Harbor Costa Mesa Concrete pours drives, steps and walls in Laguna Beach, 14 miles down Coast Highway from Costa Mesa. Every estimate is measured and written on site, drawing included.
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In Laguna Beach the permit is the longest part of most jobs. A wall, a drive or a set of steps that a neighbor or the street can see goes to the city's Design Review Board before a shovel goes in.
The board exists because the town is built up the hillsides in view of one another, and it looks at height, bulk and what a wall does to the view from the lot behind. A retaining wall at the street, a drive that changes the grade, or steps that cut into a slope can all fall under that review, and the whole city sits inside the coastal zone, so some work needs a coastal development permit as well. A contractor who learns this after the estimate has written the wrong estimate.
So we draw before we price. The visit measures the slope in feet of fall as well as the slab in square feet, photographs the sightlines from the neighbor's side, and notes what the plan will have to show. The estimate then carries the drawing, the submittal and the inspections as their own lines, and the schedule runs from the day the approval is expected rather than the day the truck is free. Where nothing needs review, which is most patios behind the house, it says so.
Flat ground is rare in Laguna Beach, so the work here is steps, walls and drives that climb, more often than a patio on a lawn. What is poured is small in area and large in the drawing the city wants to see first.
A Laguna Beach drive is more often a ramp than a slab, cut into the hill from Coast Highway or a canyon street to a garage above or below it. We form it to the grade the city approved, broom it across the slope for grip, and pitch it to a gutter so nothing runs over the bank.
The flat patio behind a Laguna Beach house is usually the one level piece of the lot, and it was made by a cut or a fill. We probe which before we pour, compact the base, and drain the slab to a pipe rather than to the slope below, which keeps the hillside as dry as it is now.
Stamped work in Laguna Beach goes on the walk and the entry more than the drive, because a stamped surface on a slope is slick when wet. On the flat we cast slate or flagstone into a 4 inch slab, seal it in 2 coats, and match the color to the house the board approved.
Walks in Laguna Beach are steps as often as they are flat, from the street down to a front door or up to one. We pour the flat runs at 4 inches with a broom finish, form each step to an even rise, and pitch the treads forward so rain runs off instead of pooling at the riser.
A Laguna Beach garage is cut into the hill or under the house, and the floor is where hillside water shows up first. We pour over a vapor barrier and 4 inches of gravel, pitch the slab to the door, and where the back wall is a retaining wall we drain it before the floor goes in.
Exposed aggregate suits Laguna Beach, because it grips on a slope, hides the sand a beach house tracks in and reads as stone from the street the board looks at it from. We seed the surface, wash the paste off the stone, and seal it so the salt and the winter damp do not dull it.
A retaining wall is the job Laguna Beach asks for most, because every level yard on the hill is held by one. We footing it into firm material, run drain rock and a perforated pipe behind the stem to a daylight outlet, and draw it for the Design Review Board where it must go.
Interior floors in Laguna Beach are polished or stained slabs in a remodeled cottage or a new lower level cut into the hill. We pour over a barrier, trowel the surface flat enough for tile or polish, and place the joints on the room's grid so a crack lands in a line.
Our office is on Newport Boulevard in Costa Mesa, and the road to Laguna Beach is Coast Highway through Newport Beach and Corona del Mar and past Crystal Cove, about 14 miles to Main Beach and a little further to South Laguna. The crew comes that way, and the mixer comes down Laguna Canyon Road from the 405, because a loaded truck holds up the highway for miles. Permits go to the Community Development Department at Laguna Beach City Hall on Forest Avenue, and we file them.
The streets change the method more than the ground does. In North Laguna and downtown the lots are small and the cottages are from the 1920s and 1930s, so a job is a walk, a step and a short drive poured from a truck parked at the curb. Up Bluebird Canyon, in Arch Beach Heights and at Top of the World the streets are narrow and steep, the house is above or below the road, and the concrete goes up by pump or by barrow, which makes it a crew day more than a pour day.
The hillside is the other thing to know. Laguna Beach has moved in living memory, at Bluebird Canyon in 1978 and again in 2005, and both were slopes carrying more water than they could shed. So a slab or a wall here is built to keep water off the slope. A drive is pitched to a gutter and not over the bank, a wall is drained behind the stem to a pipe that daylights, and no yard drain is pointed at the lot below. Sea air does nothing to concrete that a hose does not wash off.
Four steps, and the second one sets the calendar. The estimate is measured and written on the first visit, and what follows depends on whether the city needs to see the plan before the truck is booked.
Julian Mercado measures the slab and the slope, photographs the sightlines and writes the estimate at the house, with the drawing included.
We file with the Community Development Department on Forest Avenue and answer the board's questions, so you never sit at the counter.
Concrete arrives by chute, pump or barrow depending on the street. The old slab comes out, the subgrade is compacted and drained.
One morning to pour, joints cut that afternoon, and the slab kept damp for a week. Foot traffic after a day, cars after 7 days.
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 review and the permit as their own lines where the city needs the plan, and no charge for the drawing.
Reviews
Three reviews from Google, Facebook and the BBB, left by customers in Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley and Newport Beach. Laguna Beach is on the same coast and the work is done to the same estimate.
“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 a Laguna Beach owner asks before signing. What moves the cost on a hillside, who has to approve the job, how the crew and the truck get to the house, the slope, the timescale and the towns nearby.
The slope and the street, before the slab. A drive that climbs has to be cut, walled and stepped, and a street a mixer cannot stand on means the concrete is pumped or barrowed up, both of them crew hours the same slab on a flat Costa Mesa lot would not need. Then the review, where it applies. Every estimate is measured and written on site, so every one of those is a line you can read.
The City of Laguna Beach, through the Community Development Department at City Hall on Forest Avenue, and for anything a neighbor or the street can see, its Design Review Board. Because the whole city is inside the coastal zone, some work needs a coastal development permit too. A patio behind the house that changes no grade usually needs none of them. We file whatever applies.
By Coast Highway, about 14 miles from our office on Newport Boulevard, which is half an hour outside the summer weekends. The mixer takes Laguna Canyon Road from the 405 instead, and on a steep street it parks where it can and we pump from there. We book the day for the whole crew, so a job here is not fitted in around a nearer one.
Yes, if the water is dealt with. The slides at Bluebird Canyon in 1978 and 2005 were slopes that had taken on more water than they could shed, so the rule for anything we build on a slope here is that it sends water to a drain and never over the bank. A wall is drained behind the stem, a drive is pitched to a gutter, and where a lot sits in a mapped slide area the city asks for a soils report first.
The pour is one morning and the crew is on site 2 to 4 days around it, but the approval before it can take weeks, and we say which on the estimate. Once poured, steps and walks take foot traffic after 24 hours and a drive takes a car after 7 days. On a hillside lot with one way in, we sequence the pour so you are never cut off from your own door overnight.
Yes. Newport Beach is the way we come, Aliso Viejo is over the ridge up Laguna Canyon Road and Aliso Creek Road, and Laguna Niguel and Laguna Hills are the next towns inland along the 73. Each has its own page, because the ground and the permit counter change at the line, and the estimate for a job in any of them is measured the same way, at the house.
Laguna Beach shares its lines with Newport Beach, Aliso Viejo over the ridge and Laguna Niguel to the south, and we cover all three from the same office in Costa Mesa. Each has its own page, and if your street is on a line, the page next door 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.