The Questions to Ask Any Concrete Contractor, Including Us

The questions that reveal a concrete contractor’s quality are about what you can’t see: base preparation, steel placement, joint spacing, insurance, and whether the scope comes itemized in writing. Specific answers show you the job; vague ones show you the callback.

Every concrete contractor sounds the same on the phone, because the phone is where concrete is easiest. The differences show up underground and in writing, so the useful questions are the ones that drag those into the open before anything is signed. This is the list we’d use to hire in our own trade, and we mean the title: ask us every one of these. A good contractor enjoys these questions, because they’re the rare chance to explain work that’s usually invisible. Our Austin service area page covers who we are; this guide is how to check anyone, including us.

Ask what goes under the concrete

The single most predictive question: what base are you putting down, and how are you compacting it? The answer should name material, depth, and compaction in lifts, and on Austin clay it should say something about the subgrade too. A contractor who says the ground is fine as-is is quoting you a slab that inherits whatever the ground decides to do. Follow with the steel question: what reinforcement, and how is it held in the middle of the slab? Rebar on chairs is an answer. Mesh pulled up into the pour by hand is a coin flip you’ll pay for later.

Ask what the finished slab includes

Thickness, and where it varies: aprons, edges, anything carrying real weight. Joint spacing, and who cuts them, since same-day cutting is the difference between planned cracks and random ones. Finish, and what its maintenance schedule honestly is. And drainage: which direction does this slab shed water, and what happens to it then? If a contractor hasn’t thought about where the water goes, the base question from a minute ago didn’t matter, because the best-compacted base still erodes under a slab that ponds.

Ask for the paper: scope, insurance, warranty

Three documents tell you who you’re dealing with. An itemized written scope, listing base depth, steel, thickness, joints, finish, tear-out, and access as separate lines; our guide to reading an itemized quote shows what those lines mean, and a lump-sum number that can’t be broken apart is a quote you can’t compare or enforce. A certificate of insurance, sent as the document, not claimed in the sales pitch. And the warranty in writing, including what voids it. [CONFIRM process observation: e.g., what we notice on jobs we’re called to redo is that the homeowner almost never has a written scope from the first contractor, which is exactly why the corners could be cut.]

Ask about the crew and the schedule

Who is actually on my property: your crew, or a sub I haven’t met? Both models can work, but the answer should be immediate and unembarrassed, and it should stay the same when you ask again a week later. Crews change; what you’re listening for is whether the contractor knows who’s showing up and stands behind them. Who runs the pour day, and is it the person who measured? When is the pour, given the season, since a summer slab in Austin should be an early-morning story, and a contractor pouring at noon in July is telling you how they finish. And what happens after: when can I walk on it, park on it, build on it, and who do I call if something’s wrong in month six?

The answers we’d give

Since we’re asking you to ask: our scopes itemize every line above, our steel goes on chairs in every pour, we’re fully insured [CONFIRM: certificate on file] and the certificate arrives before the crew does, and the person who measures your project is at the pour. You can meet the crew first on our About page, and when you’re ready to put the claims to the test, set up the interview and interview us with this list in hand. We’d genuinely rather win the job on these answers than on a number, because the number only gets paid once and the answers have to stay true for years. The permits question deserves its own answer: we’re your permit partners, we’ll tell you what your project triggers with the city, and that conversation happens at the quote, not after.

Questions we hear on this topic