Concrete parking lot building in Riverside CA - slabs built for the traffic they carry

Yes, if the lot is 5,000 square feet or more and open to stormwater, and the city won't issue a grading or building permit until it approves that plan. Replacing 5,000 square feet or more of paving on a developed site counts too, though routine upkeep that keeps the original line and grade doesn't. The city also wants the plan's covenant, a recorded promise tied to the property, before any permit, so it pays to start that step early. When we're the ones applying, I bring our license paperwork to the counter.

Plan for it from the start, because the city's stormwater permit asks development projects to soak in, collect and reuse, evaporate or plant-treat runoff on the site itself. Pavement guides count parking areas as an ideal place for pervious concrete, and where the rules apply, only part of the lot, such as the parking stalls, may need it. One pervious pavement guide advises vacuum sweeping large pervious lots at least twice a year to clear out sediment and debris, so it does need some upkeep.

Concrete slab work in Riverside usually runs about $7 to $14 per square foot, and that's the going rate for slabs and pads in general, not a whole-lot price and not ours. A full lot can bring costs a slab price may not include, like stormwater steps, joint sealing or tearing out an old lot. Your written estimate spells out what's included and what isn't.

Trucks can use a concrete lot whose joints are built for them, because under heavy truck traffic, joints without dowels, steel bars that link slabs across a joint, can leave one slab edge sitting lower than the next. Pervious sections are different, since the same pervious guide says to keep large vehicles from regularly driving or turning around on them. If trucks use your lot, tell me at the start and we'll plan the joints and the truck routes to suit.

Concrete shrinks and swells as it cures and as temperatures change, and that movement has to crack the slab somewhere. Control joints decide where, which makes the joint layout part of the lot's design rather than an afterthought. That's why I settle the layout with you at the estimate, not on pour day.

Yes, if the work needs a permit of any kind, because California's Contractors State License Board requires a contractor's license whenever it does. A Riverside lot big enough to need a stormwater plan also needs a grading or building permit, so it falls under that rule. We're licensed and fully insured.