Harbor Costa Mesa Concrete pours drives, patios and garage floors in La Palma, the far end of our list, by the 405 and Valley View Street. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
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La Palma is inland. The marine layer that keeps a Costa Mesa slab damp through the morning burns off earlier here and the afternoon runs hotter, so fresh concrete loses its water before it has set.
That matters because concrete does not dry, it cures, and it needs the water in the mix to stay there for days while the cement takes it up. A slab that loses its surface water in the first hours goes hard on top while it is still soft underneath, and the top shrinks against the bottom, which is where the fine crazing on a La Palma drive comes from, along with the dusting that never sweeps clean. None of that is a fault in the mix. It is the coast's own weather, missing.
So the pour is timed and the cure is deliberate. In summer the truck is ordered for first light and the slab is finished and jointed before the heat, with the joints cut the same day because shrinkage runs faster here. Then it is kept wet, under a curing compound or a covered soak, for 7 days, and the estimate says which. On a cool week from November to March the timing relaxes, but the joints are still cut on the day and the slab still stays covered for its first week.
La Palma was built in one push in the 1960s on flat pasture between Coyote Creek and the 91, so the drives, walks and garage floors all reached the end of their life together. The work is replacement, and what the town changes is the cure.
A La Palma drive is the 1960s original, two cars wide and broken into plates at the apron, and the whole block's are the same age. We break it out, compact the base with the fall built in, pour 4 inches for cars and 5 for a truck, and cure it under cover through the inland week.
A patio in La Palma goes on flat ground that holds water, so the fall is built into the base rather than found in the yard. We pour 4 inches on compacted gravel pitched away from the house, joint it every 10 feet, and start at first light in summer so the top does not dry first.
Stamped work in La Palma fades faster than on the coast, because the afternoon sun is on it longer, so the color goes through the mix and not on top. We cast slate or ashlar into a 4 inch slab, cure it under cover so the surface does not craze, and seal it in 2 coats.
Walks in La Palma run along the parkway as often as up to the door, and the parkway strip is the city's. We pull the encroachment permit for that part, dowel the new panel into the old so the joint stays flush, pour it at 4 inches with a broom finish, and cure it like a drive.
A garage floor in La Palma sweats, because the slab was poured in the 1960s straight onto silt with nothing under it, and the damp comes up through this ground. We cut it out, lay a vapor barrier over 4 inches of compacted gravel, pour 4 inches, and cure it wet before coating.
Exposed aggregate in La Palma is the finish that hides the sun's work, since the stone does not fade and the surface does not show the crazing a hot cure leaves on a plain slab. We seed the surface with river stone, wash the paste back the same day, cure it and seal it.
La Palma is flat, so a retaining wall here holds a raised planter or a step up to a porch rather than a hillside. We footing it into the compacted subgrade, drain behind the stem so the planter does not hold water against the house, and cap it level to match the walk beside it.
Interior floors in La Palma are the slab for a garage turned into a room or a unit in the back yard, and the damp in this ground is what the floor has to keep out. We pour over a 10 mil vapor barrier on compacted gravel, trowel it flat for tile, and joint it under the walls.
Our office is on Newport Boulevard in Costa Mesa, and La Palma is the furthest town we cover, up the 405 to Valley View Street and north through Cypress into the city, about 40 minutes. That distance is why a La Palma job is planned as one trip. The crew comes with everything on the truck, the mixer is ordered for the hour the forms are ready, and nothing is left for a second run. Permits go to the Community Development Department at La Palma City Hall on Walker Street.
The city is under 2 square miles and almost all of it went up in the 1960s, when the dairy pasture between Coyote Creek and the 91 was laid out as tracts of single story houses with the garage at the front and a drive the width of two cars. Those drives are the job, 60 years old and broken into plates at the apron, and because every house on a block got its drive the same year, we are often asked for two or three on one street and pour them on one day from one truck.
The ground is the flat floor of Coyote Creek's old plain, sand and silt that drains poorly and holds water after a winter storm, so a slab here sits on a compacted gravel base with the fall built into it, since there is no slope to give the water a direction. The apron and the parkway walk are the city's, and work on them needs an encroachment permit from Public Works as well. Across the creek is Los Angeles County, and the county line changes the paperwork, not the ground.
Four steps, and the timing of the third is the one La Palma changes. The estimate is written at the house, the pour is ordered for the coolest hour of the day, and the slab is cured on purpose rather than left.
Julian Mercado measures the drive, checks the apron and the parkway, probes the subgrade and writes the estimate at the house, each part a line.
A drive inside the lot needs none. The apron and the parkway walk need the city's encroachment permit from Public Works on Walker Street.
The old plates come out, the subgrade is compacted, 4 inches of gravel is laid with the fall built in, and forms are set for a first light pour.
Poured before the heat, jointed the same day and kept wet for 7 days under compound or cover. Walk on it in a day, park on it after 7.
Call or send the form and we will call you back within 1 business day to book the visit. Every estimate is measured and written on site, with the cure named on it as its own line, and if a neighbor wants a drive the same week we measure both.
Reviews
Three reviews from Google, Facebook and the BBB, left by customers in Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley and Newport Beach. A La Palma drive is measured by the same man and poured by the same crew.
“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 people in La Palma ask before booking. What moves the estimate on a flat tract lot, whether the apron needs a permit, how far Costa Mesa is, the ground, how long a drive is out of use, and more.
What comes out, then the apron. A 1960s La Palma drive broken into plates is a morning's break-out, but one poured thick with mesh is a day and a bigger load to haul, and the apron at the curb is a permitted piece on its own line. The cure adds a day of crew time in summer. Every estimate is measured and written on site, so you see each of those against what arrives.
Not for the part inside your lot line, under the California Residential Code. The apron between the sidewalk and the street and the parkway walk are the city's, and work on them needs an encroachment permit from Public Works at La Palma City Hall on Walker Street. A slab under a garage or a back yard unit needs a building permit from the Community Development Department at the same address. We pull it.
About 40 minutes by the 405 and Valley View Street, and it is the furthest town on our list. That is why a job here is planned as one trip, with the crew, the tools and the forms on the truck together and the mixer ordered for the hour the forms are ready. A job in La Palma is not fitted around a nearer one. The day is yours, and a neighbor's drive can share it.
Flat, and slow to drain. The city sits on the old plain of Coyote Creek, sand and silt laid down by the creek before it was put in a channel, and after a winter storm the water stands because there is nowhere for it to fall to. So a slab here goes on a compacted gravel base with the fall to the street built into the forms, and a garage floor gets a vapor barrier, because the damp comes up through this ground.
The crew is on site 2 to 3 days, with the pour on one morning, and then the cure. Walk on the slab after 24 hours, park on it after 7 days, and keep a truck or a trailer off it until 28. In summer the slab is under a cover or a curing compound for that first week, and that is not the job running late. It is the week the slab's strength is made, and in La Palma the sun would take it if we did not.
Yes. Buena Park is across the 91 and Cypress is the way we come in on Valley View Street, and both are on our list, with Los Alamitos and Hawaiian Gardens a few minutes further south and west. Each has its own page. If your street is on the county line at Coyote Creek, the creek is the line we work to, and we will say on the phone which side of it we come to.
La Palma shares its lines with Buena Park and Cypress, and Los Alamitos and Hawaiian Gardens are a few minutes further, all covered from Costa Mesa on one trip. Each has its own page, and if your street sits on a city line, the next page may be yours.
Open the Costa Mesa Office in Google Maps Send the form and we will call you back within 1 business day to book the visit. The estimate is free and written at the house, and the work carries a written workmanship guarantee.