Harbor Costa Mesa Concrete replaces driveways, walks and garage floors in Los Alamitos, the north-west corner of our patch, 20 miles up the 405 from Newport Boulevard. Free, written on site.
5.0 Stars Rated by our customers · Google, Facebook and the BBB
A Los Alamitos address does not always mean a Los Alamitos permit. Rossmoor, west of Los Alamitos Boulevard, carries the same postal name and is unincorporated, so Orange County permits its work.
The city is small, about 11,000 people on the streets between the 605, Katella Avenue and the training base, and the county pocket beside it is nearly as big. They are one town to a mail carrier and two jurisdictions to an inspector. A patio inside the lot line needs no permit in either. A footing under a cover, a wall over 4 feet or a new approach is permitted by Los Alamitos City Hall on one side of the boulevard and by the county on the other, with different forms and inspection days.
So the first thing we check on a Los Alamitos job is which side of the line the lot is on, and the assessor's parcel page settles it before we quote. The work under the slab is the same on both sides. The town sits on silty river sand with the water table a few feet down, so the subgrade is compacted, 4 inches of rock goes under everything, and a garage floor or a slab under a room gets a 10 mil barrier, because ground this near the sea wicks water up through bare concrete all winter.
Los Alamitos was built in one push in the 1950s and 1960s on flat ground a few feet above the tide line, so the eight jobs below are almost all replacements, and the water under the town has a say in every one of them.
A Los Alamitos driveway is long, because the 1950s tracts set the garage well back from the street. The whole run comes out, the silt is compacted, 4 inches of rock goes in and the slab is poured 4 inches with steel, 5 where a truck parks. The approach has its own permit.
Back yards here are deep and flat, so a patio has nowhere to shed water unless it is graded. We pour 4 inches on compacted rock, pitch the slab a quarter inch a foot away from the house to a drain or the side yard, and joint it every 10 feet so the cracks land where we cut.
Stamped concrete in Los Alamitos usually replaces a plain 1960s patio in a yard that has since gained a pool. We pour a 4 inch slab, press the pattern while it is soft, color it through the mix and seal it, and the seal is what stops the damp winter growing moss in the texture.
Front walks on the Cerritos Avenue tracts have sunk into the silt over 60 years and puddle after rain. We break out the low panels, compact the ground under them, and pour new panels pinned to the sound ones. The parkway walk is the city's or the county's and is permitted first.
Garage floors in Los Alamitos sweat in winter because the water table is a few feet down and the original slabs went in with no barrier. We cut out the slab, lay a 10 mil barrier over 4 inches of rock, and pour 4 inches level and flat, which is the only floor an epoxy stays on.
Exposed aggregate is the finish we are asked for around Los Alamitos pools, because the stone surface grips a wet foot where a smooth slab does not. We pour a river stone mix, hose the surface back an hour after the pour so the stone stands proud, and seal it after it cures.
Los Alamitos is flat, so a wall here holds a raised bed or a pool surround rather than a hillside. We foot it 12 inches into compacted ground, put drain rock and a pipe behind it, and keep the top course level along its length, since a wall on silt shows every inch of settlement.
An interior floor in Los Alamitos goes under a garage conversion or a backyard unit, and it sits closer to the water table than almost anywhere we pour. We lay a 10 mil barrier over rock, pour 4 inches, and float it flat enough for tile, with the joints set to the room.
From Costa Mesa the crew takes the 405 north past the 22, leaves at Seal Beach Boulevard and follows it across the city line, where it becomes Los Alamitos Boulevard, about 20 miles and 30 minutes on a weekday morning. City permits come from the Community Development Department at Los Alamitos City Hall on Katella Avenue, and for a Rossmoor lot we file with the county instead. The Joint Forces Training Base takes up the south-east of the city, and the houses run around it in a ring.
The tracts north of Katella Avenue and along Cerritos Avenue and Bloomfield Street went up in the 1950s and 1960s on lots of a size the county no longer allows, with a long driveway to a detached or set-back garage and a back yard deep enough for a pool. That first concrete is now 60 years old and past its working life, so most of our work here is taking out an original drive or walk in whole and pouring it again, rather than patching plates that rock.
