A slab is a flat pour of concrete sitting on ground that has been prepared to carry it: a garage floor, a shed pad, a base for a generator or a hot tub, a patio meant to last. The pad holds weight. What actually holds it up is not the surface you look at but the compacted stone underneath, the thickness of the pour, and the rebar or wire mesh set in the middle of the slab instead of lying on the dirt. We are a concrete contractor, and flatwork is most of what we do.
Work starts with layout and grade, then forms, then base material compacted in lifts, then steel tied and chaired. Pour day runs on the truck schedule and the weather, so forms go up early and the finishing happens in one pass. A slab, a driveway apron, a sidewalk running alongside it: same sequence, different scale. We cover Marietta, Georgia, along with Smyrna, Kennesaw, Roswell, Atlanta and the rest of metro Atlanta, on the same terms wherever the address sits. Around Marietta Square, retail and restaurant frontage means commercial concrete often gets poured around business hours.
Most slab problems trace back to something that happened before any concrete arrived. Base stone left loose settles, and the slab follows it down. Steel dragged along the bottom does nothing. Control joints cut too late, or spaced too far apart, let the slab decide where it wants to crack instead of hiding the crack where you put it. Water that has nowhere to go finds the low spot and stays there. None of these show up on the day of the pour. They show up in the second or third year.
Doing it right costs time on the front end, mostly in grading and base prep, which is the part nobody sees and the part that decides everything. It costs a thicker pour where vehicles or equipment will sit, and it costs cutting joints on the same day rather than the next morning. Finish is a separate decision: a broom finish for grip, exposed aggregate, colored concrete, or stamped concrete when a patio needs to match something nearby. Stamped work adds steps and adds labor, and it is worth saying so plainly rather than pretending otherwise. Call for a free estimate on your slab or pad.
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A slab starts below the surface. We strip topsoil, cut the subgrade flat, and compact it before any concrete arrives, because a slab cracks from what moves under it. Four inches is standard for a patio or shed floor, thicker where vehicles park. We tie rebar on chairs or run wire mesh held up off the ground, not laid flat and hooked mid-pour. Forms get staked square and checked for fall so water leaves.
Pouring is the short part of the job and the least forgiving. We place the load in sections, screed to the forms, then bull float while the surface still has water in it. Working the top too early traps bleed water and leaves a soft, dusty finish that flakes off later. Control joints get cut the same day, roughly a quarter of the slab depth, so the concrete cracks where we put the line instead of somewhere across the middle.
A shed slab wants a thickened edge, usually a footing turned down around the perimeter, so the walls sit on something solid and the corners hold anchor bolts. We size it an inch or two past the building footprint and broom the surface for grip. If the shed sits near a walk, we key the concrete sidewalk into the pad rather than butting them, and we can finish the apron in stamped concrete or a plain slab to match the house.
We walk the site with you and measure the actual pour rather than working off a rough guess. Mostly we are reading drainage: where water runs now, and where it will run once a new slab sits in its way. We look at what is already there, how a truck reaches the pour, and what sits underneath. Around Marietta Square, frontage is tight, and access usually decides how the whole job gets staged.
The estimate comes in writing with dimensions, slab thickness, reinforcement, finish and the jointing plan spelled out, so you can hold it against anyone else's bid line for line. Nothing gets listed as "concrete work" with a figure beside it and no detail behind it. Permit paperwork and inspections are handled where the job calls for them, and the pour is scheduled around that, not squared away afterward.
Old concrete comes out, gets broken down and hauled off, and then the work that matters starts underneath. We excavate to depth, cut out soft spots, and rebuild the base in compacted lifts of graded aggregate. Most failed flatwork we tear out failed right here, not in the mix: loose compaction, a base holding water, forms set to a grade that pushed runoff toward the house instead of away from it.
Forms go in on string line and grade stakes, so slope is settled before any concrete installation begins. Steel follows: rebar tied on chairs for a concrete driveway or anything carrying vehicle weight, wire mesh where loads stay light. Reinforcement belongs in the middle of the slab. Laid flat on the base and tugged up by hand mid-pour, which happens, it ends up sitting low and doing nothing at all.
