Concrete Contractor in Carencro, LA

Concrete for Carencro's older homes and new subdivisions

Carencro had 9,272 people at the 2020 Census, and newer Census estimates run above 11,000. The Census counts about 5,000 homes in the city, and the median one was built in 1988. About one home in ten went up in 2020 or later.

The Lafayette Consolidated Government's subdivision maps show how the town filled in. Saint Pierre Park and Mark Ridge Park were first platted in 1959. Fairgrounds North was platted in stages from 2009 to 2019, and Stable View in 2023.

An older driveway can crack across the middle or drop where it meets the street. If a patch will not hold, we saw-cut the bad section or tear out the old slab and re-pour. On a newer lot, the need may be a slab for a shed or a shop out back.

What does Carencro's code say about a new driveway?

Carencro's city code has its own driveway rules in Section 62-64. Before a driveway culvert goes in, the city approves the plans for its size and elevation. The same section calls for an expansion joint at the property line on every concrete driveway.

The code's flood chapter sets a 15-inch minimum for culvert pipe, unless the city engineer approves otherwise. Filling in a roadside ditch under a driveway takes a city permit, and the water has to keep flowing. The city's driveway permit form asks for the driveway width and the culvert length.

We set the culvert as part of the driveway job, at the size the city approves. A city inspector checks the pipe on the day it goes in. The permit is sorted out before work starts, and then we pour a new concrete driveway over it.

Slab foundations and Carencro's one-foot rule

Carencro sets a floor height for every new house in the city, in a flood zone or not. Section 30-103 of the city code sets the lowest floor at least one foot above the highest of four marks.

Two marks are the centerline of the nearest street and the top of the nearest sewer manhole. The other two are FEMA's base flood elevation and the highest recorded or modeled 100-year flood. A land surveyor or engineer certifies the street and manhole numbers on the city's Freeboard Elevation Form.

Before the pour, a pre-slab survey certifies that the forms sit at that height. Once the city inspection passes, the slab may be poured. We pour slab foundations and footings to the builder's or engineer's plan, with the rebar the plan shows.

Wet yards, coulees and the 2016 flood in Carencro

Around the center of town, the NRCS soil survey maps mostly Memphis silt loam, a well-drained soil. In the slight dips and broad drainageways, it maps Frost silt loam, a poorly drained soil. That soil is wet within a foot and a half of the surface from December through April in most years.

Carencro drains through coulees, the drainage channels Acadiana towns are built around. LCG maps Bayou Carencro and Coulee Mine inside the city. About a sixth of the city's land lies in FEMA's high-risk flood zones. The city's floodplain page says the whole city can flood, inside the mapped zones and out.

After the August 2016 flood, 377 homeowners with a Carencro mailing address registered with FEMA. On low ground, a flat backyard can hold water for days after a rain. We put in yard drainage to move it: catch basins, channel drains, downspout lines and swales.

A swale is a shallow graded ditch that carries water toward the street or a low spot. Changing the flow in a ditch or culvert takes a city permit in Carencro. The city also asks owners to keep the ditches on their property clear of debris and brush.