We wish we could give six stars! Lara's concrete replaced and installed new retaining walls, stairs and a ramp in our backyard. After careful demolition, protecting existing structures and trees, they removed enough dirt to for creating a well engineered concrete wall with deep footing and two wooden walls with steel support posts. The crew was very professional, also protecting themselves with proper gear. The project manager Melinda was very responsive to our ideas and input. We look forward to enjoying our backyard for many years to come. read more

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Lara's Concrete does excellent work, Melinda the project manager matched our existing custom blend exposed aggregate perfectly. The crew went above and beyond our expectations and they were very conscientious of protecting the pool piping under the concrete and added deep pier footings along the outer edge to keep concrete from movement. We are very satisfied with Lara's Concrete and I would definitely recommend and use them again. read more

Amazing work. We had Lara Concrete remove/replace our concrete patio decking during a pool remodel project. It needed extreme attention to detail due to all the piping and equipment. Melinda and team did amazing work. We had 29 yds of stamped concrete poured and it turned out great. You will not be disappointed if you pick this company for your work. read more

Lara's Concrete - Davis Sandstone stamp patio. Western Precast Davis Sandstone coping - Masonry/Concrete Near Me

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I had a leak underneath my sidewalk and a few uneven spots that the city finally made me fix. I must have gotten 4 or 5 quotes from other contractors before I called Lara's Concrete and Melinda showed up to rescue me. Everyone I had spoken with previously came with red flags -- estimates that looked totally unprofessional, a guy who gave conflicting answers about whether he was licensed to work in Oakland, an estimate that was so low I was suspicious whether they understood the work... Then Melinda showed up with the kind of boss energy I needed. This is a family run business, and she is the ultimate liaison. Their estimates were professionally drafted, their licensing was clear, she was knowledgeable about the process of inspection and obtaining sidewalk certificates, and most importantly, she fully understood my concerns and how to best address the leak. She managed everything herself, and when I discovered I had to have a tree taken out she helped me coordinate the scheduling. We passed inspection right away and she helped me get the documentation I needed from the city. Their pricing and timeline were totally reasonable -- not the cheapest nor the quickest, but if you want to take your chances on a guy who writes his estimates in comic sans or someone who might maybe probably be licensed, that's your decision. I had also called around to some larger and more corporate outfits, but their timelines were months out and some didn't even want to take the job because it was too small. Lara's Concrete was the perfect mix of professionalism, quality, and price. read more

Hiring Lara's Concrete was the best decision we've made for our home. We were looking for an affordable and licensed contractor to get our sidewalk compliance with the city of Oakland after we bought our home. Melinda came out and gave me a very timely and affordable estimate. Within a couple weeks, the work was under way and the workers were kind, courteous, and thorough. They even brought out an arborist to help us save the maple tree whose roots were the cause of the sidewalk issues. We have had several neighbors ask us who did the work and we refer them to Lara's because we are so impressed by them. But, that's not all they did! Because the sidewalk was connected to a broken drain we had, I also talked to Melinda about our drainage problem (we had flooding in our crawlspace). She recommended a French drain along one side of our house, connecting to our gutter drainage system. Her explanation was similar to a recommendation we got from a local engineering firm, but the price was actually super affordable. So, we added that to our work being done. Now that the winter rains are over, I can tell you that the solution worked! We are so grateful to Lara's concrete for all of the hard work they did for us and for making it so we could afford to make these fixes on our home. We will hire them again for any related work any time! read more

Melinda Lara, Project Manager came out promptly after my phone call requesting work needed. She gave a thorough estimate and I felt like I was going to be in good hands. I was right. The job is complete and I also received my sidewalk compliance certificate very quickly. I'm happy with all the work done. The concrete looks so good. read more

I was referred to Melinda Lara's Concrete by a friend for a back yard walkway. I called and made an appointment and the next day met with Melinda (project manager) for an estimate. She was so nice and had great recommendations for the project. Within a week the walkway was poured and the project was completed in one day. They have exceeded my expectations and would recommend them to anyone considering having cement work done. I will definitely work with them again in the future. Thank you so much! read more

Lara's Concrete - Extended backyard walkway. - Masonry/Concrete Near Me

We recently had concrete work on our backyard and stones laid in our front yard. Melinda was great and walked us through all the necessary steps. The people who worked on the job were also excellent. We are very happy with the work and the experience with all at Lara's Concrete, read more

