Driveways, slabs, patios and commercial flatwork placed by a crew that prices the rock and handles the permit before the first truck arrives.
Leander Elite Concrete has placed, repaired and replaced concrete across Leander, TX for more than 20 years, covering driveways, slabs and pads, patios, pool decks, sidewalks, retaining walls, decorative finishes and commercial flatwork. We work the whole job rather than one slice of it, from the first look at what is under your lot through the permit packet, the forming and steel, the pour itself and the day the surface is ready to carry a vehicle.
Most of what separates concrete that lasts from concrete that fails is decided before a truck arrives. The subgrade, the cushion under the slab, where the steel sits, where the joints fall and how the surface is cured are all set in the first two days of a job, and none of them is visible once the work is finished. We tell you what we are doing at each of those points and why, because that is the part of the price you cannot inspect later.
The other half of the work here is procedural. A driveway in this city is a plan reviewed permit rather than a counter transaction, blasting is prohibited outright, and the approach inside the right of way is built to a published detail with a slope the city will make a contractor rebuild if it is wrong. We handle that side as part of the job, not as a surprise that arrives after you have signed.
What we do
Concrete contractors serving Leander, TX
Crack repair, slab lifting, trip hazard grinding and full replacement for residential and commercial concrete in Leander, TX.
Foam and slurry lifting for settled driveways, walks, patios and interior slabs across Leander, TX, with the cause fixed first.
New concrete driveways in Leander, TX built to the adopted approach detail, with the permit packet and rock excavation priced up front.
Stamped patios, walkways, entries and pool decks in Leander, TX, with color and sealer chosen for how they age outdoors.
Shop floors, shed pads, RV parking, generator and equipment bases in Leander, TX, built on a verified subgrade.
Backyard concrete patios in Leander, TX, sized around how you will use them and graded so water leaves the house.
New and replacement concrete pool decks in Leander, TX, specified for wet grip, summer heat and drainage away from the shell.
Driveway approaches and aprons in Leander, TX built to the city's adopted detail and slope, permit packet and culvert included.
Front walks, garden paths, public sidewalks and trip hazard repair in Leander, TX, built and jointed to stay level.
Poured concrete retaining, terraced and site walls in Leander, TX, built with real drainage and controlled backfill.
Stamped, colored, stained, polished and exposed aggregate concrete in Leander, TX, with the sealer and its upkeep quoted up front.
Parking lots, curb and gutter, approaches, accessible routes and dumpster pads in Leander, TX, phased around a working site.
We have been building driveways, slabs, flatwork and commercial concrete in and around Leander for over 20 years, which is long enough to have poured on the shallow limestone west of town, the deep shrink swell clay elsewhere, and the calcareous loam in between. That history is why we quote from what is under your particular lot rather than from what the last job in the subdivision cost.
Every driveway here needs a Type I residential submittal, and we prepare it: the street accessed, the driveway location and width, the curb radius, the culvert type and size, utilities, easements and any tree over eight caliper inches. A homeowner assembling that alone usually discovers the tree survey requirement after the first rejection, rather than before the clock starts.
Section 3.13.042 inverts the usual deemed approval rule in Leander, so if no notice comes back within ten working days the applicant may assume the permit has been denied. No job of ours reads silence as a yes; we track that clock and follow up inside it, rather than waiting politely while a start date quietly evaporates.
Blasting is prohibited in Leander and temporary rock crushing is not allowed either, so every foot of limestone on your lot comes out mechanically with a hydraulic breaker or rock saw. We look at the soil map components and the lot itself and price that excavation into the proposal, rather than discovering indurated rock halfway through and returning with a change order.
All reinforcing on our jobs sits on rebar chairs, equidistant from top and bottom, never laid on the subgrade or the cushion and walked into place afterward. Steel resting on the ground does nothing for a slab in tension, so we have it inspected before concrete goes in rather than after, when the only remaining evidence is a crack.
Every permit under Chapter 3 carries a bond or a cash deposit scaled to the estimated cost of construction, and it reaches ordinary residential work rather than stopping at commercial jobs. We tell you which band your project lands in at proposal time, rather than letting a deposit requirement surface as a delay the week you expected concrete.
A concrete job runs from investigating the subgrade through excavation, base, forming, reinforcing, the pour, finishing, jointing and curing, then a wait before the surface takes load. We sequence and schedule all of it in one contract. That matters because the handoffs between excavation, steel and finishing are where most residential concrete work goes wrong.
