Harbor Costa Mesa Concrete pours driveways, patios and finished concrete in Cypress, 15 miles up the 405 from our Costa Mesa office. The visit is free, the estimate written finish by finish.
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The concrete in Cypress is being replaced by its owners, not its landlords. Two in three homes here are owner occupied, so the second slab on a lot is picked by the person who will park on it.
The 1960s builder poured a plain gray drive, a plain gray walk and a 10 foot slab at the back door, thin and on bare pasture soil, the same on every lot between Lincoln Avenue and Katella Avenue. Sixty years on the owner replacing them has lived with what was wrong. The drive is too narrow for the third car, the patio too small for the cover over it, the walk runs where nobody walks. The replacement is wider, deeper into the yard and more often than not a finish the builder never sold.
So a Cypress estimate is written with the choices on it. The drive is drawn at the width the cars need and the apron is widened to match under the city's permit. The patio is drawn to the cover's posts and beyond them. The finish is a separate line for each option, broom, stamped, exposed aggregate or colored, so the difference is visible before anything is chosen. Under every one the build is the same, topsoil out to firm silt, 4 inches of compacted rock, 4 inches of concrete on steel.
Cypress was built in one decade on the dairy flats, and the tract builder chose its first concrete. The owners are choosing the second, and since two in three homes here are owner occupied, the drive and patio are replaced by someone staying.
A Cypress drive is replaced wider than the 1960s one it follows, because the third car has been parking on the lawn. We take the old slab and the pasture soil out to firm silt, compact 4 inches of rock, pour 4 inches with steel and a 5 inch apron, and widen the curb cut.
A Cypress patio is poured to the cover that went up over the builder's 10 foot slab, and past it. We pour 4 inches on compacted rock, pitch it a quarter inch to the foot away from the house, dowel it into the old slab at the door, and joint it every 10 feet.
Stamped concrete is the finish Cypress owners choose most for a second drive, with a border band at the apron in a plain broom to match the street. We cast the pattern into a 4 inch slab, color it through so a chip does not show gray, and seal it in 2 coats after the cure.
A front walk in Cypress is moved as often as replaced, to run where the family actually walks from the drive to the door. We pour 4 inches on rock, broom finished with joints every 5 feet, and where the parkway walk has lifted we replace that panel under the city's permit.
A Cypress garage floor from the 1960s was poured without a vapor barrier over pasture soil, so it sweats in a wet winter and will not hold a coating. We cut it out, compact 4 inches of rock over a 10 mil barrier, and pour 4 inches troweled flat, ready to coat after 28 days.
Exposed aggregate is the second most chosen finish in Cypress, because the stone gives grip on a slab that stays damp into spring and hides the marks a plain gray shows. We pour 4 inches with a smooth banded border, wash the stone proud the same evening, and seal after the cure.
Cypress is flat, so a wall here raises a bed or holds the edge of a widened drive above the neighbor's lawn. We footing it 12 inches into firm silt below the pasture soil, drain behind the stem with gravel and a perforated pipe, and cap it level, inspected over 4 feet.
An interior floor in Cypress is usually the slab for a room built over the old patio or a converted garage. We pour over a 10 mil barrier on compacted rock, trowel it flat enough for tile or a polish, and cut the joints to the room's grid, ready to build on after 7 days.
Our office is on Newport Boulevard in Costa Mesa, and Cypress is about 15 miles north, up the 405 and west on the 22 to Valley View Street, or on up the 405 to the 605 and in along Katella Avenue when the 22 is stopped. Either way the crew is on a Cypress street in about half an hour. Plans go to the City of Cypress Building Division at City Hall on Orange Avenue, and a widened approach or a walk in the parkway takes an encroachment permit from the city's Public Works as well.
The town is a grid of 1960s single story tracts between the 605 and Knott Avenue, with Cypress College and the business park along Katella Avenue on its south side and the Los Alamitos Race Course at its southwest corner. The lots are wide at the front with a side gate a barrow fits through, and because the tracts repeat, the drive on your street has a width and a joint line the street expects, which we keep at the curb even when the drive itself is widened behind it.
The ground is the dairy pasture the city was first named for, a dark top foot full of organic matter over flat silt, and none of it drains like the sand under our office. That is why a 1960s slab here settled at the apron and why the base under the new one is crushed rock and not the ground. It also sets the finish. Exposed aggregate and a broom finish keep their grip on a slab that stays wet into March, and a stamped surface is sealed every 2 to 3 years so the color lasts.
