Slab foundation building in Antioch CA - a level base built for the ground it sits on
Got plans for a new home, addition or shop that call for a slab? We build it on packed ground, laid out right before the pour.
- Licensed and fully insured.
- Free on-site estimates.
- Replies within 1 business day.
What does building a slab foundation in Antioch involve?
Slab foundation building in Antioch means grading and packing the ground, setting forms and steel, and pouring a concrete slab that sits right on the soil and carries your house, addition or shop.
You're usually here because something is going up and the plans say slab, so the drawings are done and you need someone who can build to them. The price moves with the size and thickness of the slab, how much digging and packing the ground needs, the steel your plans call for and how easily a truck can reach the spot. The schedule moves with the permit, the weather and how much site work comes first. A slab that carries a building often ties into concrete footings along its edges, and I price all of it after I've walked the lot and measured it, because I don't quote concrete off a phone call.
What tells you it's time to plan a slab foundation?
Plans that say slab-on-ground
If your drawings show a slab-on-ground foundation, the concrete under the building sits right on packed dirt with no crawl space below it. Bring a contractor in early, because a grade or layout mistake is cheap to fix on paper and expensive to fix once walls are up.
Wide cracks in dry dirt
If your lot opens up in cracks you can fit a finger in during summer and turns to sticky mud in winter, the ground likely swells and shrinks with water. That changes which slab type makes sense, and finding out after the design is finished can mean redrawing the plans.
An old slab sunk or broken
When an old garage or shop slab has sunk, tilted or cracked clear through, the ground under it usually washed out or was never packed. Pouring new concrete over it carries the same problem forward, and every wet season you wait lets more water work underneath.
How we build a slab foundation
We start from your plans and talk through slab type early, including a post-tensioned slab, one with steel cables pulled tight after the pour, if your ground moves. I ask what flooring is going on top so moisture gets planned for before the pour, and I tell you plainly that a new slab will get some cracks, because concrete shrinks as it dries. Then we dig out the soft dirt, pack the subgrade, which is the ground the slab sits on, check where water runs so the grade sends it away, set forms and place the rebar, the steel that keeps cracks from spreading, where your plans put it. We pour early in the day so the top doesn't bake in afternoon heat, finish it, and cut control joints, shallow cuts that give the cracks a straight line to follow. If the budget gets tight, I'll cut back on finish before base every time, because the base is hidden on day one and it's the part you can't fix once the concrete is down.
Not every building sits on a slab. If your plans call for stem walls and a crawl space, that's our foundation installation work, and for a shop or commercial building we can pour the slab and the concrete parking lot around it as one job.
Conventional slab with rebar
This suits most additions, garages and shop buildings on ground that stays put. It's the most common design on plans and the simplest to build well when the base is right.
Post-tensioned slab
This suits lots where the ground swells and shrinks, because the tightened cables squeeze the slab so it holds together as the dirt moves. Your engineer has to design it, and we build to that design.
Slab with thickened edges
This suits garages, sheds and small additions where the plans pour the footing and the slab together. One pour means fewer cold seams between the edge and the floor.
Get a written price for your slab foundation
Send the form and we'll get back to you within one business day to set up a free on-site visit. I'll walk the lot, measure it and send a written price, with no pressure to book.
Call (925) 503-1201- Based in
- Antioch, CA 94509
- Hours
- Mon–Sun: 6 AM–11 PM
What happens after you call about a slab in Antioch?
Here's how a slab job runs from your first call to the final walk-through, and who you'll be dealing with at each step.
Call or send your plans
Call (925) 503-1201 or fill out the form, and we'll set a time for me to see the lot. If you have drawings or an engineer's plans, send them ahead so I've read them before I come.
I walk the lot myself
I look at the site, what's around it and how we'll get concrete to it, then send you a written estimate. You'll know the number before anything gets dug.
Permits, forms and the pour
Once you say go, we sort out anything the city or county needs, then dig out, pack the base, set forms and steel, and pour. My crew and I finish the slab and cut the joints before the concrete gets too hard to cut cleanly.
Walk the finished slab together
I walk the finished job with you before we leave and show you where the joints are and why. After that the slab needs its cure time before heavy work goes on it.
