Harbor Costa Mesa Concrete pours drives, patios and pool decks in Tustin, 20 minutes up the 55. Every slab is drawn around where the lot already sends its water, since the pad was graded first.
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Half of Tustin was graded to a plan before a house went on it. Tustin Ranch in the 1980s and 1990s and Tustin Legacy since, on pads that fall to a swale at the side, which a slab must not dam.
A graded pad drains by design. The pad is cut so the yard falls from the house toward a shallow swale along the fence, and the swale carries the water to an area drain or a V-ditch that leaves the lot at one point. A patio poured flat across the swale dams it, so the water stands against the house or the fence, and the first winter storm finds it. So before a form goes up we find the swale and the drains, and the slab is pitched to hand its water to them and not to the fence.
The ground under it is the alluvium off the hills, and it changes across the city, gravelly near Red Hill and finer toward the 5, with clay in the older tracts that swells wet and shrinks dry. So the subgrade is dug out where it is clay, plate-compacted, and 4 inches of gravel is compacted over it, and the slab carries steel on an 18-inch grid. Where a pad has an association the drawing goes to it before the City, because Tustin Ranch reviews what shows from the street.
Tustin is three kinds of lot, and each drains its own way. The Old Town grid runs to the gutter, the 1960s tracts to the drive, and Tustin Ranch and Tustin Legacy to the swales and drains their grading plans drew, which a slab must not cross.
A drive in a 1960s Tustin tract is the front yard's only fall, so it is replaced at the same pitch, 4 inches on compacted gravel over the dug-out clay, with a 5 inch apron. The curb cut is the City's, and we file the encroachment permit with the City of Tustin.
A Tustin Ranch patio is poured to the swale, not across it. We set the slab a hand's width off the fence line, pitch it to the area drain the pad already has, and pour 4 inches on compacted gravel with the joints cut every 10 feet the afternoon it goes in.
Stamped concrete in Tustin Ranch and Tustin Legacy is checked by the association before it is poured, so we send the pattern and the color with the drawing. The pattern is cast into a 4 inch slab with an integral color and sealed in 2 coats against the sun.
The public walk in Old Town Tustin is the oldest concrete in the city, and its panels are lifted by the street trees. A panel in front of your house is cut under a City of Tustin encroachment permit, the root is cut, and the new panel is doweled to the old and poured level.
A garage floor in the tracts between the 5 and the 55 was poured on clay and has heaved at the door. We break it out, dig the clay to firm ground, lay gravel and a vapor barrier, and pour 5 inches with a thickened edge at the door and the fall toward it.
Exposed aggregate is asked for on Tustin Ranch walks and pool surrounds, where the association wants the finish to match the tract. We wash the stone proud of a 4 inch pour, band it with a smooth border, and seal it against the pool water walked onto it.
Tustin Ranch pads step down to their neighbors, and a wall that holds the step is drained behind the stem and footed into firm ground, not the fill at the pad's edge. Anything over 4 feet is permitted by the City of Tustin and inspected before the pour.
An interior floor in Tustin is a garage conversion or an accessory unit on a pad, and it goes over a vapor barrier on compacted gravel with the clay dug out under it. We pour it flat enough for tile or a polish, and cut the joints on a grid the room sets.
Newport Boulevard becomes the 55 a few blocks north of our office in Costa Mesa, and the 55 runs into Tustin at Edinger Avenue about 11 miles later, so a crew is on a Tustin lot in about 20 minutes. Permits come from the City of Tustin Building Division at City Hall on Centennial Way for a footing, a wall over 4 feet, a slab under a cover and anything in the public walk, and flatwork at grade in your own yard needs none. Tustin Ranch and Tustin Legacy add the association's review.
Old Town, around Main Street and El Camino Real, is the grid Columbus Tustin laid out, and its lots drain to the street the way a grid does, down the drive to the gutter. The tracts between the 5 and the 55 went up in the 1960s on lots graded flat, and there the drive is the only fall a front yard has. Tustin Ranch above Irvine Boulevard and Tustin Legacy on the old air station were graded as whole tracts, with swales and area drains drawn for every pad and on file with the City.
