Reading a Concrete Estimate or Contract in Kansas

The Attorney General's starting points

The Kansas Attorney General's consumer protection pages note that home improvements and repairs are the subject of frequent complaints, and offer tips for choosing a contractor and negotiating a contract (Kansas Attorney General, consumer protection: your home and car). Among them:

• Get at least three written estimates, based on the same work so they can be meaningfully lined up against each other.
• Make sure the contractor meets local licensing and registration requirements; local city or county officials can say what those are.
• Check with the local building inspection department about permits and inspections, and be wary if a contractor asks the homeowner to get the permit.
• Get everything in writing: the work to be done, materials, warranties, timetables, subcontractors, total price and the payment schedule.
• Don't make a final payment or sign a final release until satisfied with the work and confident subcontractors and suppliers have been paid.

Concrete details worth seeing in writing

Generic contracts leave out the things that decide how long concrete lasts. For flatwork around Wichita, look for:

• Scope and area: what gets removed, what gets poured, and the approximate dimensions.
• Tear-out and haul-off: who removes and disposes of old concrete.
• Base: the subgrade preparation, any granular base and its thickness, and compaction.
• Thickness: for each area, such as driveway, approach and walk.
• Mix: specified strength and air entrainment. NRMCA recommends air-entrained concrete of 4,000 psi for exterior slabs that stay moist, freeze and see de-icers (NRMCA, CIP 2: Scaling Concrete Surfaces).
• Reinforcement: rebar, wire or fibers, and how it is supported.
• Joints: layout and spacing. NRMCA recommends a maximum of 24 to 36 times the slab thickness (NRMCA, CIP 6: Joints in Concrete Slabs on Grade).
• Finish: broom, exposed aggregate, stamped pattern and color.
• Curing and protection: the curing method and any cold- or hot-weather steps.
• Permits and locates: who pulls permits and who requests Kansas 811 locates.
• Cleanup and restoration: backfill along edges, seed or sod, and site cleanup.
• Weather and schedule: how rain delays are handled.

Strength and testing

NRMCA explains that compressive strength is measured by breaking cylinders of concrete in a testing machine, reported in psi, and that residential concrete commonly ranges from about 2,500 psi up, with 4,000 psi and higher in commercial work (NRMCA, CIP 35: Testing Compressive Strength of Concrete). Homeowner driveways are rarely tested, but the specified strength still belongs on the ticket and the estimate. Ask for the delivery ticket from the ready-mix truck; it lists what was batched.

Licensing and permits around Wichita

The Metropolitan Area Building and Construction Department (MABCD) licenses trades for Wichita and unincorporated Sedgwick County (Sedgwick County MABCD, contractor licensing). Public sidewalk and drive approach work in Wichita goes through the City's Traffic, Street and Construction Permitting office, by a contractor holding a current City concrete contractor license (City of Wichita, Traffic, Street and Construction Permitting). Other cities in the area have their own rules. See City of Wichita sidewalk and drive approach rules.

Door-to-door sales and the three-day right

Concrete offers sometimes come from someone knocking on the door, especially after storms or when a crew is working nearby. Kansas statute K.S.A. 50-640 gives a consumer the right to cancel a door-to-door sale until midnight of the third business day after signing, and requires the seller to provide a completed contract or receipt with the date, the seller's name and address, a notice of the cancellation right, and a detachable notice of cancellation form in duplicate (K.S.A. 50-640, door-to-door sales and the right to cancel). The Attorney General's page also lists warning signs, including a contractor who comes door-to-door, claims to have leftover material from a nearby job, pressures for an immediate decision or asks for full payment up front (Kansas Attorney General, consumer protection: your home and car).

Payment schedules

Deposits, progress payments and final payment terms vary. The Attorney General's tips caution against paying for the entire job up front and suggest a credit card where possible, since it may let you withhold payment to the card company until problems are corrected (Kansas Attorney General, consumer protection: your home and car). Tie the final payment to completion of the written scope.

Warranties

Read what a warranty covers. Concrete warranties often exclude cracking, scaling from de-icers and damage from soil movement, which are the most common issues in this region. The Attorney General's page lists "an unusually long guarantee" as a warning sign (Kansas Attorney General, consumer protection: your home and car). A clear, modest warranty that names what it covers is more useful than a sweeping one.

Questions to ask

1. What base preparation is included, and how thick?
2. What strength and air content is the mix?
3. Where will joints go?
4. How will the slab be cured, and what if it freezes or storms?
5. Who handles permits and 811 locates?
6. What does the warranty cover and exclude?

The estimate factors page explains what moves the scope of a concrete job.

For the factors behind each line of an estimate, see what shapes a concrete estimate.

Sources: Kansas Attorney General, consumer protection: your home and car; K.S.A. 50-640, door-to-door sales and the right to cancel; Sedgwick County MABCD, contractor licensing; City of Wichita, Traffic, Street and Construction Permitting; NRMCA, CIP 2: Scaling Concrete Surfaces; NRMCA, CIP 35: Testing Compressive Strength of Concrete; NRMCA, CIP 6: Joints in Concrete Slabs on Grade.