Planning an addition or rebuild and need the ground under it done right? We dig, set the steel and pour footings that match the plan.
Concrete footings are the concrete your house or addition stands on. In Malibu we build them as a dug trench or a drilled hole, filled with concrete and rebar, the steel that reinforces it, so the walls above have something solid to carry them. The digging and pouring are usually the short part of the job, and the approvals before it take longer.
Most people who call about footings are planning an addition, a rebuild or a new structure with an architect or engineer, and they want to know what it'll cost and when we can start. The price moves with how many feet of footing the plan calls for, how deep and wide each run is, whether it's a trench or drilled holes, how much steel goes in, how easy it is to get equipment and a concrete truck to the spot, and whether we're tying into an old foundation. The schedule turns mostly on the engineer's plan and the approvals that come before any digging, and the written scope from your estimate puts your own figure on each of those.
I come out to look at the job and take the measurements myself, so the person pricing your footings is the person at the trench. Our crew does the work with me on site, and we work alongside your engineer, architect or soil consultant when there is one.
Before concrete, I ran a small sign shop for years, where a job was only right if every measurement was right. I brought that habit to concrete after learning next to experienced finishers and foundation crews, and footings are where it matters most.
I started this business in Malibu in 2023, and we've spent those 3 years on driveways, patios, pool decks and the footings under rebuilds. We're known for careful prep and for writing down exactly what goes under and into the concrete.
The state licensing board describes a concrete contractor as one who forms, pours, places and finishes concrete, which covers every step of a footing. We're fully licensed and insured. Call (424) 388-5404 or send the form below to set up a visit.
Use the form, call (424) 388-5404 or email estimates@concretemalibu.com with your address, the project type and any geology or engineering reports you already have, and we'll reply within one business day by phone or message. I'll come out for a free estimate at your property, measure the area, look at access and any existing concrete, then send a written scope with a price you can compare line by line. There's no obligation.
All of Malibu sits inside the California coastal zone, so development anywhere in the city, unless it's exempt, falls under the city's Local Coastal Program. Development in the coastal zone generally begins only after the Coastal Commission or a local government issues a coastal development permit, and development is defined broadly enough to include building construction, so footings for a new building or addition generally wait on it. Before I price a job, I look into what the city or county office for your address asks for and tell you what I found. Where approvals are needed, we plan the start around them and can handle the concrete side of the paperwork or work with your architect or engineer, and the office that serves your address has the final word on your lot.
Many of the footing calls we get here are additions and rebuilds where an architect, engineer or soil consultant is already on the project, and we fit our work to their plan. Access is often the bigger question on a hillside lot or a narrow drive, because it decides how we get equipment and concrete to the trench. We're based in Malibu and take footing jobs in many of the cities around it, including Topanga and Calabasas. If you're not sure we cover your address, just ask when you call.
Residential strip footings, installed, usually cost about $5 to $19 per linear foot across the US, so that's a national market figure, not a Malibu price or ours. A drilled pier is priced by the hole rather than the foot, so it sits outside that range. Your estimate puts our price for your job in writing.
If the lot is flat and outside liquefaction zones, landslides and fault zones, the city's geotechnical guidelines let a small addition or remodel on shallow footings use conservatively assumed design values, cautious stand-in soil numbers, instead of hiring a project soil engineer. A lot anywhere else points to hiring one. Check the city's current requirements for your property, and bring any report you already have to the estimate.
For small additions and remodels, the city's guidelines say all foundations need to be continuous and new footings should be doweled, or pinned with steel, into the existing footings. That means the addition's footing joins the old one in one line instead of standing on its own. We drill and set those dowels to the details your engineer draws.
A Malibu project gets green-stamp approval from the Planning Division first, then moves to Building Safety plan check, on top of the coastal permit covered above. You can ask the city's Building Safety division where your project stands in that sequence before you set a start date. We plan our start around those approvals instead of guessing at them.
Malibu's City Geologist reviews engineering geology reports, building and grading plans, and the as-built geology and compaction reports that show what was actually done, and also visits sites. Staff tell the city and the applicant about geologic hazards tied to the project, and that review can shape the footing plan. We build to the plan that comes out of it and work with your engineer or soil consultant on any changes.
The city's guidelines say the Malibu Building Code requires the ground to slope away from foundations at least 5 percent for at least 10 feet. That slope is meant to be set and then kept, so once we've graded it on the way out, it's yours to keep in place over the years.
