Concrete that holds on Tampa sand

What sits under the slab in Tampa

Most of Tampa sits on sand. That sounds like good news for concrete, because water drains straight through it instead of sitting there, and in a lot of ways it is. The trouble is that sand moves. Rain running off a roof or down a driveway edge will carry it out from under the slab a little at a time, and the concrete above bridges the gap until it can't. Then you get a crack that follows the void, usually along one wheel track.

The other thing under a Tampa slab is roots. The old streets in Seminole Heights, Tampa Heights and Hyde Park are lined with live oaks, and a live oak sends its roots out shallow and wide, right through the top foot of sand where your driveway happens to be. A root under a slab lifts it, and once one panel is high the joint next to it opens and the whole thing starts to break up. We look at what's growing near the pour before we price it, because cutting a root the tree needs is no fix either.

So the base is where the money goes on a Tampa driveway, and it's the part you never see again. Old material comes out, the sand gets graded and compacted in layers rather than dumped and driven over once, and the edges that carry a vehicle get built up thicker than the middle. Skip that and the pour looks perfect on day one, which is the problem: nothing tells you it was done wrong until the first wet season is over.

• Old slab broken out and hauled away
• Sand base graded and compacted before the pour
• Edges and wheel tracks built up thicker
• Fall set so water leaves the house
• Driveway swept clean before the crew leaves

Working on Tampa's older bungalow streets

A lot of Tampa's older housing sits on narrow lots with a long thin driveway down one side of the house and an alley behind it. Some of those drives are the original pair of ribbon strips with grass between them, and some are patched so many times they're more repair than slab. Getting a truck to the back of a lot like that is half the planning, and on the brick streets in Ybor and parts of Seminole Heights it takes more care again.

Then there's the piece at the front. In most of the older Tampa neighborhoods the public sidewalk runs straight across the driveway, and that panel sits in the city right of way even though it's your car crossing it every day. It has to come out and go back at the right height, tied into the street and into the private drive behind it, or you end up with a lip that catches a bumper and a low spot that holds water after every storm.

Inside the fence it's mostly the same list every week: a patio that has sunk toward the house, a carport pad, a slab for a shed, footings and block for an addition on a house that was never square to begin with. Older Tampa homes settle in their own way, so the new work has to be set off what's actually there, not off what the plan says should be there. We check the fall and the finished height before anybody mixes anything.

Where the water goes after a Tampa storm

Tampa gets its rain in a hurry. An afternoon storm in August can drop more water on a back yard in twenty minutes than the ground can take, and the lots here are flat, so it sits. Add a high water table near the river and the bay and there's nowhere for it to go but sideways. Concrete decides which direction sideways is. A slab poured dead level, or worse, falling back toward the house, turns every storm into water at the door.

So the fall gets set first and the finish follows it. That means a step down where a slab meets a door, and an edge that sends water out to the yard instead of trapping it against block. It also means thinking about where the runoff from the roof lands once the new concrete is in the way of it. Enrique wrote that Jose "responded all my questions and took the time to find a solution to resolve some terrain problems, then water can flow without any problems." That's the same conversation on plenty of Tampa lots.

Heat is the other half of it. Concrete in a Tampa summer stiffens faster than it would anywhere cooler, and a finisher who loses that window leaves a surface that dusts and crazes a year later. Hours here run 6:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday through Saturday, and on a big summer pour the early start earns its keep, because the slab goes down before the sun is fully on it. A large pour also wants enough hands to keep moving, since a cold joint is a crack with a head start.

Getting a price in Tampa

Call (813) 812-1892, tell us the street and what you're standing on, or send the form and we'll come out and look at it. The estimate is free and it comes to you in writing, with the tear-out priced separately from the pour, so you can see where the money is going before you agree to anything. J&M Construction is rated 4.8 from 23 Google reviews, and pricing is the thing reviewers bring up most. Hours are Monday through Saturday, 6:00 AM to 5:00 PM.