Harbor Costa Mesa Concrete pours driveways, garage floors and patios in Fountain Valley, across the Santa Ana River from our Costa Mesa office. The visit is free, the estimate written there.
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Fountain Valley is the river's flood plain. The channel beside it stopped the water coming over the ground in the 1950s, but the water still comes up through it, and a slab here is poured for that.
The town is named for the springs that once broke the surface, and the silt under the tracts still carries water close beneath the lawn for most of the winter. On our side of the river the mesa is sand and drains on its own. On yours a garage floor poured straight onto the silt draws moisture up through the slab and sweats every January, a patio at grade holds a puddle for a week after rain, and a drive with no base settles at the apron where the wheels turn in.
So the base under a Fountain Valley slab does two jobs. It carries the load and it drains, which means 4 inches of crushed rock rather than sand, compacted in place, with a 10 mil vapor barrier over it under any slab with a roof above it. The slab is pitched a quarter inch to the foot toward the street or a drain, because the ground gives it no fall of its own, and the steel runs on an 18 inch grid so a panel that shrinks cracks at the joint we cut and nowhere else.
Fountain Valley was laid out in one push after 1957 on the flat west of the river, so the lots are alike and so are their failures. The garage floor sweats, the drive has settled at the apron, and the patio is the builder's ten feet of slab.
A Fountain Valley drive settles at the apron because it was poured on silt that goes soft every winter. We break the old slab out, compact 4 inches of crushed rock so the base drains, and pour 4 inches with a 5 inch apron, pitched to the gutter under the city's permit.
A patio in Fountain Valley is poured to shed water, because the yard will not take it. We set the slab a quarter inch to the foot toward a drain or the side yard, pour 4 inches on compacted rock, and tie it to the builder's slab at the door with dowels so the two stay level.
Stamped concrete in Fountain Valley goes on the drive as often as the patio, with the sealer doing the work the tract builder's broom never had to. We cast the pattern into a 4 inch slab, color it through, and seal it in 2 coats so the winter damp beads off instead of soaking in.
A front walk in Fountain Valley usually meets a parkway walk that belongs to the city. We pour yours 4 inches on rock, broom finished and jointed every 5 feet, and where the public walk has lifted we replace that panel under the city's encroachment permit in the same visit.
A garage floor in Fountain Valley is replaced because it sweats, not because it is worn. The slab comes out, 4 inches of crushed rock is compacted over the silt, a 10 mil vapor barrier goes down, and the new floor is poured 4 inches, troweled flat, ready to coat after 28 days.
Exposed aggregate suits a Fountain Valley yard because the stone gives grip on a slab that stays damp into spring. We pour 4 inches with a smooth banded border, wash the surface to expose the aggregate the same evening, and seal it once it has cured so the stone keeps its color.
Fountain Valley is flat, so a wall here holds a raised bed or a planter rather than a hillside. We footing it 12 inches into firm ground below the topsoil, drain behind the stem with gravel and a perforated pipe, and cap it level, because a wall on wet silt with no drain leans.
An interior floor in Fountain Valley starts with the barrier, since a polished slab shows every damp patch the ground pushes up. We pour over a 10 mil barrier on compacted rock, trowel it flat enough for tile or a polish, and cut the joints on a grid that suits the room.
Our office is on Newport Boulevard in Costa Mesa, and Fountain Valley starts where the Santa Ana River channel ends the Mesa Verde streets, about 5 miles by road. The crew takes the 405 over the river and comes off at Euclid Street or Brookhurst Street, so a Fountain Valley visit fits before a Costa Mesa pour on the same morning. Plans go to the City of Fountain Valley at City Hall on Slater Avenue, and work at the curb takes an encroachment permit from the city as well.
The tracts between Brookhurst Street and the river went up in the 1960s and early 1970s on lots wide enough for a two car drive and a side gate a barrow fits through, and most are still with their first or second owner, since about 7 in 10 homes in the city are owner occupied. That shows in what we are asked for. A drive is widened for the third car rather than replaced like for like, a patio is run to the fence, and a garage floor is replaced because the owner has decided to stay.
Mile Square Regional Park in the middle of the city is the clearest sign of the ground. It is a square mile of flat ground on the old farm grid, with no more fall across it than a lot has, and water leaves it the way it leaves every yard in the city, slowly. That sets the calendar. We pour Fountain Valley slabs on a dry subgrade, which after a storm means waiting 2 days, and the marine layer off the coast 4 miles west keeps a summer cure even without an early start.
Four stages from the first call to cars back on the drive, and the same crew from the visit to the finish. The written figure comes from the visit and not from the phone, and the ground is opened before any number is written.
Julian Mercado measures the slab, digs a test hole to see how wet the silt is, and writes the estimate at the property before he leaves.
Where the approach or the parkway walk is in the job we file the encroachment permit with the City of Fountain Valley and wait for it.
The old slab is broken out and hauled, 4 inches of crushed rock is compacted, and a vapor barrier goes down under any garage or room slab.
The pour is one morning, the joints are cut that afternoon, and the slab is walked on after 24 hours and driven on 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, and the crew is across the river most weeks, so the visit is booked around your week and not ours.
Reviews
Reviews left on Google, Facebook and the BBB by people we have poured for across the towns we cover, Fountain Valley among them, with the job named in each one 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 Fountain Valley homeowners ask at the door, in the order they ask it. The estimate, the permit from Slater Avenue, how soon we come, the wet ground, how long the drive is out of use, and the towns nearby.
The base, before anything else. A Fountain Valley slab needs 4 inches of crushed rock compacted in place because the silt under it holds water, and a garage floor needs a vapor barrier over that, so the ground is a line on the estimate before the concrete is. What comes out is next, since a 1960s drive breaks up in a morning and a thick apron takes longer. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
Not inside your lot line. A drive, patio or walk on your own ground is exempt under the California Residential Code. The approach at the curb and the walk in the parkway are the city's, so either takes an encroachment permit from the City of Fountain Valley at City Hall on Slater Avenue, and a slab under a garage or a room takes a building permit from the same counter. We file both and meet the inspector.
We call back within 1 business day to book the visit, around your week. For the work, the crew crosses the river on the 405 and is on a Fountain Valley street inside 20 minutes from our office on Newport Boulevard, so a Fountain Valley job runs on the same schedule as one in Costa Mesa, with the truck ordered to the pour time and not to the drive.
Because there is nothing between it and the wet silt. The slab was poured straight onto the ground in the 1960s, and when winter rain raises the water in the soil the moisture moves up through the concrete and condenses on the cold surface. A coating will not stop it and neither will a drain. The floor comes out and goes back at 4 inches over crushed rock and a 10 mil vapor barrier, and the next winter is dry.
About 10 days from the first saw cut. Demolition and haul-away take a day, the base and the barrier a second, and the pour is one morning with the joints cut that afternoon. Then the slab is walked on after 24 hours and parked on after 7 days. If the approach is in the job the city's inspection of the forms comes before the pour, so we ask for the permit as soon as the estimate is signed.
Westminster next door to the north, Newport Beach down the coast and Costa Mesa itself across the river, along with the rest of the towns listed below. A street on the Westminster line is served from the same office and on the same terms, and if your address turns out to be on the Huntington Beach side, call anyway and we will tell you on the phone.
Fountain Valley shares its north line with Westminster and its east line, the river, with Costa Mesa. We cover Westminster from the same office, and the coast from Seal Beach to Newport Beach. 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 at the property, and the work carries a written guarantee.