Garage floor concrete in Winston-Salem NC - a floor that holds up under your car

A new concrete slab in Winston-Salem usually costs about $6 to $12 per square foot, before any staining or stamping. That's the going rate in the area, not our price, and when an old slab has to come out, tearing it out adds to that. Your written estimate spells out what's in it.

The usual guidance is that you can walk on new concrete within 48 hours, but to be safe, give it a week before heavier loads like your car. Concrete keeps curing, slowly hardening and gaining strength, for a month, so any coating should wait that long.

It can, because general guidance says well-placed joints control and limit cracks but no joint plan prevents them entirely. That's why the joint layout is worth asking about before the pour. Control joints are cuts that give the slab a straight place to crack, and isolation joints let the floor move apart from the driveway and walls.

A slab of 4 inches is the practical standard for parking cars on well-prepared ground, according to general national guidance. Where the ground under it is poor, that rises to 5 or 6 inches, so I look at what your slab will sit on before I put a thickness in the estimate.

Not for a bare floor in an unheated garage, where general guidance says a broom-finished slab, the lightly brushed texture that gives tires grip, doesn't need one. If you plan an epoxy or polyaspartic coating, or to heat and finish the garage later, a vapor retarder under the slab is worth having, so tell me at the estimate.

The City-County Inspections Division issues building permits across Forsyth County, except inside the limits of High Point, Kernersville and King, and every application is made online. Whether your floor needs a permit is a question for the office that covers your address, so we ask and handle the application and inspections when one is needed.

By state law, a general contractor must be licensed when the total project cost is $40,000 or more, according to North Carolina's general contractor licensing board. Whatever your job costs, ask whoever you hire whether they're licensed and insured, as we are.