Concrete Parking Lot Building in Anchorage AK - a slab that holds up to ice melt

The cost comes down to the lot's size, how much soft ground has to be dug out and replaced with packed base, how thick the slab needs to be for the traffic it'll carry, and how the lot connects to the street. A pour that has to be heated and covered in the cold costs more than one in summer. I'll put your figure in writing after I've walked the site.

An air-entrained mix is the one to ask for if you'll use deicers on the lot, because its tiny bubbles give expanding ice somewhere to go instead of building stress inside the slab. That's national industry guidance for concrete in general, and where ice melt goes down heavily, the guidance says more air may be needed. It's what we use on lots that will see deicers.

Yes, but only with protection, because fresh concrete freezes below about 25°F, and concrete that freezes can lose more than half its potential strength and won't be durable. Industry guidance calls for keeping a cold-weather pour from freezing for about two days after it's placed, and for clearing snow and ice and warming the ground it touches first, sometimes by insulating or heating the subgrade. It can be done, but for a lot I'd still rather wait for spring.

Keep deicers off a new lot for its whole first winter, and use them in moderate amounts after that. Ice melt soaks the surface and adds more freeze and thaw cycles, which is what makes concrete flake. A lot poured in spring or summer dries out as it ages, while a fall pour often doesn't dry enough before you need deicer, which is the reason behind the warm-season push I mentioned above.

You may need one if the work calls for temporary access from the street, changes an existing driveway or adds a new one, because the Municipality of Anchorage can require a right-of-way permit for those. Grading for the lot goes through the city's permit counter, and when the grading is part of a building permit there's no extra fee for it, though the application needs a total project value that counts every site improvement. We handle that paperwork with the city where we're able to, and if any part has to come from you or someone else, I'll tell you plainly who and what they'll want.

Usually it's control joints cut late or skipped, or ground that settles under the slab. Concrete shrinks as it cures and moves with the cold, so some cracking is normal, and control joints, grooves cut partway into the slab, give those cracks a straight line to follow. We cut them on time so the cracks land where we chose.