Planning a new house or addition? We prep the ground, protect the vapor barrier and pour a slab foundation you can build on.
A slab foundation is the concrete slab your house or addition sits on, poured straight onto prepared ground. Precision Calabasas Concrete forms, pours and finishes slab foundations for homes across Calabasas, CA.
Most people who call about a slab already have plans drawn or a lot cleared, and they want to know what the foundation will take. The price comes down to the slab's size and thickness, how much digging and packing the ground needs, and how much rebar goes in to hold the concrete together. It also depends on whether your soil points you toward a post-tensioned slab, which I cover in the questions below.
The ground and the paperwork drive the schedule more than the pour does. Prep takes as long as the dirt needs, and the concrete has to cure, which is the wait while it gains strength, before anyone builds on it. Whether a job needs a permit is up to the city or county, not us, so we check with the office that covers your address before we start and work through what they ask for with you. The estimate I write after walking your lot gives you the figure for your own slab.
We've been building in Calabasas since 2020. You'll deal with me from the first visit to the cleanup, so the person who priced your slab is the same person watching it go in.
I come out myself, look at the ground, listen to what you're building and answer your questions before I write anything up. Have your plans handy if you've got them, because the slab size and the steel come straight off them.
We're fully licensed and insured. The Contractors State License Board defines a concrete contractor as one who forms, pours, places, finishes and installs concrete work, and that covers everything a slab foundation takes.
Once you're ready, we sort out the paperwork and do the prep, and I'm on the job with our crew through the pour and the cleanup. It's satisfaction guaranteed on every job.
We dig out to firm ground and pack the subgrade, which is the soil the slab sits on. Then we set the forms, lay the vapor barrier, place the steel and pour. You can't see the base once the slab is down, so it's the first thing people want to cut from a budget. I won't cut it, because a slab poured on loose dirt settles along with that dirt no matter how good the top looks. The vapor barrier gets the same care. We patch every hole in it before the pour, because even small tears can let a lot more moisture up through a slab, and that's how new flooring fails or gets held up.
A slab is often one piece of a bigger job. When your plans call for footings or a deeper foundation system, that's our foundation installation work. The same dug-out, packed base goes under our concrete parking lot building for larger paved areas.
Each step is there to head off a problem that otherwise shows up later, after the house is already sitting on the slab.
Before the forms go in, we look at how water runs across your lot, because a slab that sits low or tips toward the house keeps collecting water against it. We set the grade so water runs away from the slab.
We schedule the pour early, because concrete placed in midday heat dries too fast on top and turns weak and dusty later. The crew finishes the surface while it's still workable.
We keep framing and heavy loads off the slab until it has cured, so it isn't carrying a house before it's strong enough. The forms come off when the concrete is ready, and we clean up the site.
No slab is built perfectly level, and nobody knows how far off yours is unless it's surveyed shortly after it's finished. I'll suggest getting that elevation survey done right away, so if you ever wonder whether the house has moved, you have a starting point to check against.
Send us your lot address and the rough size of the slab, or call (747) 269-3817 or email hi@calabasasconcrete.com, and we'll reply within one business day. I'll set a time to come out, walk the lot and write up a free estimate with no obligation and no pressure to book.
(747) 269-3817Around Los Angeles, a reinforced concrete slab usually runs about $8 to $14 per square foot, not counting staining or stamping. Where yours lands depends on the size, the ground prep and the steel your plans call for. The estimate I write after seeing your lot gives you your own figure.
Shrink-swell soil swells when it's wet and shrinks when it dries, and the post-tensioning industry group calls post-tensioned slabs a cost-efficient, high-performance choice for home foundations on that kind of ground. These slabs have steel cables that are pulled tight after the pour. The same group says they're used on steady ground too, to cut down on cracking and to reduce or skip control joints, the grooves cut so cracks run where you want them. Ask whoever is designing your house whether one fits your lot, and I'm glad to talk it through at the estimate.
It might, if the lot is undeveloped and sits in a zone the state maps as likely to have weak soil or rock that can fail in an earthquake. On those lots, a licensed engineering geologist or civil engineer may need to study the site before most structures can be permitted. The state rules exempt a single-family frame house up to two stories that isn't part of a development of four or more units. The city can still be stricter than the state, so ask the city before you count on that exemption.
If you pull the permit yourself as an owner-builder, the city has you complete a Property Owner's Disclosure as part of the construction permit application. You can send code questions to the Building and Safety Division at BuildingSafetyInfo@cityofcalabasas.com.
Calabasas enforces the state's building codes, so a slab here is built to the same rules as anywhere else in California. Grading and drainage go through Calabasas Public Works. Public Works also requires an encroachment permit for any work done or anything placed in the public right-of-way, so if part of the job reaches the street, that permit has to come first. We see a lot of hillside lots and graded pads around here, and how the ground was graded and where the water runs off shape the slab as much as the plans do.
We're based in Calabasas and do the same slab work across the cities around it, from Agoura Hills and Westlake Village to Thousand Oaks and Malibu. If your city isn't on our list, call and ask.
The slab type and the base are easiest to change while the plans are still on paper, so call (747) 269-3817 or send us a note through our contact form.
If you've got a question about your slab before you're ready for an estimate, I'm glad to answer it.
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