Our project involved our driveway which needed to be replaced. There were lots of cracks and a small sink hole. Our driveway is extra long and runs the length of the side of the house from the back-set garage. Additionally, we needed to replace some of the sidewalk in the front of our house to get it to meet city standards. We set up a consultation with Melinda, the Project Manager. She is everything you want in the person who coordinates, manages, and directs the project. She walked us through the issues explaining what the problems were, what the solutions were, and how they were going to be implemented. She thoroughly explained the permit process including the required visits by the City Inspector(s). She included her dad, Luis, in a follow-up consultation, to discuss some explicit specifications that needed to be met by the City. One important facet of the plan was they had to come up with a special design which would drain the water from the back of the driveway into the street. It was impressive to listen to them talk and clearly showed their extensive experience and knowledge. We also had a special issue due to the original design of the street entrance to the driveway was not separated from our neighbor's. Melinda was the driving force in this whole project. Some of her skills are: - She set up the schedule, explained how long it was going to take and always kept us updated on any changes. She is very articulate and knows how to explain, in detail, so it is understandable to the average layperson. - Like myself, Melinda is exceptional at being detail oriented. She made the agenda, and it was followed precisely, never missing any small issues. Her ability to follow through on everything she said was going to happen was very reassuring. She never hesitated to explain things in detail and the reasoning behind her decisions. - She confidently completely handled any situational changes with ease. - She is very adept at managing her crew in a positive and strong style willing to listen to their input. As previously mentioned, both Melinda and Luis are extremely knowledgeable and professional and know their craft well. It shows through in their designs, their (and their crew's) attention to detail and accepting nothing less than exceptional work. As with any project, a situation came up where we had to discuss an irregularity. Melinda never challenged our request, got defensive or made the situation uncomfortable. She was thoughtful in her response and very amenable to our feedback. She simply had the situation remedied. This is such a first-class thing to do in a business situation. We don't want to leave out the crew. They we extremely hard workers and like their employer, very detail oriented. They clearly (and should!) take pride in their work. They were courteous, polite and respectful of our property. When we made a request for a change they simply adapted. The best crew we have ever had working on a major project for our house. When the project was done, I was really surprised by how many compliments we got from our neighbors. One person works in the planning department of the city and another person is an engineer. All of them were in agreement of the exceptional level of work that was accomplished on our project. And in fact, one of the neighbors hired them to do a job for his home. We want to add a personality trait that Melinda shared with us. She has a delightful sense of humor, and we laughed a lot during the time she spent talking with us. She is a really fun person to be around and that made the whole endeavor much more enjoyable. Lastly, I am the type of person who does my research on any company that I am considering to do work on our property. In this instance, I did not do that. Lara's Concrete did some work on our neighbor's property and we got to watch them and how they operated. We were impressed the whole week they were there and decided to go with them. We have absolutely no regrets. We will sum this up by saying we HIGHLY recommend Lara's Concrete and encourage you to choose them. read more

Melinda came out and quoted a project at my house last week. I had built some forms for a new hot tub pad and a outdoor grill station. She was quick to respond on my initial request, came out when expected, and provided me a price that seemed fair and competitive. Their crew came out a couple days later and made my life easy. They did some additional excavation and compaction of base rock and soil to make sure this new concrete lasted a long time. Everyone was polite and organized. This project turned out better than I expected and I will have Lara's concrete finish another project on the horizon. read more

poor communication. We booked a job with Lara's Concrete for a backyard patio. It was not started on the scheduled day. It was then set to start the following day, and again no one arrived. They have not returned our calls. This was disruptive to our schedule (having set aside this week in our schedule and took vacation time) and we now need to start-over getting bids, etc. A lot of people would give 1 star for this kind of thing, but in this case yes, it's a no-show, however, to be clear, we have no money out-of-pocket, so I don't feel ripped off or anything like that. I just think they had intentions to do the work, but maybe lack organization and communication skills (to be clear, we would've been fine even if they told us they needed to cancel the job for whatever reason. but no phone call and no answer to our calls)... so anyway, 2 stars seemed like a fair review in this case. read more

