Concrete parking lot building in Pembroke Pines FL - a lot built for your traffic

Most owners who call us have a gravel or patched lot that ruts and leaves pooling water, or a new building that needs parking, and they want to know what they're signing up for. The price moves with the size of the lot, the traffic it has to carry, how much digging and fill the ground needs, and how much drainage, curbing, striping and lighting goes in with it. The schedule usually turns on the design and permit side more than the pour itself, and when your job needs a permit we take care of the application and the paperwork the city asks for as part of the work. At the estimate I walk the job with you and explain what's in the price, so you know what each line is for before you decide.

On a parking lot I first ask about your engineer's drawings and drainage approvals and where they stand, because nothing gets poured until those are settled. Then we talk through the traffic the lot will carry, since a lot that sees delivery trucks every day needs a different surface than one that sees cars and the odd van. On the job we dig out to firm subgrade, the soil the slab actually sits on, and pack the base in layers so the slab doesn't sink with loose dirt underneath it. We set forms to the grades and thickness on the drawings, lay rebar, the steel that holds the slab together if it cracks, where the design calls for it, and pour early in the day so the Florida heat doesn't leave a weak, dusty top. A broom finish gives tires and shoes some grip when it's wet, and we cut control joints, shallow grooves that give the concrete a straight line to crack along, as soon as the slab can take the saw. Then traffic waits while it cures, which is the time concrete needs to gain strength, so cars stay off until it's ready and heavy trucks wait longer. If the budget gets tight, I'd rather you save on the finish than on the base, because nobody sees the base on day one and it's the part that decides whether your lot stays flat.

A lot usually comes with work around it. Light poles stand on concrete footings, and we can pour those as part of the same job so the bases line up with the layout. If the building beside the lot has a slab that's sunk or cracked, it's worth looking at foundation raising first, because the lot has to meet the building at the right height and we'd rather match a level floor than a sinking one.

Drainage is the rule that shapes a lot here, because a slab that size changes where the rain goes. Broward County requires a license before anyone paves, grades, builds drainage or adds hard surfaces that change how surface water flows, though that rule doesn't apply inside an independent water control district. Inside its own district, the South Broward Drainage District reviews all proposed drainage work, including grading, parking areas, swales and retention systems. Which of these rules apply to your lot depends on whether the property sits in an independent water control district, so we sort that out early, and if it's unclear we check with the city's building office before anything starts.

The ground here is low and flat, and a study of Broward County found that higher sea level can cut how much water the soil holds and drains, which raises the flood risk in heavy rain. So we check where the water runs before we set a single grade, and we slope the slab to carry it to the drains your engineer laid out instead of toward the building. We're based in Pembroke Pines and work across the cities around it in Broward and Miami-Dade, and we see the same flat, slow-draining ground on jobs in Miramar and Davie.