Harbor Costa Mesa Concrete replaces driveways, patios and walks in Placentia, the north end of what we cover, 20 miles up the 55 and the 91 from Newport Boulevard. Free, written on site.
5.0 Stars Rated by our customers · Google, Facebook and the BBB
Placentia sits at the mouth of the Santa Ana Canyon, where the wind that carries its name comes out of the pass and across the north of the county. The wind, not the ground, changes the job here.
A Santa Ana blows from October into March, hot and dry off the desert, with the humidity in single figures and gusts that take fences down along Yorba Linda Boulevard. Fresh concrete loses water from its surface faster than the slab below can bleed it back, so the top skins over and shrinks while the body is still soft, and by evening the slab is covered in fine cracks no finishing can close. Twenty miles inland from the coast, the same mix poured on the wrong morning comes out crazed.
So in Placentia we read the forecast before the calendar. A pour is not booked into a red flag day, and when a wind gets up on a day already booked we screen the slab, spray an evaporation retarder over it as soon as it is floated, and get the sheet on within the hour. From June to September the heat does the same thing more slowly, so the truck is on site at first light and the slab is kept wet under plastic for 7 days. The base is as at home, compacted ground and 4 inches of rock.
Placentia turned from orange groves into tracts in the 1960s and 1970s, and the concrete that went in with the houses is now 50 years old. The eight jobs below are mostly replacements, and every one of them is poured with the wind in mind.
A Placentia driveway from the 1960s tracts has done 50 years and usually broke first at the apron. We take out the whole run, dig the old grove soil to firm ground, compact 4 inches of rock and pour 4 inches with steel, 5 where a truck parks, and pull the permit for the apron.
A patio here replaces the small slab the tract builder left at the back door, on ground that was irrigated grove for decades. We dig to firm soil, compact the base, pour 4 inches pitched to the yard's fall toward Carbon Creek, and on a windy day it is floated and covered fast.
Stamped work in Placentia goes around pools and front entries on the tracts off Yorba Linda Boulevard. The slab is 4 inches, the pattern pressed while soft, the color in the mix and the seal on after, and it is never booked into a Santa Ana day, since stamping shows every crack.
Front walks on the grove-grid streets are lifted by the citrus and parkway trees kept from the orchards. The root is cut, a barrier goes in on the tree side, and the new panels are poured level with the sound ones. The parkway walk is the city's and is permitted before we cut it.
Garage floors in Placentia crack along the door line where the apron settled into soft grove soil. The slab comes out, the soft ground is dug to firm, 4 inches of rock and a 10 mil barrier go in, and the new floor is poured 4 inches and flat enough to coat in an inland summer.
A plain slab in Placentia shows the dust a Santa Ana lays on it by the afternoon, and exposed aggregate does not, which is why it is the finish we pour most here around pools and on patios. The stone is brought up by hosing the surface back once it has set, then it is sealed.
Placentia is flat on the grove grid and climbs toward the Yorba Linda line, so a wall here holds a raised bed or the step in a lot on the north side. Its footing goes 18 inches into firm ground below the old soil, drain rock and a pipe sit behind it, and the steel is doweled in.
The interior floor in Placentia is a garage conversion or a backyard unit on a 1960s lot, and it is the one slab that cannot be poured on a windy day, since a room floor crazed by the wind shows for good. It goes on a barrier over compacted rock, 4 inches on steel, floated flat.
We drive the 55 north to the 91, take it east past the 57 and leave at Kraemer Boulevard, or take the 57 north to Orangethorpe Avenue for the south of the city, about 20 miles and 35 minutes from Newport Boulevard on a weekday morning. Building permits come from the Building Division at Placentia City Hall on East Chapman Avenue, and the approach, the parkway walk and anything at the curb need its encroachment permit as well. We file both and meet the inspector on the day.
The oldest streets are Old Town along Santa Fe Avenue, where the packing houses stood beside the railroad, and Atwood south of Orangethorpe by the tracks. The tracts that make up most of the city went in over the groves through the 1960s and 1970s, north to Yorba Linda Boulevard and east past Kraemer Boulevard, on flat lots laid out on the old grove grid. The drives and walks that came with those houses are the ones we are called to replace, usually whole rather than in patches.
