Concrete floor installation in Medford MA - a flat slab ready for what goes on top

Most floors we're asked about sit in a basement, a back room or an addition, and the old one is cracked, dusty, damp or about to get covered with something you don't want to lose. The price moves with the size of the floor, how much has to come out first, what goes under the new slab and how fine a finish your covering needs. The schedule turns on whether a permit is needed, the weather and how long the slab cures before your flooring goes down. Your own figure comes in a written estimate that spells out what's included and what isn't.

Before I price anything, we settle what goes on top of the floor and what goes under it, because tile, wood, carpet and a coating each need different prep. On the job, we break out and haul off the old floor if there is one, then dig out and pack the subgrade, the ground the slab sits on, so it doesn't settle later and take the concrete down with it. Next comes the moisture barrier and, where the plan calls for it, rebar, the steel inside the slab that holds it together if it does crack. We set the grade so the floor comes out flat, pour, finish the surface and cut control joints, shallow saw cuts that give the slab a straight line to crack along instead of wandering across the room. On pour day, the finishing and the timing of those cuts are where I put my attention, because finishing too early or too late is what leaves cracks, dust, flaking and high or low spots. Then the floor cures, which means keeping it from drying out too fast while it hardens, since a slab that dries in a hurry ends up weak on top. If a budget gets tight, I'll cut back on the finish before I cut the base work, because nobody sees the base on day one and it's the part that decides whether the floor stays flat.

A floor job often touches the work around it. When a new basement or addition floor meets a doorway with worn steps outside, we can build concrete steps on the same schedule. For an outdoor project, we also pour concrete pool decks, which need a different finish and drainage plan than a floor under your roof.

In Medford, the building official issues the permit you need to build, alter or repair a structure, and the city's list of work that needs no permit names ordinary repairs, not concrete floors. That leaves the call on your floor to the official, so we check with the Medford Building Department before your job goes on the schedule. When a permit is needed, we handle the application and tell you up front that we're the ones pulling it.

A lot of the floors we pour here go into older houses, where the basement slab is patched, cracked or uneven and the only way in is a bulkhead or a narrow side yard. We plan how the concrete gets to the room before pour day, and we run into the same older basements and tight lots on jobs in Somerville and Malden.