Concrete is the cheapest part of a backyard and the part most likely to ruin it. A patio cover can be repainted and an outdoor kitchen can be re-veneered, but a slab that heaves, cracks through the middle and holds water after every storm has to come out. In South Louisiana, whether that happens has almost nothing to do with the concrete and almost everything to do with what was under it and how the water was handled.
Start with the dirt, because the dirt is the problem
Most of East Baton Rouge and Ascension Parish sits on heavy clay. Clay is expansive: it takes on water and swells, it dries out and shrinks, and it does that seasonally, every year, under everything you build. In a wet spring the ground under one corner of your patio can be doing something different from the ground under the other corner.
That is why two slabs poured the same week by the same crew can age completely differently. One went over properly prepared, compacted base. The other went straight onto whatever was there after the sod was scraped off.
Proper prep means stripping the organic material, cutting to grade, and compacting a base so the slab bears evenly. Skipping it saves a contractor half a day and costs you the patio.
Thickness: four inches is the floor, not the answer
Four inches is the standard for a residential patio and it is adequate for foot traffic, furniture and a grill. It is not adequate for everything.
Go thicker when the slab will carry real weight: a driveway extension, a parking pad, a spot where a truck or a trailer will sit. Go thicker when a heavy masonry outdoor kitchen or a brick fireplace will sit on it, because a point load on a thin slab is how you get a crack radiating out from one corner of an island.
If a quote does not say how thick the pour is, that is not an oversight, that is the contractor keeping their options open.
Reinforcement: here is our exact spec
Concrete is strong in compression and weak in tension. When expansive clay lifts one part of a slab, the top of the slab goes into tension and it cracks. Nothing in the slab stops the clay from moving. What stops a crack from becoming a problem is the base underneath, joints in the right places, and knowing exactly what is going into the pour.
Every pour: fiber and expansion joints where required
Fiber is included in every pour we do. It goes into the mix at the plant and spreads through the whole slab, holding the concrete together as it cures and shrinks in those first days when most surface cracking starts. Every pour also gets expansion joints where required, so the new slab can move independently of the house and any existing concrete.
Want more? Ask for rebar
Rebar is steel set inside the slab for extra tensile strength. It is worth talking about when a pad will carry a heavy masonry kitchen or a vehicle. Posts for a pavilion or patio cover are a separate matter: each one gets its own concrete footing under the slab, never just the slab itself. Our guide to concrete footings under structure posts explains why. Want to reinforce your concrete? Let your project manager know you’d like to be quoted for rebar.
Why the contractor matters more than the concrete
Concrete is the one part of a backyard you cannot inspect after the fact. Once the truck leaves and the surface is floated, every decision that determines whether that slab is still flat in ten years is buried under four inches of gray. You are not buying concrete — concrete is a commodity and everybody in this parish buys it from the same few plants. You are buying the judgment of whoever prepared the ground and specified what went inside it.
You do not need to know concrete to sort a good bid from a bad one. Ask these four questions and listen to how fast the answers come:
- How thick is the pour?
- Is fiber in the mix, and is any steel going in the slab?
- Where will the control joints go, and when will they be cut?
- Where does the water go once this is poured?
A contractor who has to think hard about the second and fourth questions is telling you something useful.
Control joints: the cracks you choose
Every concrete slab cracks. That is not a defect, that is concrete doing what concrete does as it cures and shrinks. The only question is whether the cracks happen where somebody planned them or wherever the slab feels like it.
Control joints are the planned answer — cut or tooled lines that give the slab a weak point to crack along, below the surface where you will not see it. They need to be spaced sensibly for the thickness of the pour and cut early, while the concrete is still young. A patio with no joints, or with joints cut three days late, is a patio that will crack on its own terms.
A related detail: where a new slab meets the house or an existing slab, it should be isolated rather than bonded, so the two can move independently. Tying a new patio rigidly to a foundation transfers every bit of clay movement straight into whichever one is weaker.
Drainage, or where does all this water go now?