The ground is the coastal plain of the San Gabriel River, which runs down the west edge of the city along the county line, and Coyote Creek joins it there. The plain is silt and fine sand, flat enough that a lot has no natural fall, so we grade every slab to a drain or the street rather than trusting the yard to shed water. The marine layer reaches this far inland most mornings from May to July, which keeps a fresh pour damp, and the afternoons stay mild for most of the year.
One visit, one written figure and one crew from demolition to the last joint. Before anything is priced we confirm the jurisdiction from the parcel record and probe the ground, so the estimate carries the right permit and the right base.
Julian Mercado measures the job, reads the parcel record for whether the lot is city or county, probes the ground and writes the figure on site.
Where a footing, a wall or an approach needs one, we file with Los Alamitos City Hall or with Orange County, whichever the parcel says.
The old concrete is broken out and hauled, the silt is plate-compacted, 4 inches of rock goes down, and a barrier goes under anything roofed.
The pour is a morning, the joints are cut the same afternoon, and we walk the slab with you against the estimate. Cars go on it after 7 days.
Call or send the form and we call back within 1 business day to fix a time. At the property we measure, check the parcel and the ground, and hand you the figure before we leave. No charge, and we are in Los Alamitos most weeks.
Reviews
Three reviews from Google, Facebook and the BBB, left by homeowners and a landlord along the coast we cover. A Los Alamitos job gets the same measure, the same pour and the same guarantee.
“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 Los Alamitos homeowners ask before they book, on cost, which counter permits the work, how far we travel, the wet ground, how long a drive is out of use and which neighboring towns we also cover.
The length of the run, then what is under it. A Los Alamitos driveway to a set-back garage is longer than most, and a damp silt subgrade needs more compaction and a barrier under anything roofed. After that it is the thickness, the finish and whether the approach is included. Every estimate is measured and written on site, with each of those as its own line, so a long drive is priced as a long drive.
The Community Development Department at Los Alamitos City Hall on Katella Avenue, if your lot is in the city. If your address is Los Alamitos but your street is in Rossmoor, west of Los Alamitos Boulevard, the lot is unincorporated and the permit comes from Orange County. Flatwork inside the lot line needs none from either. A footing, a tall wall or an approach does, and we file it and meet the inspector.
About 20 miles by the 405, and around 30 minutes on a weekday morning. Los Alamitos is the north-west corner of the area we cover, so we group jobs there and in Seal Beach and Cypress into the same weeks. That does not change what you get. The person who measures your job is the one who pours it, and we call back within 1 business day whichever town you are in.
Yes, in two ways. Silty sand with water a few feet down settles under a slab that was poured on it loose, and it wicks moisture up through any slab with a roof over it. So the subgrade is plate-compacted before 4 inches of rock goes down, every slab is graded to shed water, and a garage or interior floor gets a 10 mil barrier under it. A drive or patio in the open needs no barrier, only the base.
Roughly 10 days. A long tract driveway takes a day to break out and haul, a day for the base and forms, and a morning to pour, with the joints cut that afternoon. Then it is 24 hours before anyone walks on it and 7 before a car does. If the approach is part of the job, the permit is in hand before we start, so the city's inspection does not add days in the middle.
Yes. Seal Beach to the south, Cypress to the north and Hawaiian Gardens across the county line to the west, plus Westminster and Stanton down the 22, are all on our list and each has a page of its own. Rossmoor, between Los Alamitos and Seal Beach, is covered with them, and the only thing that changes there is that the county rather than the city permits the work.
Los Alamitos touches Seal Beach, Cypress and Hawaiian Gardens, with Westminster and Stanton minutes down the 22, and one crew covers them all from Costa Mesa. Each has its own page, since the permit counter and the age of the concrete change at the line.
Open the Costa Mesa Office in Google Maps Send the form or call and you hear back within 1 business day. There is no charge for the visit or the written estimate, and every job carries a written guarantee against build defects.