Leander prohibits blasting outright, and temporary rock crushing is not permitted either, which removes the fast route through limestone that contractors use elsewhere. Every foot of rock comes out mechanically instead. We price that method into the bid from the start, so the excavation line on your proposal is the one you actually pay.
Indurated limestone and caliche are broken with a hydraulic breaker or cut with a rock saw, both slower and more expensive per yard than digging soil. We measure how much of it sits in your excavation footprint before quoting. Knowing that number in advance is the difference between a fixed price and an open-ended dig.
Leander is three excavation problems in one city: shallow rock on the west and south sides, deep shrink swell clay elsewhere, and a nearly inert calcareous loam in between. The same driveway does not cost the same on each. We identify which one your lot sits on rather than transferring a price from the subdivision next door.
A driveway crosses from private property into the city right of way, and the two halves are built under different rules. We build the private side to your design and the public side to the City of Austin standard detail Leander adopts. Getting that boundary right is what keeps a finished driveway from failing inspection.
Shop floors, shed pads, RV parking, generator pads and equipment bases each carry a different load and need a different thickness, base and reinforcing plan. We size them to what will actually stand on them. A pad poured to driveway thickness under a loaded trailer cracks along the wheel paths within a season.
Below the concrete sits compacted subgrade, then flexible base or crusher screenings, then a vapor retarder meeting ASTM E1745 where the slab is enclosed. We verify compaction against a standard Proctor result rather than eyeballing it. Everything above a soft subgrade eventually settles into it, no matter how good the concrete is.
Fiber mesh controls shrinkage cracking in the surface; it does not replace steel carrying load across a crack that has already opened. We use rebar or 6x6 W1.4 x W1.4 welded wire fabric where structural continuity matters and fiber where it genuinely helps. Sold as equivalents, they produce very different slabs five years on.
A post-tensioned slab uses unbonded single strand tendons stressed after the concrete gains strength, designed under PTI DC10.1, and it is the standard answer on expansive clay. We work on and around them, including locating tendons before any cutting. Cutting blind into a stressed slab is dangerous and can release load across the whole panel.
Heat shortens working time, and a ready-mix load under ASTM C94 has a limited window from batching to placement once it is on the truck. We schedule summer pours early, adjust the mix with a water reducing admixture under ASTM C494 rather than adding water on site, and cure with a membrane curing compound meeting ASTM C309.
Concrete shrinks as it cures, and some cracking is expected rather than defective; what matters is width, location and whether it follows a joint. We inspect and tell you which category yours falls into. That answer determines whether it belongs on a builder’s warranty list or is simply how the slab relieved stress.
A new home’s one-year walkthrough is the last easy chance to have concrete defects addressed by the builder. We look at driveways, walks and patios before that window closes and document what we find. Items raised after the walkthrough usually become the homeowner’s expense regardless of when they actually appeared.
A control joint, or weakened plane joint, is a deliberate line of weakness that decides where a slab will crack. We cut them with an early-entry saw at the right depth and spacing. A crack running neatly along a sawcut joint is the joint working, not a failure worth paying to repair.
A slab that has dropped is almost never a concrete problem; it is a void or a compressible layer underneath, usually from erosion, poor original compaction or clay shrinking away in a dry spell. We investigate the cause before proposing a fix, because lifting a slab over an unresolved void simply buys time.
Polyurethane foam lifting is light and fast, mudjacking is heavier and cheaper per hole, and slab grinding removes the high side instead of raising the low one. Each suits a different slab and a different cause. We recommend by what is under the concrete rather than by which equipment we happen to own.
Filling a surface crack above an unsupported slab section returns the appearance without returning the support, so the patch reopens along the same line. We fill the void first, then repair the surface. A repair that skips the first step is the one homeowners end up paying for twice.
A vertical offset in a walk is a liability question as much as a maintenance one, and responsibility depends on whether the walk sits on private property or in the right of way. We grind, replace or level it depending on the offset. Documented remediation is what matters after somebody falls.
Water pooling on a patio or running back toward a foundation is a grade problem, and grade is fixed by replacement or by lifting, not by sealer. We measure fall across the surface before proposing anything. Water directed at a foundation on expansive clay causes far more expensive problems than the flatwork itself.
