Planning a new house or addition? We read the soil first, then pour a foundation that fits the ground it sits on.
Foundation installation in Azusa is the digging, forming and pouring of the concrete your house or addition rests on, built to match the soil under it and the plans the city approves.
Most people calling about a foundation are building a new house or an addition on a lot they don't know much about yet, and that's what a soils report is for, a soil engineer's study of the dirt you're about to build on. The price moves with the size of the footprint, what that report asks for, such as deeper footings, more steel or piers, and how easy the lot is to dig and get a concrete truck into. The schedule turns less on the pour than on what comes before it, the report, the city's review and the permit, and then on the weather. If you need a simpler slab for a garage or shop, start with slab foundation building. Your own number comes from the estimate, once I've seen the lot and the plans.
I come out to look at the lot and write the estimate myself, so the person pricing your foundation is the one who read your plans. Our own crew does the work, and I'm on site to run it from the first trench to the last truck.
I learned concrete on new construction crews, pouring footings and slabs on empty lots, and started this business in 2013. After 13 years, I still care most about the parts you won't see later, the ground and the steel, because they decide how a foundation holds up.
We're fully licensed and insured, and on a foundation that's the starting line. California lets unlicensed people take only minor jobs up to $1,000, and only when the work needs no permit and they employ no one, so a foundation is well outside that.
A foundation means a dig, forms and a concrete truck, so we protect the trees, sprinklers and fences around the work and leave the place clean. Our work is backed by our satisfaction guarantee. Call (626) 540-1248 or use the form to set up a visit.
Call (626) 540-1248, use the form or email service@concreteazusa.com with your property address, any soils report you have and your result from the state's EQ Zapp hazard map if you've checked it. We get back to you within one business day to set a time, then I come out, walk the lot and write your free estimate on site, with no pressure and no obligation.
Azusa requires a building permit whenever a structure is built, and foundations aren't on the city's list of exempt work, so plan on one. Before work starts, we check with the city, and when a permit is needed, we pull it and handle the paperwork. If your project needs Design Review, that comes before the permit application, so the city's permit process page asks you to check with the Planning Division first.
The ground counts for a lot here. The city says earthquake fault zones and seismic hazard zones lie inside its limits, including areas prone to landslides or liquefaction, where shaken soil starts acting like a liquid. You can see whether your property is in a fault zone, a seismic hazard zone or both on the state's EQ Zapp map. Azusa also assumes a set soil class for earthquake design unless a soils report says otherwise, so your report can change what gets built. We're based in Azusa and work in the cities around it, from Glendora and Covina to Pasadena and Pomona, and a lot of the foundation calls we get are for additions behind houses people already live in, where the dig has to fit around a working yard.
A slab foundation in Los Angeles usually costs about $8 to $16 per square foot installed. That's the area's going rate for slabs, not our price, and your soils report decides whether yours is a plain slab or something more involved. You get your own figure from the estimate once I've seen the lot and the plans.
Plan on one, because Azusa's building design requirements call for a foundation and soils investigation and report. That study of your lot comes before the foundation design is final, and what it finds shapes the plan. Order it early and bring it when we meet.
Contact the city's Building Division, which is what the city suggests. Azusa reviews construction drawings against state and local building codes before it issues a permit and requires that review in most cases, so build it into your schedule.
Start after the wet season if you can, which is what one engineering manual on foundations in swelling soil advises. The same manual says to protect the dug-out trenches from drying out, so it's fair to ask any crew how they'll keep the soil moisture steady between the dig and the pour.
Changes in the moisture of the soil underneath are a common cause, which is why the engineering manual says a foundation should be designed and built to keep that moisture steady. It also advises draining the site so water doesn't pond, so where the water goes belongs in the plan from the start.
