Texas issues no concrete contractor license. There is no state exam, no registry to search, and no board that hears your complaint when a driveway fails in three summers. The vetting a license would do somewhere else is a job that falls to you here, and this page is how you do it methodically. The reasoning behind each step lives in our guide to vetting a concrete contractor; print this and run every candidate through it, top to bottom, especially the crew that knocked after a storm.
Verify before you shortlist
Concrete is unforgiving of a company that disappears. A slab poured on bad base or with steel lying in the dirt looks perfect on day one and shows its trouble years later, long after a fly by night crew has moved on. That timeline is exactly why references with some age on them matter more here than a job finished last month, and why an address you can drive past beats a magnet on a truck door. Insurance is the other pillar: verify it straight with the agent, because a certificate forwarded by the contractor can be expired or edited.
Verification
- Ask for a certificate of general liability insurance sent directly by the insurance agent, not forwarded by the contractor
- Call that agent and confirm the policy is active and covers concrete work
- Find the business address on a map; a shop or office beats a PO box or a truck magnet
- Ask how long the company has poured concrete in the Georgetown and Williamson County area
- Call two references from jobs poured at least three years ago and ask how the slabs held up
- Ask to walk or see a driveway or patio the crew poured years back, not just last month
- Search the company name with the word complaints and read what surfaces
- Confirm whether the crew is in house or subcontracted, and who runs your job on site
- Ask whether they pull any permit the job requires and handle the inspection
- Confirm in writing who is liable for damage to irrigation, trees, or a neighbor's property
Compare bids on identical scope
Two concrete bids that both say "new driveway" can differ by thousands, and the gap almost always hides underground, in the base and the steel you will never see once the pour cures. The only way to compare fairly is to force every bid onto the same scope and read it line by line. Our breakdown of a concrete estimate shows what a complete one itemizes. Line the bids up side by side; a number far below the rest is a question to answer, not a bargain to grab.
Bid comparison
- Confirm every bid covers the same square footage and the same finish
- Check that slab thickness is stated and identical across the bids
- Compare reinforcement: rebar on a grid versus wire mesh, and the spacing of each
- Confirm base prep is itemized: subgrade compaction and inches of base rock
- Check that tear out and haul off of the old slab is a named line, not an assumption
- Compare the concrete mix strength each contractor is ordering
- Look for the joint plan and finish in writing, not left to the crew's discretion
- Confirm the curing method is spelled out rather than skipped
- Identify which figures are allowances versus fixed prices in each bid
- Treat a bid far below the others as a scope gap to explain, not a win to take
Contract and payment terms
Money should follow work, never lead it. A fair concrete job takes little or nothing up front, a payment as materials arrive or the pour is done, and the balance at completion once you have walked the finished slab. A contractor who needs the whole amount before the forms go in is asking you to fund the last customer's job. Get every promise into the contract, and be specific about what the warranty says on cracks.
Contract and payment terms
- Get a written contract naming scope, thickness, reinforcement, finish, and total price
- Confirm a start window and rough duration in the contract itself
- Never pay in full up front; tie payments to material delivery and completion
- Cap any deposit at a modest share of the job, not the majority of it
- Put change order pricing in writing before any extra work begins
- Get the workmanship warranty in writing with its length and its exclusions
- Read the crack warranty closely: normal hairlines are excluded, but displacement and joint failure should not be
- Confirm the curing and site protection steps the crew is responsible for
- Collect a signed lien waiver before releasing the final payment
- Hold the last check until you have walked the finished slab and have a paid invoice in hand
Work this list on a calm week, not the afternoon a slab finally crumbles and you are in a hurry. Vet two or three contractors before you need one, keep the winners with this sheet, and the pressure to hire fast loses its grip. If you would rather begin with names than a search bar, request estimates and run whoever answers through these same columns.
Georgetown Concrete Guide editorial team
Independent research for Georgetown homeowners. Cost figures come from published industry data and are estimates, not quotes. Updated July 17, 2026.