An isolation joint between a driveway and a garage slab is meant to let the two move independently, and expansion joint filler meeting ASTM D1751 keeps debris out of it. We refill and reseal that joint rather than grouting it solid. Locking two slabs together transfers movement into whichever one is weaker.
Repair makes sense when the cause is resolved, the slab is sound and the defect is local; replacement is honest when the base has failed or the surface is broken across most of its area. We tell you which applies. Spending twice on a slab is a decision made at the estimate, not at the repair.
Stamped concrete prices out as the pattern plus integral color or color hardener, a release agent, and the sealer that keeps it looking like the sample. We quote all four together. A stamped patio bid that excludes sealer is not cheaper, it is simply missing a line you will pay for later.
Integral color runs through the slab and fades far less visibly than a surface treatment, while acid stain and water-based stain sit at or near the top. We show weathered samples rather than fresh ones. A color chosen from a new chip alone tends to disappoint by the third summer.
A pool deck has to stay grippy wet and tolerable barefoot in August, and those pull in opposite directions: aggressive texture grips and abrades, smooth trowel is comfortable and slick. We choose a broom or salt finish sized to that trade-off. Sealer choice changes slip resistance as much as the finish does.
A broom finish gives directional grip for drives and walks, salt finish gives a softer pool deck texture, a float finish is open and matte, and a hard trowel finish belongs indoors. We match finish to use and exposure. A trowel finish outdoors is the most common reason a patio is slick when wet.
Exposed aggregate can mean washing the surface paste off a standard mix or specifying the stone under ASTM C33 and designing the look around it. The second costs more and reads far better. We tell you which one a bid describes, because the two are quoted as though they were the same product.
Acid stain reacts with the concrete itself and water-based stain deposits pigment, and both need a slab that is sound, clean and free of a previous film-forming sealer. We test a hidden area first. A slab contaminated with old sealer or curing residue will take color unevenly no matter how it is applied.
Penetrating sealers soak in and change appearance little; film-forming sealers add gloss and wear off in traffic paths. Both need renewal on a schedule that rarely comes up during a quote. We tell you the cadence for what we apply, so resealing is a planned cost rather than a surprise.
New concrete placed beside older concrete will not match, because cement source, aggregate, age and weathering all differ. We say so before the pour and offer border treatments or an intentional contrast instead. Promising an invisible match is the decorative concrete claim most likely to end in disappointment.
A large pour reads as a slab unless it is broken up, so borders, contrasting bands and sawcut patterns give it scale and hide where joints must fall anyway. We lay out the pattern with jointing requirements rather than against them. Decorative lines fighting control joints produce cracks in the wrong places.
Outdoor kitchens, seat walls and fire pit surrounds all sit on flatwork that has to carry them and drain away from the house. We build the slab and the features as one plan, with isolation joints where masonry meets concrete. Retrofitting a heavy feature onto flatwork poured without it cracks the slab.
A driveway in Leander requires a plan reviewed permit rather than a counter transaction, and the Type I residential submittal shows the street accessed, the driveway location and width, the curb radius, culvert type and size, utilities, easements and trees over eight caliper inches. We prepare and submit that packet as part of the job.
Under Section 3.13.042, if no notice comes back within ten working days the applicant may assume the permit has been denied, which is the reverse of the deemed approval rule most people expect. We track that clock rather than reading silence as approval, because assuming a yes here is how a start date is lost.
Every permit issued under Chapter 3 carries a bond or a cash deposit scaled to the estimated cost of construction, and it reaches ordinary residential work rather than only commercial projects. We identify the band your job falls into before you sign. We also carry the public liability and property damage insurance the city requires on bonded work.
Where a driveway crosses a ditch, a culvert carries the flow and a safety end protects the exposed pipe, built to Leander standard details 202-2 and 202-3. Sizing follows the drainage, not the driveway width. We size and detail both in the submittal, because an undersized culvert is rejected at review or fails later.
Every approach carries a uniform two percent slope inside the right of way, and we build residential to COA 433S-1 and commercial to COA 433S-2 as drawn. Water standing at the street is the one defect the city makes a contractor rebuild at its own expense, so the slope is set and checked before the pour.
In the Leander extraterritorial jurisdiction most city permits fall away, but a driveway connection remains one of the few still required. We confirm which side of that line a property sits on before starting. Assuming a rural address is unregulated is how an otherwise finished driveway ends up needing after-the-fact approval.