Finishing begins once bleed water is off the surface: screed, bull float, then the finish you chose. Broom texture gives traction on sidewalks and driveways, stamped and colored concrete carries pattern, exposed aggregate gets washed back to stone. Control joints are cut early, before the slab picks its own crack line. Curing gets watched closely. We walk the finished work with you and say plainly when it takes foot traffic and when it takes a car.
Two slabs of the same size can land far apart on cost, and the reasons are usually visible before anyone breaks ground. Concrete itself is the predictable part. What moves the number is the condition of the site, what a truck can and cannot reach, and how much structure the finished slab has to carry. Most of it you can look at yourself, standing in the yard on a Saturday morning.
| What changes the price | Which way | Why |
|---|---|---|
| An old slab, pavers or a stump where the new pad goes | Costs more | Demolition, breakout and haul off are their own line of work before any concrete arrives. |
| Bare, level ground with clear access on three sides | Costs less | The truck chutes straight into the forms and the crew skips a whole stage of handling. |
| A backyard pour behind a fence, a gate or a tight side yard | Costs more | Concrete has to travel by pump or by buggy, which adds equipment and hours to the same volume. |
| Soft or disturbed subgrade under the footprint | Costs more | The base needs stone, compaction and depth checks so the slab is not resting on something that moves. |
| Rebar on chairs instead of wire mesh | Costs more | Heavier loads, vehicle traffic and thicker flatwork call for real reinforcement, and the steel and tying time show up. |
| Four inches instead of six | Costs less | Thickness is a direct multiple of material, and the deeper pour usually brings more reinforcement with it. |
| Ground that drains away from the house already | Costs less | Less regrading, fewer thickened edges, and no drain work to keep water off the slab and out of the foundation. |
| Stamped, colored or exposed aggregate finish | Costs more | Release agents, mats, integral color and a longer finishing window all sit on top of the flatwork itself. |
Comparing bids, put them side by side on the details rather than the total. Check the slab thickness each one quotes, the reinforcement (mesh or rebar, and what size), the base depth, whether demolition and haul off are included or excluded, and how joints are cut. Two numbers that look different often describe two different slabs. Call for a free estimate and we will walk the site with you.
Yes, for anything you plan to enclose, heat or finish. A sheet of poly under the slab keeps ground moisture from wicking up through the concrete and into flooring, framing or stored goods. We lay it over compacted base, lap the seams, and seal around penetrations. An open carport pad or a plain patio slab is a different case, and we will tell you when it is not needed.
Often, yes. Permits inside the city go through the City of Marietta, and whether one applies depends on what the slab is for, how big it is, and whether anything gets built on top of it. A detached workshop slab is treated differently from a patio extension. We handle the filing and the inspection scheduling as part of the job, and we say up front what your slab requires.
Yes. Cold weather changes how we work rather than whether we work. Concrete gains strength more slowly at low temperatures, so we watch the forecast, adjust the mix, pour earlier in the day, and cover finished flatwork with blankets to hold the heat the concrete generates as it cures. We do not pour onto frozen base, and we will move a date rather than force one.
That depends on the loads. A garden shed holding a mower and hand tools asks less of the slab than a workshop with a lift, a heavy bench, or a vehicle parked on it. Thickness, reinforcement (rebar or wire mesh), and the base under it get decided together, not one at a time. Tell us what goes on the slab and we will size it.
Flat and level are two separate things, and both get checked. Flatness is the ripple across the surface, measured with a long straightedge laid in several directions. Level is the slope, read with a laser. Most exterior slabs are built with deliberate fall so water runs off. Interior slabs get held tight to flat, and we tell you the target before we pour.
It depends on what sits on top. A monolithic pour puts the footing and the slab in one placement, which suits a small structure on ground that grades cleanly. A floating slab sits independent of the foundation walls and works where the structure is heavier or the site is stepped. We look at the site, the building and the drainage, then recommend one.