Concrete Contractor in Dunnellon, FL

Older Homes and Old Concrete in Dunnellon

Dunnellon boomed after phosphate was found nearby in 1889, the first phosphate mining boom in Florida. The Dunnellon Boomtown Historic District, listed on the National Register in 1988, contains 70 historic buildings. Most homes in town went up between the 1960s and the 1990s, by Census estimates.

Concrete that old often shows it: a driveway that has cracked and sunk, or a walk broken at the edges. Replacing it starts with breaking out the old slab and hauling it away. Then the base is graded and compacted, and the forms and reinforcement go in before the pour. Where an old mobile home has to come down first, our demolition work clears the lot for the new build.

Spruce Creek Preserve is a deed-restricted 55+ community with a Dunnellon address. There, residents file an Application for Exterior Modification before changing a home's exterior. Check that step before planning a new patio or paver walkway.

Building on Empty Lots in Rainbow Lakes Estates and Citrus Springs

Rainbow Lakes Estates sits west of US 41, about six miles north of Dunnellon, and reaches into Levy County. The Census counts it as fully rural, and many of its platted lots are still empty. South across the Withlacoochee, Citrus Springs was laid out with more than 34,000 homesites. The Census counts about 5,000 homes there, and one in nine went up in 2020 or later.

We come down from Ocala on SR 40 and US 41, or on SR 200 and CR 484. It is about 25 miles to downtown. A new home starts with site prep and grading: clearing the footprint, then building and compacting the pad. The footings and slab come next, then the shell, the roof and the finish work inside.

Lots without public water and sewer need a well and a septic system, and those come from their own specialists. We plan the slab and the driveway around them.

Barns and Metal Buildings Around Dunnellon

North and east of town, the land opens up into ranchette plats. Lake Tropicana Ranchettes alone covers about 2,100 platted acres, and Blue Run Ranches adds nearly 1,000 more. Rainbow Springs, the unincorporated community on the city's north edge, is partly rural as well.

A few acres leave room for pole barns and equipment shelters, a horse barn or a detached garage. The same company that frames the barn pours the slab under it, once the pad is built and compacted. Under state law, many nonresidential farm buildings on bona fide agricultural land are exempt from the Florida Building Code. The county decides.

In Marion County's A-1 and A-2 zones, a livestock barn needs a 75-foot front setback. Living quarters change the rules, since the farm-building exemption does not cover a home.

Closer in, platted commercial ground includes the Dunnellon Business Center. The Dunnellon/Marion County Airport sits just outside the city on CR 484. A warehouse or metal building there starts with a graded pad and a slab sized for the load.

What Is the Ground Like Around Dunnellon?

Near the city, the ground is mostly deep sand, and the most common mapped soils are Candler and Tavares. Both soak up rain quickly, but Pomona sand, found in pockets near town, stays wet longer. Federal soil surveys put its water table within a foot of the surface for about three months in most years. On ground like that, the pad and the drainage get planned before any slab or foundation is formed.

The Blue Cove subdivision sits in one of the original phosphate pits, and Citrus Springs has abandoned mines too. In June 2023, a homeowner in the Dunnellon area reported two sinkholes to the state, one partly under a driveway. The state's geologists also list poorly compacted soil after digging as a common sinkhole look-alike. That is why every slab starts with a compacted base.