Here's a truth most crews won't say out loud: by the time the concrete truck arrives, your slab's fate is already decided. Everything that matters happened in the days before — in the dirt.
Step 1: Get the bad ground out
Topsoil, roots, and organic material rot and compress — they have no business under a slab. Loose fill from old grading is worse: it looks solid and settles for years. The prep starts with removal, down to ground that can actually carry a load.
Step 2: Build the base
Compacted stone, placed and mechanically compacted — not dumped and raked smooth. The base does three jobs on clay: spreads loads so no single soft spot takes the full weight, creates a drainage layer so water doesn't sit against the clay and swell it, and gives the slab a uniform surface so it cures evenly.
If fill is needed to bring a pad up to grade, it goes in lifts — thin layers, each compacted before the next. Fill dumped in one deep push and compacted only on top is a settlement problem wearing a disguise.
Step 3: Set the steel
Rebar tied into a grid and set on chairs so it rides mid-slab. During the pour, the crew keeps it there — steel that gets walked down to the dirt during placement spends the slab's whole life doing nothing.
Step 4: Prove it
This is the step almost everybody skips, and the one we built the company around. All of the above disappears under gray on pour day and can never be inspected again. So before any truck is scheduled, Bradley photographs the base depth and the tied steel and texts it to your phone.
The pour is the show. The prep is the job.
