Concrete Contractor in Opelousas, LA

Older Opelousas homes and their concrete

Opelousas is the St. Landry Parish seat and one of Louisiana's oldest communities. The city traces its start to 1720, as Le Poste des Opelousas. Most of its houses came much later. By Census estimates, about half went up from 1960 to 1989, and nearly 1 in 4 before 1960.

New building is rare here. By Census permit counts, the city permitted 3 new housing units in 2021, 20 in 2022 and 3 in 2023. So the usual job in Opelousas is a replacement or an addition on an older lot.

A house that still has its first driveway has a slab as old as the house. Walks and carport slabs from the same years can crack and settle too. Where only part has failed, we saw-cut and tear out the broken section, then re-pour it on a compacted base. If an old carport or shed has to come down first, we handle the teardown and the haul-off too.

What kind of ground sits under an Opelousas slab?

Close to half the ground around the middle of Opelousas is Coteau silt loam, by NRCS soil maps. The NRCS, the federal soil survey agency, maps most of it at 0 to 1 percent slopes. It rates the soil somewhat poorly drained. It can stay saturated for up to a month, 1.5 to 3 feet down, in a normal winter and spring.

Patoutville silt, the next most common soil here, is mapped just as flat and drains slowly. NRCS data puts its shrink-swell in the moderate class, so it swells when wet and shrinks as it dries. The NRCS says soil that moves like that can damage roads and buildings.

That is why the ground gets as much care as the concrete. We pour on a compacted base, with the rebar or wire mesh set before the ready-mix truck arrives. Control joints go in so the shrinkage cracks land where they belong. Behind the house, the same steps go into a slab for a shop or a carport.

Standing water on flat Opelousas lots

Bayou Yarbor and Bayou Tesson both run within about a mile and a half of the center of town. Still, by FEMA's flood maps, less than a tenth of the city's land sits in a high-risk flood zone. On flat ground, the rain that lands on a yard and a roof needs a path out.

After the August 2016 flood, more than 1,100 homeowners with an Opelousas mailing address registered with FEMA. FEMA approved about 400 of them for housing help. The city engineer's September 2026 report lists a drainage pipe replacement on Guidry Street to reduce flooding.

A backyard that holds water needs a way out, to the street or a roadside ditch. Yard drainage gives it one, with catch basins and drain lines to carry it there. Where the ground stays soggy from below, a French drain along the low side can carry that water off.

Who handles permits in Opelousas and St. Landry Parish?

Inside the city limits, permit applications go to the City of Opelousas Code Enforcement Office, in person or online. Ask that office early whether your job needs a permit. In the city's Historic District, exterior changes also need a certificate of appropriateness from the Historic District Commission. The city's own examples include moving a driveway.

Outside any town's limits, the St. Landry Parish Permits Office handles permits from the parish courthouse in Opelousas. Its rules call for a permit for any construction or any structure added to a property. For a new house in a FEMA A or AE zone, the lowest floor must meet the base flood elevation. Either way, the permit is sorted out before work starts.