Concrete Parking Lot Building in Junction City KS - a lot that drains and holds up

Calls to Junction City Concrete about a lot usually come from owners whose gravel or asphalt has rutted, holds puddles or breaks up where cars turn, or who have a new building that needs somewhere to park. The price moves with the size of the lot, how much dirt has to come out to reach solid ground, whether an old surface gets torn out first, how much drainage work the site needs and how heavy the traffic will be, and adding curbs or a concrete sidewalk to the door adds to it. The schedule turns on the city's permit and site steps, the weather on pour day and the cure, which keeps the lot closed for a while after the pour. I measure and walk the site with you, then send a written estimate with the figure for your lot.

Before anything is priced, I ask whether garbage trucks, a dumpster or delivery trucks will use the lot, because that changes the design, from how thick the slab runs where they turn to how much rebar, the steel that holds the slab together if it cracks, goes in. Then we check where water runs across the site and set grades so it falls away from buildings and toward somewhere it can go. We dig out to firm subgrade, the ground the slab sits on, and pack the base in layers, since a base that's only raked level settles with the dirt under it and takes the slab down too. We pour early in the day when we can, because a top that dries out in midday heat turns weak and dusty later, then give it a broom finish, a light texture that gives tires and shoes grip in the wet. Control joints, the straight cuts that give the slab a place to crack where we chose, go in on time, and the slab cures, kept damp and closed off, until it's strong enough to use. The base is the part nobody sees on day one and the first thing people want to cut from a budget, and I'd rather spend your money there than on a fancy surface, because a nice finish on a weak base is still a cracked lot in a few winters.

Parking lots rarely come alone. A dumpster enclosure wall, a carport or an addition next to the lot sits on concrete footings, which we can set while the crew is already on site. If a building or slab the lot ties into has settled, foundation raising brings it back up so the new grades line up with it instead of following the low spot.

The city's Building and Codes office takes permit questions, and the city says its permit list shows just a few of the things that need one, so the list alone won't settle it for a parking lot. I check with the city or county office on each job, and when a permit's needed we pull it before work starts and call in the inspections as the job reaches them. When the lot is part of new commercial construction, the city's commercial construction requirements ask for a site plan prepared and signed by a registered Kansas design professional, showing existing easements, where water will drain and how erosion will be controlled, and we build the lot to match that drawing. The city can stop work until erosion and sediment control is in place, and it won't inspect until that control is set and the street is clear of mud and construction debris, so it goes in before we dig and the road gets cleaned as we go. The storm water plan also stays on site until 70 percent of the whole site is covered in vegetation.

We're based in Junction City and work in the cities around it, and the ground behaves much the same on lots in Manhattan and Abilene. Winters here freeze and thaw, and flat sites hold water after a hard rain, so we settle where the water goes before a single form is set.