Concrete Contractor in Santa Barbara, CA - Driveways and Patios Built to Drain Right

Inside the city limits, the City of Santa Barbara's Building and Safety Division prepares and issues building permits, and the city's Permit Center helps with permits and approvals for construction. If your address falls under the county instead, it's a different office, so we check which one covers you first. When your job needs a permit, we handle the application and set up the inspections.

For a project you're starting now, it's the 2025 California Building Standards Codes, also called Title 24, which state law has the city enforcing from January 2, 2026. A project submitted on or before December 17, 2025, may still follow the 2022 edition instead, and we confirm which one applies with the city before we plan the work.

Ask the city's Permit Center, where counter staff answer questions, or let us check it for you when we come out. The city's newer code changes revised the wall heights that call for a building permit, and its older checklist of exempt work was written before them, so the two don't always line up. Work that's exempt from a building permit can still fall under other city divisions, which is why we check before we pour.

I can't give you a fair number until I've seen your lot, because most of the cost here sits in what happens before the pour. Tearing out and hauling off the old driveway, digging out soft ground, getting a truck or pump up a narrow or sloped drive and adding rebar, the steel bars that hold the slab together, all add to it. A broom finish, the brushed texture that gives tires and shoes grip, costs less than stamped or colored concrete, so call (805) 285-4985 and I'll come out and write your number.

You can walk on a new slab well before you can drive on it, because concrete keeps gaining strength long after it's hard to the touch, and a car on it too early can crack it. The wait depends on the mix and the weather the week we pour, so I'll give you both waits for your job before we start, along with the tear-out and base work that come first.

Most cracks come from a soft base, water getting under the slab, joints cut late or skipped, or a pour in midday heat that leaves the top weak and dusty. Concrete shrinks as it hardens, so some cracking is normal, and control joints, the straight grooves we cut across the slab, give it a place to crack where you won't notice. We pack the base, set the slope, time the pour and cut the joints on time, so if your slab cracks, it usually cracks in the joints.