Concrete Contractor in Bellefontaine, OH - Driveways and Patios That Drain and Stay Put

Maybe, and it's worth checking before the pour, because the county's permit list doesn't settle it for driveways or patios. The Logan County Building Authority issues building permits for building, repairing or altering any building or structure, and its permit list names work like wiring, gas lines and pools but not flatwork, the driveways, patios and walks that lie on the ground, though it does list a residential retaining wall under 4 feet tall as needing no permit. Before we schedule, we check which office covers your address and tell you what we find, and when a permit is needed we handle the application or help with the parts you sign.

Every building application to the Building Authority has to include a zoning permit, a health department approval and a floodplain determination, and work around Indian Lake also needs a sanitary sewer review. That matters most for slab foundations, footings and additions, so we start on those pieces as part of the permit check we do before scheduling.

The Building Authority inspects Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and asks for at least 24 hours' notice, which you give by calling 937-592-7473. A call by 2:30 p.m. gets a next-day inspection, so when one is required we line up the pour for after the inspector has been out and order the concrete once that's done.

Detached family homes in Ohio fall mostly under the state's residential code, not the Ohio Building Code that covers most other buildings. The Ohio Building Code is built on the International Building Code with Ohio's own changes, which matters if you own a small shop or office and are adding a slab or foundation there, and we check which one your job falls under when we look into the permit.

Your price comes down to the driveway's size and thickness, whether the old slab has to be broken out and hauled away, and how much digging and base work the ground under it needs. A stamped or colored finish costs more than a plain broom finish, and rebar, a tight older lot or a long reach for the truck add to it as well, so I'll put what your job includes in writing when I come out.

Most cracks come from a base that settled, water working under the slab or no joints to give the concrete a place to crack, and honestly any slab can still crack some because concrete shrinks as it dries and moves with the seasons. We pack the base, slope the patio away from the house and cut control joints, shallow grooves that steer a crack into a straight line where it won't show, early enough to do their job. Then we keep the slab damp while it cures, the slow hardening over its first days, because concrete that dries too fast ends up with a weak, dusty top.