Peters Canyon Wash runs down through the city and takes what the lots shed, so the whole place falls gently toward it and the 5. That fall is a few inches across a yard, which is why a slab pitched the wrong way by half an inch matters here more than on a hillside. The blimp hangar on the old air station is the landmark from the freeway, and the streets below it are the newest concrete in the city, poured in the last 10 years to plans that are still easy to find.
Four stages, with the drainage settled at the first. The visit finds the swale and the drains, the estimate is written at the property, and the slab is pitched to the plan before a form is set.
Julian Mercado measures, digs a test hole, traces where the pad sends its water and writes the estimate at the property before he leaves.
The drawing goes to your association first where there is one, then to the City of Tustin for a footing, a wall or a covered slab.
Clay comes out to firm ground, the subgrade is plate-compacted and 4 inches of gravel goes in, with the swale kept clear at the edge.
The slab is poured to its fall and the joints cut the same afternoon. Walk on it after 24 hours and drive on it after 7 days.
Call or send the form and we call back within 1 business day to set the visit. Julian Mercado measures the slab and the fall of the yard at the property and writes the estimate there, with the drainage on it beside the concrete.
Reviews
Reviews on Google, Facebook and the BBB from owners in the coastal and inland towns we cover, Tustin among them. The patios, drives and decks they describe are the ones set out on this page.
“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 Tustin owners ask before booking. What moves the estimate here, which approval comes first, how far we come, the clay and the swales, how long a slab is out of use, and what else nearby we cover.
The ground, then the drainage. A 1960s tract lot with clay under it takes a dig-out and a deeper base that a gravelly lot near Red Hill does not, and a pad in Tustin Ranch whose swale runs where the patio wants to be takes a drain and a regrade before the slab. Area, thickness and finish move it after that. Every estimate is measured and written on site, with the drainage work as its own line.
Not for a patio, a drive or a walk at grade inside your lot. A footing, a slab under a cover or a room, a wall over 4 feet and any work in the public walk or the parkway go to the City of Tustin Building Division at City Hall on Centennial Way. In Tustin Ranch and Tustin Legacy the association reviews anything seen from the street before the City does. North Tustin is county land and goes to the County of Orange.
About 11 miles and 20 minutes. Newport Boulevard turns into the 55 a few blocks from our office, and the 55 drops a crew into Tustin at Edinger, Irvine Boulevard or Fourth Street, so a Tustin day starts at the same hour as a Costa Mesa day and the mixer is ordered from the plant nearest your street rather than from ours.
Where it is clay, yes. The older tracts between the 5 and the 55 sit on fine alluvium with clay that swells in a wet winter and shrinks by August, and a slab on it lifts and drops with the season. We dig the top foot out, plate-compact what is under it, and lay 4 inches of gravel with steel on an 18-inch grid through the slab. Near Red Hill the ground is gravelly and needs compacting only.
The crew is on site 2 to 3 days for most jobs, the demolition and base on the first, the forms and the pour after, with the joints cut the afternoon of the pour. Walk on it after 24 hours, drive on it after 7 days, and keep a heavy truck off until 28 days. An association review in Tustin Ranch adds its own weeks before we start, and we allow for it in the date.
Villa Park and Placentia to the north by the 55, and Lake Forest, Laguna Hills and Laguna Woods to the south by the 5, each with its own page. Tustin is the inland turn of our list, and the same crew that pours here works the coast from Seal Beach to Laguna Niguel from the one office on Newport Boulevard.
Tustin sits between the 5 and the 55, and from it a crew reaches Villa Park and Placentia to the north and Lake Forest, Laguna Hills and Laguna Woods to the south inside half an hour, so a job here is often paired with one of those the same week.
Open the Costa Mesa Office in Google Maps Send the form and we call you back within 1 business day to book the visit. The estimate is measured and written on site, free, and the slab and its fall carry a written guarantee.