure and hand you a written quote that spells out what's included. The estimate is free, with no obligation to go ahead.
(213) 338-1030East Los Angeles goes through the county, so permits come from LA County Public Works, not a city hall. The county lists patios among its miscellaneous items, and its list of work that needs no permit names walks and driveways but not patios. That list doesn't settle your patio either way, so the county's East Los Angeles Building and Safety Office makes the call on your project.
Most of the cities around it, like Montebello and Monterey Park, run their own permit counters, so I find out which office handles your address when I come out. When your patio needs a permit, we take care of it and the inspections that go with it. Around here we often see tight backyards behind older houses, where the base and the drainage matter more than the size.
California's license board describes a concrete contractor as someone who forms, pours, places and finishes flat concrete work, which is exactly what a patio is. The state's exemption for unlicensed minor work stops at $1,000, and it only applies when the job needs no permit and the person has nobody working for them, so ask whoever you hire for their license.
I worked concrete every summer through school, hauling forms and finishing next to guys who'd done it for decades, and I started this business in 2013. Thirteen years in, I still come out and do the estimates myself, and our crew lead runs the work on site with our own crew, not whoever's free that week.
We're best known for flatwork that stays flat, the flat jobs like driveways, patios and walks. We're fully licensed and insured. Our work is backed by our satisfaction guarantee. I'd rather lose a job by quoting it right than win it by skipping steps, so the prep is in the quote. Call (213) 338-1030 or use the contact form and I'll come take a look.
If plain gray isn't what you pictured, a stamped pattern can give the slab the look of stone or brick while it stays concrete underneath.
When getting from the driveway to the backyard means crossing grass or a broken path, a new walk ties the patio into the rest of the yard.
We're based in East Los Angeles and build patios across the cities around it, from Montebello and Downey to Monterey Park and plenty of others nearby. Pick your city to see the work we do there.
Installed concrete patios in the Los Angeles area usually cost about $8 to $30 per square foot, and that's the going range around here, not a quote from us. Where yours lands depends on the size, how much digging the ground needs and the finish. I'll measure and give you a written quote that spells out what's included.
A plain broom finish is usually the safer pick around a pool, for the grip reason we covered above. If you want stamped there, the sealer matters too, because the one chosen for a stamped patio can change how slippery it gets when wet. We pick the pattern and the sealer together with that in mind.
LA County Public Works issues permits in unincorporated LA County, and East Los Angeles is handled by its East Los Angeles Building and Safety Office. Its no-permit list doesn't name patios, so that office makes the call on yours. I check with the right office for your address before we set a date.
There's no single schedule, because it depends on how much sun the patio gets, how much foot traffic it sees and the type of sealer. One contractor's guide says stamped and colored patios benefit most from sealing and resealing now and then, so if you go decorative, plan on repeat sealing as part of owning it.
Have the rough size of the patio, the finish you're leaning toward and a few photos of the yard. That lets us talk options before I come out, and I measure everything on site anyway, so a rough guess is fine.
I can give you a start date once I've seen the yard and we know whether your address needs a permit. The permit question usually decides the wait, and we don't schedule the concrete truck until the ground is packed and the forms are set.
Only seeing the ground in person tells us how much digging the base needs, and that's a big part of the price, so call (213) 338-1030 or use the form.