This is really unfortunate. We had our driveway expanded. During the work, I noticed that the level of the new section was likely going to create some pooling and Mr. Lara insisted that it would be fine. OK, I generally trust the experts. The owner's daughter and project manager, Melinda, came out to review the job after it was done. We had been hosing down the new area as prescribed and she noticed an area of water pooling BEFORE I had a chance to bring it up. She apologized and said that should not be happening and said there were a few ways to remedy the situation. Great! I was happy to see someone being accountable and offer to fix something without even having to raise the issue. She set a date to come back out and I put that on my calendar. The date came and no one showed or called. I emailed the office and she responded and said she would come back out to look at the area again. As soon as I stepped outside, she began telling me that it wasn't as bad as she thought and explaining that everything was within tolerance levels and there was no water. (It hasn't rained in weeks so of course there was no water... I offered to hose it down, but she was insisting it wasn't necessary.) I was confused. She had suddenly taken a 180 degree turn from our last meeting and was insisting that the original pooling that she noticed, pointed out to me and committed to fixing, was no longer an issue. After going in circles a few times, she became defensive, unprofessional and I decided there was no reason to continue the debate. As I said, this is unfortunate and was completely avoidable. We really liked Melinda during our initial meetings. We had planned on giving her and her family more work as we are looking to add a patio in the back. I had even recommended her to a neighbor for another project. Very short-sighted way to handle this situation given how easy the fixes she described would have been. read more

Lara's Concrete - Masonry/Concrete Near Me

I have used Lara's Concrete for 2 different projects. Melinda has been my Project Manager for both jobs. I found her very easy to work with. She responded to my calls and texts very quickly. Her team laid a new driveway and then I hired her later to complete a side walkway. I found her bids to be fair and her communication and workmanship top notch. I have recommended her to several friends and they were also happy with Lara's work. I couldn't recommend them more highly. read more

The sidewalk in front of our house needed to be replaced, as we have a troublesome tree. I needed a contractor who could fit our job in, as it was relatively small, and so I turned to Yelp. I found a wonderful company who checked all the boxes! Lara's Concrete was always prompt in returning my calls/texts, they were incredibly easy to work with, both with me and with our town inspector, always let me know what the schedule was, answered all my questions, and on top of all that, were very pleasant to work with. The work crew was fantastic and they did a great job. I highly recommend them and I will use them again myself in a heartbeat when I have more concrete work to do. read more

We hired Lara's Concrete to pour a driveway and curb in Oakland. Melinda was our project manager - she was great in communicating with us, our landscape architect, and the city to make sure everything done was per the design and code. Finished product looks great - thanks Lara's! read more

Lara's just completed a 3rd project for me. 15 years ago they poured my interior garage slab, and two car sloped driveway (stamped with color), 10 years ago they poured my rear patio (stamped and colored), and last week completed my front porch extension, stairs, and additional two car driveway. They are family owned, easy to work with, and great with guidance on style and selection. The workmanship is top notch, and the crews work hard to ensure things are done right. Pricing is reasonable, and they work within your budget. Owner Mr. Lara shows up on site several time to check the work, and doing work himself. Great company who I highly recommend. read more

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If I could give Luis Lara and Lara Concrete 100 stars I would. They are superb. I hired them to right a very heavy clear-cut redwood fence that was falling onto my neighbor's landscaping. I had received quotes ranging from $16,000 to $30,000. I had almost given up. A friend told me to call Lara Concrete. Luis came out in the poring rain and walked the property with me. Within 24 hours I had a reasonable quote of $3,200 and within a week my fence was plumb again. Ingenious engineering. It should last another 30 years! I also hired them for a bigger project: to re -level the aggregate on my drive, walk and pool surround and add red brick trim to match the red brick terrace above the hot tub. Reasonable quote, showed up on time every day, excellent communication, super-organized construction site, great results!!! read more

Luis Lara came out to my house to give me a quote on redoing and enlarging our patio. He had no advice or ideas to give regarding using stained concrete or patterns or ways to make it look nicer. Just kind of stood there looking at me. He then told me he was going to take some measurements. So I went inside and told him to call me when he was ready. After 10 minutes, I looked out the front window and his car was gone! I've heard nothing, received nothing, have no idea what he was doing, but it's clear we won't be using them for our backyard remodel. Thank god we talked to 4 other hardscapers. read more