The ground is the alluvial plain the Santa Ana River laid down as it left the canyon, sandy silt that drains well enough but was irrigated for 60 years before the houses came. Under a Placentia lawn we often find the old grove soil still soft a foot down, so we dig to firm material before the base goes in. Lots fall gently south toward Carbon Creek, which gives a patio a direction to drain, and a citrus tree kept from the grove days lifts any slab within reach of its roots.
One crew from the first visit to the last joint, and one written figure. The estimate is written at the property, the permit is pulled before the date is set, and the pour day is chosen against the wind forecast rather than the calendar.
Julian Mercado measures the slab, digs a test hole to see how deep the old grove soil goes, and writes the estimate at the property.
Any encroachment or building permit is filed with the City of Placentia, and the pour date is set against the wind forecast once it is in.
The old slab is broken out, the soft soil is dug to firm ground and replaced, and 4 inches of rock is compacted with the steel tied on top.
Pour day follows the forecast. The slab is screened and sprayed if the wind is up, the joints are cut that afternoon, and it is kept wet a week.
Call or send the form and we call back within 1 business day. On the visit we measure the slab and dig a test hole in the old grove soil, and the estimate is written before we leave, whether you go ahead or not.
Reviews
Three reviews left on Google, Facebook and the BBB by homeowners and a landlord in the towns we cover. Placentia gets the same crew, the same written estimate 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.”
Six things Placentia homeowners want to know before they book, on cost, the permit, how far we come, the wind and the old grove soil, how long a driveway is out of use and which towns nearby we also cover.
What is under the old slab, then the apron. Grove soil that is still soft a foot down means more digging and more base, and a driveway that includes the apron carries the city's encroachment permit and its inspection. After that it is area, thickness and finish. Every estimate is measured and written on site, with the dig, the base and the apron as their own lines, so firm ground is not priced as soft.
Not for a patio, a walk or a slab inside your own lot. The driveway approach, the parkway walk and the curb are public right-of-way and take an encroachment permit from the City of Placentia, while a wall over 4 feet or a slab carrying a room takes a building permit from the Building Division at City Hall on East Chapman Avenue. We file whichever applies and meet the inspector.
About 20 miles by the 55 and the 91, and 35 minutes on a weekday morning. Placentia is the north end of the area we cover, so we group its jobs with Villa Park and Buena Park in the same weeks and the crew stays on site through the pour. The distance changes nothing else. The person who digs your test hole is the one who pours the slab, and we call back within 1 business day as we do at home.
Yes, more than anything else in Placentia. Dry wind pulls water out of the surface faster than the slab can replace it, the top shrinks while the body is soft, and the slab is covered in fine cracks by evening. So we watch the forecast, keep off red flag days, and on any breezy morning we screen the pour, spray an evaporation retarder as soon as the surface is floated, and get the sheet on inside an hour.
About 10 days once we start, and the start waits on the forecast. Breaking out and hauling the old slab is a day, digging out the grove soil and laying the base is a day, and the pour is a morning with the joints cut that afternoon. A person can walk it after 24 hours and a car can park on it after 7, and it stays wet under plastic for that week.
Villa Park to the south, and Buena Park and La Palma to the west, all from the Costa Mesa office and all on the same runs up the 57 and the 91. Placentia's own neighbors to the north and east are outside what we cover, so if your street is on the Yorba Linda or Brea line, the parcel record says which city it is in and that decides whether we come. Each of the three has its own page.
Placentia is the top of our map, and from it the crew drops back down the 57 to Villa Park, Buena Park and La Palma on the same runs. Each town has its own page, since the age of the concrete and the permit counter change at every city line.
Open the Costa Mesa Office in Google Maps Send the form or call and the call back comes within 1 business day. Nothing is charged for the visit or the written estimate, and every slab is guaranteed in writing against defects.