Concrete footings in Santa Clara CA - a solid base under the wall you're building

Most footing calls start with something you're planning to build, like a retaining wall, and the footing is the part nobody sees once the wall is up. The price mostly follows how deep the footing goes, then how long the run is and how hard your yard is to work in. The schedule depends on whether the city wants a permit, and on having the trench dug and formed before the concrete truck is booked. I'll measure it and give you a written estimate that spells out what's included, so you can see exactly what you're paying for.

A footing is all base, and nobody will see it once the wall goes up, which is why it's the last place we'd cut to save money. The work starts on paper. We write the planned depth on every footing estimate, because depth is a big part of what you're paying for and it makes our bid easy to compare with others. On the job, our crew digs the trench to that depth, clears the loose dirt out of the bottom and builds the forms that hold the concrete's shape. All of that prep is finished before the truck shows up, the way a kitchen is set before the first order comes in, so the pour goes in calm and steady instead of rushed.

Some footings run into old concrete. If the trench has to pass through an existing patio or walk, our concrete cutting saws a clean, straight edge so we don't break out more than we need to. If the real problem is a house that has already settled, that's foundation raising, a different job that we also do.

Santa Clara requires a building permit to build or alter any building or structure. Its list names decks, sheds and retaining walls but not footings, so the list alone doesn't settle whether your footing needs a permit. We look into that while we put your estimate together and check with the city for your address. When we're the ones pulling the permit, we handle the paperwork. It all goes in through the city's online permit portal, because Santa Clara takes every application and file electronically.

We're based in Santa Clara and work across the city and the cities around it. A lot of the footings we pour here go under backyard walls on lots with narrow side yards, where getting the digging and the concrete to the back can take more planning than the pour itself. We see the same tight access on jobs in Sunnyvale and Campbell.