Concrete Contractor in Winter Garden, FL - Slabs Built on a Solid Base

For a single-family home, the city's permit exemption guide puts driveways and sidewalks among projects that skip the building permit but still need Planning and Zoning pre-approval for setbacks, lot coverage and easements. That changes if your lot is in a flood zone, where the guide calls for a building permit on any project, whatever it costs. I check which applies at your address, and if you want to confirm it yourself, the city's Building Department can tell you.

You submit the city's single-family exemption application, found in the Forms section of the city's website, and wait for it to be approved before any exempt work begins. The exemptions cover limited single-family projects, state law won't let a big project be split into smaller ones to get around a permit, and starting without the right permit brings code enforcement action and charges of up to three times the regular permit fee. I'll tell you at the estimate whether your job looks like it fits or needs a full permit.

A permitted project that runs over $5,000 needs a Notice of Commencement filed for the permit. It's recorded with the Orange County Comptroller's Office, a certified copy goes to the Building Department, and a copy has to be posted at the job before the first inspection. I'll tell you at the estimate whether your job crosses that line so it doesn't hold up the inspection.

Your price comes from the size and thickness of the slab, whether we're breaking out an old one, how much digging and packing the ground needs and the finish you choose, and you get your own figure when I come out. If the budget's tight, I'd rather you go with a plain broom finish, the light texture that gives tires and shoes grip, than skimp on the base. A fancy top on a soft base still settles and cracks, and you can't fix the base later without tearing everything out.

Most cracking and sinking starts with the base, because a slab poured on raked dirt instead of a dug-out, packed subgrade, the ground it sits on, settles as the sand under it shifts or washes out. Water running toward the house or under an edge, a pour in midday heat that leaves a weak, dusty top, and control joints cut late or skipped do the rest. Control joints are grooves we cut on purpose so the slab cracks along a line we chose instead of across the middle, and we cut them on time.

You're off the driveway from the day we break out the old slab until the new one has cured enough to carry a car. You'll be walking on it well before you can drive on it, and the weather and the mix move both, so I give you the timing for your job at the estimate and again at the walk-through. Rushing that wait is how you get tire marks and early cracks.