Four stages from the visit to the finished surface, and the choosing happens at the first one, on the property, where the widths and the finishes are drawn and priced as separate lines.
Julian Mercado measures the lot, digs a test hole in the pasture soil, and writes the estimate with each width and finish on its own line.
A widened apron or a parkway walk is filed with Cypress Public Works, and we wait for the permit before the saw comes off the truck.
The old slab and the dark top foot of soil come out to firm silt, and 4 inches of crushed rock is compacted before the forms are set.
The pour is one morning and the finish is worked that day, stamped, washed or broomed, with sealing after the cure and cars after 7 days.
Call or send the form and we call you back within 1 business day to book the visit. The estimate is free and written at the property, with a line for each finish you are choosing between, so the choice is made on figures and not on a sample board.
Reviews
Reviews left on Google, Facebook and the BBB by owners across the towns we cover, Cypress among them, each naming the job, the finish they chose and how it has held up since.
“Our driveway on the State Streets was the 1955 original, broken into plates that rocked underfoot. They dug out a foot of old planter fill, compacted it, poured 560 square feet at 4 inches with a 5-inch apron and pulled the curb permit themselves. Eighteen months in and it is flat.”
“I own a fourplex in Fountain Valley and the garage slabs were sweating every winter. They cut out all four, laid a vapor barrier and 4 inches of gravel, poured them at 5 inches over two days and gave me one estimate per unit. First winter since, the floors are dry.”
“We needed a slab for a detached studio behind our Newport Beach house. The owner dug the footings 12 inches, set the rebar and the vapor barrier, had the City inspect it, and poured 400 square feet in one morning. The framer said it was the flattest slab he had worked on all year.”
What Cypress homeowners ask at the door. What moves the estimate, whether the city needs to approve it, how far we come, the pasture soil under the lot, how long the drive is out of use, and the towns nearby.
The finish, once the size is set. On the same 4 inch slab a broom finish is the least work, exposed aggregate adds a wash the same evening, a stamped surface adds the pattern, the color and 2 coats of sealer, and an integral color sits between them. Before that comes what comes out, since the pasture soil goes out to firm silt under every job here. Every estimate is measured and written on site, finish by finish.
Not for the drive inside your lot line, which the California Residential Code exempts. The approach and the curb are the city's, so widening the apron to match a wider drive takes an encroachment permit from Cypress Public Works, and a slab under a garage or a unit takes a building permit from the Building Division at City Hall on Orange Avenue. We file whichever applies and meet the inspector at the curb.
About half an hour with the mixer following. The crew takes the 405 north and the 22 west to Valley View Street, about 15 miles, or the 605 and Katella Avenue when the 22 is stopped, and Cypress is close enough to the other north county towns we cover that a visit there is fitted into the same day. We call back within 1 business day to book it around your week.
A dark top foot of old pasture over flat silt, and yes. The organic soil the dairies left never compacts, so a slab poured on it in the 1960s has settled unevenly, most at the apron where cars turn in. We dig that layer out to firm silt, compact 4 inches of crushed rock in its place, and run steel on an 18 inch grid through the slab, so the new concrete sits on ground that stays where it is.
About 10 days from the first saw cut, a day or two longer for a stamped finish. Demolition and the topsoil take a day, the base and forms a second, and the pour is one morning with the joints cut that afternoon. A stamped drive is sealed once it has cured, which adds a visit. Walk on any of them after 24 hours and park on them after 7 days.
Yes. La Palma and Buena Park to the north, Los Alamitos to the south, Stanton to the east and Hawaiian Gardens across Coyote Creek to the west each have a page on this site, and the crew serves all of them from the same office on the same terms. If your street sits on a city line, the permit goes to whichever city owns the curb, and we check that before we file.
Cypress touches La Palma and Buena Park to the north, Stanton to the east, Los Alamitos to the south and Hawaiian Gardens over the creek to the west, and every one is covered from our office. If your street sits on a line, the next town has its own page.
Open the Costa Mesa Office in Google Maps Send the form or call and we call you back within 1 business day to book the visit. The estimate is free and written on site, finish by finish, and the work carries a written guarantee.