This is the part homeowners skip and regret. You are about to make several hundred square feet of your yard stop absorbing water. That water has to go somewhere, and if you put a roof over the patio you have added a second volume of water that now comes off in a concentrated sheet along one edge.
A patio should be poured with a slight, deliberate slope away from the house. Not enough to notice underfoot, enough to move water. Where the ground beyond it is already soft — and a lot of yards in Prairieville, Geismar and Dutchtown are — the slope alone is not enough and you need a drain, a French drain, or grading work to carry it to somewhere it can leave.
If your contractor did not ask where your water goes before quoting, they are not planning to solve it.
Concrete or pavers?
Both work here. They fail differently, which is the useful way to think about it.
Poured concrete is one monolithic surface: fewer places for weeds, less maintenance, and a cleaner look for modern homes. When it does move, it cracks, and repairs are visible.
Pavers are many small units over a compacted base and sand. Because they are independent, ground movement shows up as unevenness rather than cracking, and individual pavers can be lifted and reset. The trade is joints to maintain and a base that has to be done right or the whole field ripples.
Neither is the automatic answer. What matters far more than which you choose is the preparation underneath, which is the same work either way.
Finishes worth knowing about
A broom finish is the default: textured, grippy when wet, inexpensive, honest. Anywhere barefoot traffic happens, texture is a safety feature, not a style choice.
Stamped and stained concrete buy you the look of stone or brick at less than the cost of laying it, and they do hold up if they are sealed and resealed. Understand going in that sealer is maintenance, not a one time purchase, and that a slick sealed surface in a rainy climate needs a grip additive.
What it costs
A standard broom finish pour with Parish Outdoor Builders includes fiber, expansion joints where required, excavation, framing and the pour. Tearing out old concrete is a separate line item. Price moves with square footage, thickness, reinforcement, finish, how far the truck can get from the pour, and whether the job includes grading or drainage work. See your number with our instant concrete price tool.
If you are weighing concrete against a covered structure or an outdoor kitchen on top of it, it is cheaper to pour once for the finished plan than to pour now and cut later. Have the conversation before the first truck, not after.
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Book My Free WalkthroughFrequently asked questions
How thick should a concrete patio be in Louisiana?
Four inches is the residential standard for foot traffic and furniture. Go thicker for vehicle loads and for slabs that will carry a masonry outdoor kitchen or fireplace. Thickness should be stated in your quote.
Why did my new concrete patio crack?
Usually one of four reasons: base that was not prepared or compacted, no reinforcement or reinforcement that sat on the ground instead of inside the slab, control joints missing or cut too late, or water that was never given anywhere to go. Hairline cracks along a control joint are normal and expected. A wandering crack with a height difference across it is a structural problem, not a cosmetic one.
Do I need a permit to pour a patio?
A flat, uncovered slab often does not, while anything roofed generally does, and rules differ between East Baton Rouge and Ascension Parish. Drainage work and anything that changes how water leaves your lot can have its own requirements. Check with your parish, or let your builder handle it.
What reinforcement goes in your concrete?
Every pour includes fiber, mixed into the concrete at the plant, and expansion joints where required. Want to reinforce your concrete? Let your project manager know you’d like to be quoted for rebar.
What does fiber do in concrete?
Fiber is mixed in at the plant and works throughout the slab at a small scale, controlling the fine shrinkage cracking that happens as concrete cures. If you want steel in the slab as well, ask your project manager to quote rebar.
Can you pour over an existing patio?
Sometimes, but it is usually the wrong move. An overlay inherits every problem of the slab underneath, including its cracks and its drainage. If the existing slab is sound and level, an overlay or a resurfacing can work. If it is moving, it comes out.
What areas do you pour in?
Baton Rouge, Zachary, Baker, Central, St. George and Greenwell Springs in East Baton Rouge Parish, and Prairieville, Gonzales, Geismar, Dutchtown, St. Amant, Galvez, Sorrento, Darrow and Donaldsonville in Ascension Parish.