We requested for a quote and Melinda came out and was very personable. We felt very good about her she was knowledgeable and helpful. Then it went south she said we would get a quote within two days and after two weeks and multiple emails later we have yet to receive a quote from them. If this is the way they handle quotes I am scared to see what kind of work they do .. too bad had really high hopes read more

I received the worst customer service over the telephone that I have every heard of! The lady I was speaking to kept changing her mind of the services this company offered based on if she felt like it or not... VERY annoying! I will certainly be taking my business somewhere else! read more

Used these guys over 10 years ago. Thought a "how did it hold up" comment might be useful. Not a single crack. They did a great job. read more

Lara's Concrete - Masonry/Concrete Near Me

I had a 2:30PM appointment for an Lara representative to come to my house to provide an estimate to replace a small driveway (about 30'X 25'). At about 2:40 Mr. Luis Lara called to ask for my address because he could not find my house. We discovered his office staff had incorrectly given him my address minus one digit, so he was on the right street but a few blocks away. When Mr. Lara arrived he talked with me for only about 3 minutes and then quickly said he'd take the measurements and send me an estimate by email "in a few days". After about 15 minutes I discovered Mr. Lara was gone; he had not attempted to contact me to tell me anything he learned while measuring my driveway. He just left. It was a Thursday. By the following Monday I had not received the estimate so I called the Lara office. A young-sounding female answered. I explained the situation and asked when I could expect to receive the estimate. She replied, "Probably tomorrow, but maybe later in the week because he's very busy". I had hoped for a more definitive date, but politely accepted her answer and said simply Thank You. A few hours later an older-sounding female called me, identified herself as the "office person" at Lara and asked why I had called earlier. I told her, and she immediately began to lecture me in a very stern voice saying, "I told you when I booked your appointment that it would take at least a week to give you an estimate. Why are you in such a hurry?" (I don't recall her giving any such "warning".) I was astounded by her attitude. I explained that I was considering other bids and wanted to include Laras. She then very rudely said, "Oh, you probably don't really want our bid and you're just wasting our time". I replied that I wouldn't "waste" any more of her time because if her call was the way Lara treated potential customers, I didn't want to do business with her or the company, and I hung up. I guess the population is growing faster than this woman can insult them. How else do they stay in business? read more

Always a pleasure to work with. Many quality jobs from Lara's over the last 11 years.

Lara's Concrete is a class act company. They were professional, courteous, efficient, competitively priced, and a pleasure to work with. The quality of their work is top notch. I just wish I had more jobs for them because they really were great to work with. read more

Lara's Concrete was fantastic! Over the last few years we have had several companies come and give us quotes on extending our driveway sideways where there had been just muddy gravel. Every year, we thought we were ready to add concrete but then suddenly our finances had to be focused elsewhere. So all those years and quotes lead me to have seven different companies to choose from when we were finally ready, and we easily chose Lara's Concrete based on their professionalism, plan for the work, price, and just plan old comfort and trust. Chris was the foreman for our job and he led a great team who got the job done on schedule and to a tremendous professional standard. I have even had a few unusual requests and elements that I threw at him the morning of the job and he was very responsive to my needs. I can't stop looking at the job they did because they made it blend into the original driveway so well with matching the lines, the smooth/level finish, and the shape. Lastly, he and his team were so helpful to help us get our kids footprints in the concrete. We were even late getting home with the kids and he was patiently waiting and helped manage the process so that we have two great sets of footprints in our wonderful concrete. I also manage an HOA's finances and I look forward to using Lara's Concrete to seal the driveway/parking area. read more

Tired of constantly working on my wood deck to keep it looking good, and failing, I decided to replace it with a raised concrete deck. Checking with a friend who builds pools, I learned of Laras concrete. They poured my deck and I could not be happier. Everything about Lara's is first class: highly skilled, professional, personable finishers, Maria in the office who patiently worked with me to select colors, and Mr Lara himself. Thanks for a wonderful no hassle experience and a deck that's just what I wanted. read more

Had our lawn filled in with pebble aggregate concrete. The guys finished the job right on time, and each crew was very nice and efficient. They even kept showing up earlier than they said they would (the opposite of what I typically experience with contractors). read more

This is for their dump services - I've used them about 5 times. I've used other dump companies as well but these guys are my favorite. No BS, great prices and decent availability. Just hired them for some grading and possibly some concrete work. Will update as work is completed. read more

