Foundation installation in Berkeley CA - the right type for your lot and budget
Building new, adding on or replacing a foundation, and stuck between slab and raised? We'll go over your lot and plans before anything gets poured.
Should your Berkeley foundation be a slab or raised?
Foundation installation in Berkeley means building the concrete your house stands on. It's either a slab-on-grade, one continuous slab poured right on the ground, or a raised foundation that lifts the floor up over a crawlspace, so the house has a solid, level base.
People call us about foundations when they're building a new house or an addition, or when an older house sits on a foundation that has to be replaced. Either way, the first real decision is slab or raised, and since that's hard to undo once concrete is in the ground, I'd rather we talk it through before anyone prices a pour.
What moves the price is the size and shape of the footprint, which type you choose, how much digging and hauling the lot needs and what your engineer's plans call for. The schedule turns on permit review, the weather around pour day and curing, the wait while concrete gains strength before anything gets built on it, and your written estimate puts a figure on your own job.
- New slab-on-grade and raised foundations for new houses, additions and older homes whose foundation has to go.
- A check of where water runs across the lot, so the plan moves it away from the foundation.
- Help sorting out permits, since we look up which office covers your address before we price it.
What happens when you call us about a new foundation?
I come out to look at every foundation job myself, and our crew does the forming, pouring and finishing with me running it. Here's the order things happen in, from your first call to the final walk.
Call or send a request
Call (510) 345-1330 or send a request through the form, and we'll set a time for me to come out. Tell us whether you're building new or replacing a foundation, since that shapes what I look at first.
I measure and estimate on site
I come out myself to look at the lot, measure it and go over slab versus raised with you. You get a written estimate that spells out the work and the price, so you can compare it with other bids.
We permit, prep and pour
Once you say yes, we take care of any permit steps, then our crew preps the ground, builds the forms, pours and finishes. We keep you posted ahead of pour day, because that's the date the rest of the job lines up behind.
We walk the finished work
When the concrete's in, I walk the finished foundation with you and explain what was built and why. It's your chance to ask anything before the framing goes up on top of it.
What foundation and slab work looks like along the way
These photos show the kind of work that goes into a concrete job, from forms and steel to the pour and finish. They're examples of the trade, so ask me on site what your own foundation will look like.
Terracotta-colored stamped concrete patio with a diagonal grid sits outside a white house.
Wide concrete patio with a low retaining wall and steps beside a dark brick house and sloping lawn.
Curved brown stamped concrete patio with a block pattern beside a house and lawn.
Stamped concrete patio with a curved stone seating wall, fire pit, dining table and Adirondack chairs in a wooded yard.
Large stone-finished concrete patio surrounds a blue swimming pool and spa behind a suburban home.
Gray stamped concrete steps with textured stone-like risers climb through landscaped garden beds to a front door.
Book a site visit for your foundation, soils report in hand
Call (510) 345-1330 or send the form, and we'll reply within one business day to set a time for me to come out. The estimate is free, done at your property and in writing, with no pressure to book.
(510) 345-1330Questions Berkeley owners ask about new foundations
These are the questions I hear most when someone's weighing a new or replacement foundation. If yours isn't here, ask me when I come out to look at the lot.
Should I build a slab or a raised foundation on my Berkeley lot?
It mostly comes down to your budget, the look you want for the house and your soils report, according to the engineering firm's guide I mentioned above. That guide singles out the expansion index, the soils report's measure of how much the ground swells when it gets wet, as the number to bring to the first design talk.
How much does a slab foundation cost in the San Francisco Bay Area?
An installed slab foundation in the San Francisco area usually costs about $7 to $18 per square foot. That's the going market range, not our price, and where your job falls in it comes down to the things I listed at the top of this page.
What is the best way to build a foundation on expansive clay?
Where a layer of expansive clay sits under the site, that same guide describes drilling deep piers, shafts a rig bores down through the clay until they reach stable soil or bedrock. Whether your lot needs them is your engineer's call from the soils report, and we build to those drawings.
Can a new owner in Berkeley get transfer tax money back for foundation work?
Yes, if the work qualifies, because Berkeley's Seismic Retrofit Rebate can refund up to a third of the transfer tax you paid, and the city's list includes repairing or replacing a substandard foundation and bolting the foundation to the mudsill, the wood sill the house frame sits on. You have up to one year after the sale is recorded with Alameda County to finish the work and file, so bring it up at the estimate if you've just bought the house.
Will my new concrete foundation crack?
Some fine cracking is normal, because concrete shrinks a little as it cures and dries, and nobody honest can promise a crack-free foundation. What matters is that a hairline crack stays a hairline, and that comes down to the ground work and steel I described above.
How do I find the right kind of contractor for a foundation in California?
Look for a concrete contractor, the trade California's Contractors State License Board describes as one who forms, pours, places, finishes and installs concrete work. We're licensed and fully insured, and I'm happy to go over how we'd run your job when I come out.
Foundation installation in Berkeley and the cities around it
Berkeley asks for a building permit and separate plans for seismic work like replacing a substandard foundation, and we ask its Permit Service Center about new ones. When one applies, we handle it, as we do in Oakland and Albany.