Concrete contractor in Kathleen, GA

The new-build driveway problem

Kathleen is the fastest-growing part of Houston County, and most of the houses we visit here are under five years old. The call usually goes the same way: the driveway has dropped half an inch at the garage, there is a diagonal crack off one corner, and the surface near the street is flaking. Measured at an exposed edge, the slab is often 3 to 3.5 inches thick with no steel in it, poured on fill that was never compacted.

• Read the builder warranty first. Many cover structural defects and treat concrete cracking as cosmetic. We will measure the slab, photograph it, and give you a written description of what we see so you have something specific to send the builder.
• If the slab is sound but has settled, foam leveling at $600 to $2,500 puts it back in a morning.
• If it is thin, cracked through, and moving, it comes out. Removal is $2 to $4 per square foot and the new driveway is 4 inches of 4,000 psi concrete with rebar over compacted stone, as described on the driveways page. The full breakdown is in the driveway cost guide.

HOA review in Magnolia Hill, Royal Oaks and the newer communities

HOA architectural review is common in Magnolia Hill, Royal Oaks, Harley Farms South and Planter's Ridge, for patios, driveway extensions and anything visible from the street. We handle the part that trips people up: a scaled drawing with dimensions and setbacks, a written finish description, and a color chip if the work is stamped or tinted. Committees meet on their own schedule, so allow two to four weeks and submit before you ask us for a pour date. In our experience, broom-finish gray and earth-tone stamped work goes through without comment; bright integral colors draw questions.

Kathleen pricing

Kathleen, Bonaire, Perry and Warner Robins are all on one price list. Median listing prices run about $249,000 in Warner Robins and $275,000 in Centerville, with new subdivisions in Kathleen and Bonaire starting near $250,000. At those values a $1,400 to $2,200 patio is one of the few outdoor improvements that photographs well in a listing.

Permits and the sidewalk strip

Kathleen is unincorporated, so permits come from Houston County Building Inspection, 200 Carl Vinson Parkway, Warner Robins, GA 31088, (478) 542-2018, not a city office. A back-yard patio or a same-size driveway replacement usually needs nothing. Two situations do need the county: widening the driveway at the road, and any work that crosses the public sidewalk that runs along most new Kathleen streets. That strip belongs to the county, and when a widened driveway crosses it we file the encroachment permit and pour the crossing to the county's thickness, usually 6 inches.

Georgia requires a licensed residential contractor on any job over $2,500. Our quotes carry the license number of the crew doing your work.

Pouring on lots that were pasture five years ago

Most of Kathleen was pasture and planted pine until the subdivisions came. Developers cut the high side of each lot and fill the low side, so one end of your back yard may be undisturbed red clay and the other three feet of loose fill. Fill keeps settling for years, and a patio that spans the line between the two will crack along it.

So before we form a patio or a shed slab in Kathleen we probe the subgrade, dig out what is soft, and bring in crusher run until the plate compactor stops sinking. Slabs get wire mesh, driveways get rebar on chairs, and joints are saw-cut at 8 to 10 feet. Builders also drop downspouts onto splash blocks that drain across the patio site; we extend them past the slab.