Concrete Contractor in Morganton & Western North Carolina

A standard four-inch reinforced slab runs about $7 to $12 per square foot installed around here, which puts a 24x24 garage slab at roughly $4,000 to $7,000. Thicker slabs, tough access, heavy site prep, or a long pump reach all push that number up. Site prep is usually the swing factor, which is why we quote the ground and the concrete as one job.

Four inches covers foot traffic, patios and passenger-vehicle driveways just fine. Bump to five or six inches with rebar anywhere trucks, RVs, trailers or equipment are going to sit or turn. On soft or clay subgrade, honestly, the base under the slab matters as much as what's poured on top of it.

Hairline surface cracks in an otherwise solid slab are cosmetic. Seal them and move on. Replacement's the honest answer once sections have settled to different heights, the edges are crumbling and spalling across a wide area, cracks are wide enough to catch a fingernail and still growing, or the base underneath has washed out. Patching a slab sitting on a failed base just buys you a year.

You can walk on it in a day or two. Keep passenger vehicles off for at least a week, and heavy trucks or equipment for a full 28 days, and that's when it hits full design strength. Cold weather slows all of that down further.

All concrete cracks as it cures and shrinks. The real question is whether it cracks where you want it to. Control joints cut in the right places, correct thickness, proper reinforcement, a compacted base, and not over-watering the mix on pour day. That's what keeps cracking to the planned joints instead of a random line straight across the middle of your slab.