Commercial work crosses into site development review, which brings drainage, paving sections and accessibility into the same submittal rather than treating them as separate jobs. We build commercial flatwork and paving to those approved plans, and we keep an updated contractor registration on file with Leander Building Permits and Inspection, which the city requires and charges nothing for.
A parking lot is pavement, COA 430-2 reinforced curb and gutter, striping, wheel stops and bollards protecting what vehicles reach. We build the section and the protection together. Bollards added after a storefront has already been struck cost more than the ones designed into the original layout.
An accessible route needs curb ramps, running and cross slopes within tolerance, and a detectable warning surface at the street, following PROWAG. Larger commercial projects also trigger TDLR architectural barriers review. We build to those tolerances and verify with a level, since a ramp a fraction out of range fails inspection and gets replaced.
A dumpster pad takes a front-loading truck’s concentrated axle load and the abrasion of a steel container dragged across it, so it is a thicker, more heavily reinforced slab than the parking around it. We build pads and loading areas to that duty. A pad poured to lot thickness fails at the container corners first.
We work the hours the approved plans allow, which means nothing overnight and nothing on a weekend without the inspector’s approval arranged four days ahead. On a commercial reconstruction we keep at least half the driveway open at all times. That is what the specification requires and what keeps your tenants trading while the work runs.
Leander Elite Concrete provides concrete-contractor throughout the greater Leander area, with the same crews and the same standards on every job.
Good to know
Price is driven mostly by what is under the lot rather than by square footage. Leander spans shallow rock on the west and south sides, deep shrink swell clay elsewhere and calcareous loam in between, and mechanical rock excavation costs far more per yard than digging soil. Thickness, reinforcing, finish and whether a culvert is involved move it further, which is why we look at the lot before quoting.
Yes. A driveway here is a plan reviewed permit rather than a counter transaction. The Type I residential submittal has to show the street accessed, the driveway location and width, the curb radius, culvert type and size, utilities, easements and trees over eight caliper inches. We prepare and submit that packet as part of the work rather than leaving it with the homeowner.
The concrete itself is usually the shortest part. Plan review, the bond or deposit, excavation and forming all come first, and Section 3.13.042 means a permit is treated as denied if nothing comes back within ten working days, so we track that clock. Once placed, an approach is barricaded for the four days after the pour and opens when the engineer approves it.
We keep an updated registration on file with Leander Building Permits and Inspection, which the city requires of every general contractor and subcontractor and charges nothing for. We also carry the public liability and property damage insurance required before a bonded project starts: one hundred thousand dollars for one person, three hundred thousand for two or more, and one hundred thousand for property in any one accident.
Every permit issued under Chapter 3 carries a bond or a cash deposit scaled to the estimated cost of construction, and it reaches ordinary residential work rather than stopping at commercial jobs. The amount depends on which band your project's estimated cost falls into. We tell you that band at proposal time, so it is part of the decision rather than a delay discovered later.
No. Blasting is prohibited outright in Leander and temporary rock crushing is not allowed either, so every foot of limestone comes out mechanically with a hydraulic breaker or a rock saw. That is slower and more expensive per yard, which is exactly why we assess the rock in your excavation footprint and price it into the proposal instead of raising it midway through.
The specification prescribes it rather than leaving it to the contractor. Item 433S calls for Class A concrete under Section 403.7 of Item 403 on a Type I driveway, and a normal concrete pavement mix under Section 360S.5A on a Type II. We place the mix the detail requires and control slump and water-cement ratio rather than adding water on site to make placing easier.
They do different jobs and are not substitutes. Fiber mesh reduces shrinkage cracking in the surface, while rebar or welded wire reinforcement carries load across a crack once it has opened. We specify by what the slab has to do, and any steel we place sits on chairs equidistant from top and bottom and is inspected before the pour rather than after.
Later than the surface suggests. Concrete is hard to the touch long before it has gained the strength to carry a vehicle, and the specification barricades a new approach for the four days after placing, opening it when the engineer approves rather than when it looks ready. We give you a date for your specific pour and cure it properly rather than shortening the wait.
Both, and we will tell you which one your slab justifies. Repair is right when the underlying cause is resolved, the slab is sound and the defect is local. Replacement is the honest answer when the base has failed or the surface is broken across most of its area. Lifting or patching a slab over an unfilled void only buys a little time.
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