Our driveway/ retaining wall was collapsing plus the driveway was very narrow (just wide enough to fit a minivan), so we decided to expand it and have the retaining wall redone. We canvassed five vendors and chose Lara's Concrete because our general contractor who worked on our kitchen remodel recommended them. Plus, Lara's concrete's proposal came out the best (and pretty reasonably priced for the amount of quality work they did). We are so happy with the results. What did they do? Well, they poured a new concrete driveway, built a new retaining wall topped with brick, installed an elaborate drainage system (so that most of the water is diverted to the street), and created a brick pathway. On top of that, they re-tarred the street gutter along the front of the house. The project took two months beginning to end (maybe a bit longer than I thought it would), but only because they were so meticulous in setting up the elaborate drainage system and laying out the brick walkway. The driveway/retaining wall demolition, the pouring of the new driveway, and the framing of the retaining wall actually only took two weeks. Setting up the drainage system and brick pathway took the rest of the time. As the pictures show, it was a big transformation. Definitely improved the curb appeal of the house and increased its value. I'll tried to post pics of the work but there is no parameter how to do it. FIVE BIG STARS. I would definitely recommend them to friends and hire them again if we decide to redo our brick backyard. read more

We got a few bids to re-do our garage floor & driveway that were badly cracked. Lara Concrete's bid was just a bit lower, and we really liked Luis when he came out and took a look at our project. We are SO glad we hired them! They started on the date promised, showed up on time (or a bit early) every morning, cleaned up every afternoon and let us know what time they would be back. They even helped me carry groceries since my husband just had knee surgery!!! Finished on time even though the weather was iffy. Beautiful work with attention to detail! Lots of compliments from the neighbors, too! read more

The quality of the work done has been good; however the communication, and getting them to finish the job has been horrid. Many calls not returned, dates for completion have come and gone more than once. We have altered plans to be here and then had them no show with no explanation. For a job that should have taken about 10 days tops, we are now on the 4th week. If you have all the time in the world and are okay with calls not being returned and schedules missed, then go ahead and use them as the finished product will probably be okay (can't say with certainty as ours isn't finished yet). read more

From the day of getting an estimate to the day they finished the job, the people from Lara's have been outstanding. Especially Melinda, she took so much time and listened to my every concern when it came to choosing the right product to stain the concrete. Chris is fantastic too. The new concrete overlay on the old cracked porch turned out better than we ever could expect. I asked if they could match it to the walkway which was done years ago with a stamped design. It looks like it was done at the same time, it matches so well! Do not hesitate to call them, they are A++! read more

I have never written a yelp review before but wanted to sing the praises of Lara's Concrete. I worked with Melinda over several weeks to repair the sidewalk in front of my Berkeley house. There were major problems related to the City in terms of them removing the city tree and roots that were causing the problems. After many delays caused by the city, Melinda's crew did an excellent job. I highly recommend this company. read more

I am so happy i stumbled onto Lara's Concrete. After getting really high quotes from contractors to redo our back patio i started looking for companies that offered dumpsters to rip out my own patio to save money. Melinda answered and asked to send out Luis to give us a quote. She recommended that i look at their website for examples of previous work. I realized immediately they could handle the job i was hoping to have done. Luis came out and looked at our drawing, penciled out some notes and we had a quote in about one week. That was quicker than any of the contractors we had dealt with so far. The quote was 50% cheaper than one contractor and 20% cheaper than the others. They specialize in concrete and it shows. They showed up on the date we had discussed, demo'd the existing and matched new aggregate to the old much better than i expected. Melinda and my wife picked out a color that would match the best. Melinda came by and checked on our project which took about two weeks. The guys doing the work realized we did not have great access to the yard during construction so they watered our garden when it was one of the hotter weeks of summer. They were polite and friendly. As we were in the final stages before pouring, one of the construction leads pulled me aside in the morning and suggested cutting a corner of the existing concrete to give a cleaner line. It was the right call and looks so much better as a finished product. We also had them add two decorative finished stairs to our two doors leading to the backyard, which look absolutely amazing. I had searched typical price per square foot for concrete work and they were within that range. It was very refreshing after getting very high bids that i knew were way more than the job should cost. I am so thankful to Melinda and Lara's Concrete. They did a great job and communicated with me though out the process. I am now excited to redo our driveway in a few years. I do not have to worry about getting other quotes and know they will do a wonderful job at a respectable price. read more