Why Antioch homeowners call Excel Antioch Concrete Company for slabs
I come out and price it
I come out myself to look at your lot and write the estimate, and my crew and I do the work. The person who measured your slab is the one standing there when the truck pulls up.
Learned on my dad's jobs
I grew up pouring and finishing next to my dad and started this business in 2023, so we've been at it 3 years on our own. The habit of getting the ground and grade right before anyone talks about finish came straight from his jobs.
Licensed and fully insured, just ask
California lets an unlicensed person do minor work only up to $1,000, and only when the job needs no permit and they employ no one on it. For foundation work, ask any contractor which California license they hold, because a B-2 remodeling license doesn't allow structural changes to the footings or foundation of an existing home.
Based in Antioch, working nearby
We're based in Antioch and work from Concord and Walnut Creek out to Rio Vista and Discovery Bay, and plenty of places in between. That keeps us close when a question comes up between the estimate and the pour.
If you've got plans, or just a lot and an idea, send us the details or call (925) 503-1201 and I'll come take a look.
Slab foundations and foundation work in Antioch
The City of Antioch takes building permit applications through its Online Permit Portal, and its building permit requirements say even a storage shed can be exempt only when it has no permanent foundation. That's a good reason to ask before any slab goes under a building, and the city's Building Division answers questions about what your particular project has to submit. Before we start, we check with the city or county office that handles your address, and if a permit is needed we apply for it as your contractor or help you through it if you'd rather file it yourself.
Some lots sit inside one of California's mapped earthquake hazard zones, where the ground has a higher chance of failing in a quake, and that brings geologic and engineering investigations before construction begins. Those come before our layout, so we build to the plans that come out of them. Around here a lot of slabs go behind existing houses for garages, shops and additions, where getting a truck or pump to the back of the lot shapes the plan, and we work the same way on jobs in Pittsburg and Oakley.
Questions about slab foundations in Antioch
Call (925) 503-1201A reinforced concrete slab in the Bay Area usually runs about $9 to $16 per square foot, not counting staining or stamping. That's the going rate around the region, not our price, and where yours lands depends on its size and thickness, the digging and packing, the steel and how easy the site is to reach. I'll walk the lot and send you a written price.
Yes, some cracking in a new slab is normal. The slab guide the concrete industry works from tells contractors to warn every owner that some cracking is completely normal on every project, so we say it up front. The control joints give those cracks a line to follow, and the steel keeps them from opening up.
You can usually walk on a new slab within 48 hours, but concrete takes about 28 to 30 days to fully cure, which is the slow hardening that gives it strength. It's worth waiting about a week before putting heavier loads on it.
It's worth asking about if your ground shrinks and swells. The trade group for post-tensioned concrete calls it a cost-efficient, high-performance choice for home foundations on that kind of soil, because squeezing the slab helps it resist the ground moving, and says it keeps cracks fewer and tight and can often go in faster than a comparable rebar slab. Your engineer makes the call, and we talk it through when we first see your plans.
Plan for slab moisture before you choose the flooring. Water vapor moving up through a slab can make moisture-sensitive adhesives and coatings fail, which can lift, warp or discolor the floor and possibly lead to fungal growth. That's why I ask about flooring on the first visit, so the slab gets built with it in mind.
Have plans that show the location, dimensions and setbacks of what you're building, because Antioch's building permit requirements ask for all three. Add a rough slab size and the flooring you're planning, and I can give you a solid price after one visit.
Related services for new slab projects
Foundation installation
When the plans call for a raised floor and crawl space instead of a slab, the house needs foundation walls poured on footings, built to your engineer's layout.
Concrete parking lot building
Business owners putting up a shop or warehouse usually need parking and drive aisles too, graded to drain and thick enough for delivery trucks and daily traffic.
Service areas we cover from Antioch
Excel Antioch Concrete Company is based in Antioch, California, and builds slabs across the 12 cities listed below, including Brentwood and Concord. Those are the cities with their own page, and we work in plenty of places in between.
Antioch, CA
Get your slab foundation priced on site
Slab type and flooring are easiest to settle before your plans are final, so the earlier I see your lot, the more choices you still have.