Tell a contractor about your slab before the visit

Four things to mention

1. Where the house is. An older Greensboro lot under big oaks, a Winston-Salem home perched above a steep street and a country place outside Burlington each come with different dirt, grades and ways in, so the address alone frames much of the conversation.
2. The project and a ballpark size. Maybe it is a first driveway, a wider spot to park, a patio off the kitchen, a few steps down a bank, a floor for a shed or detached garage, or a slab that has broken or dropped. Paced-off dimensions are plenty.
3. The load it has to bear. Passenger cars, or something heavier like a work pickup, a camper, a boat on a trailer, a filled hot tub or shop machinery. The heavier the load, the more the base, the depth and the steel have to do.
4. What covers the spot now. Turf, crushed rock, an aging slab or worn blacktop. Anything that must be broken out and trucked off becomes part of the job.

Pictures that save time

Stand back far enough to capture the entire spot, from the curb or from the back steps, so the lay of the land comes through. Then get close on any cracks, dropped panels or crumbling edges. Best of all is a shot taken in the middle of a downpour or just after one, showing the paths the water follows and the low places where it sits. A slab lasts or fails on its drainage as much as on its mix.

After you reach out

The contractor schedules a visit. Walking the site, checking the fall of the yard and seeing whether a mixer can back in settles things no photo can, and only then can the work be defined and priced properly. Request that definition on paper, naming the stone base, slab depth, reinforcement, joint plan and finish, so that one proposal can be checked against another point for point.

Request an estimate visit

Send the address and what you have in mind, and a contractor will follow up.