Concrete steps construction in Tacoma WA - a finish that holds your footing in the rain

Most calls start with steps that have cracked, pulled away from the house or settled until one step sits lower than the rest, and that usually traces back to a base that was never dug out and packed. The price moves with how many steps you need, how wide the run and landing are, whether old concrete has to come out, whether you go with poured or precast and whether a railing goes in. The schedule turns on how busy the season is and the weather around the pour, and I'll give you your own figure in a written estimate once I've seen the site.

I start by looking at where your steps start and where they land, because a run that meets the sidewalk or needs a railing changes the plan before we dig. Our crew breaks out the old steps, digs down to firm ground and packs a gravel base in layers, since the subgrade, the ground the steps sit on, decides whether they settle later. Then we build the forms and set rebar, steel bars that hold the concrete together if it cracks. After the pour we give the treads a textured outdoor finish that holds your footing, and we let the concrete cure, the slow hardening it needs before it can take full use, before we strip the forms and clean up. If the budget gets tight, I'd rather keep the money in the base than in a fancier surface, because nobody sees the base on day one but it's the reason the steps stay put.

New steps often tie into other concrete work at the house. If you're adding a room or a garage, we handle slab foundation building and foundation installation too, so we can set the landing at the right height for the new door instead of guessing.

The city usually wants to hear about new steps. Its permit office, Tacoma Planning and Development Services, issues Alteration permits for repairs, remodels and changes to existing structures, and stairs and landings are on that list. Do your front steps come down to the sidewalk? Then there's a second permit to think about, because the city treats the sidewalk and planting strip as public right-of-way and issues separate right-of-way permits for sidewalk and curb work, and your property line often isn't where the sidewalk sits. Before work starts we check which office covers your address and what it will want to see, and when the job calls for a permit we handle the paperwork.

Rain is the other thing that shapes steps here. Western Washington's wet weather makes a solid gravel base matter even more, and concrete cures slower when it's cool and wet, so we give fresh steps the time they need instead of going by the calendar. We see the same soggy ground on jobs in Lakewood and Parkland, and we plan those the same way.