Goldenwest Huntington Beach Concrete replaces driveways, patios and pool decks in Fountain Valley, the next city east of our office on Edinger. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
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Fountain Valley was wet ground before it was a suburb, and a driveway here was poured thin on it for one car. The tracts went in through the 1960s, and the slabs have carried heavier vehicles since.
The ground is why the load matters more here than inland. Fountain Valley sits on the Santa Ana River plain, named for the artesian water that stood on it before it was drained and farmed, and water is still a few feet down under most lots in winter. A thin slab on ground that wet flexes under a pickup and cracks along the wheel line, and once cracked it lets water into the base, which softens further. The drives that fail worst here have carried more than they were built for.
So we build to the load, not to what was there. The old slab and any loose fill under it come out, the subgrade is compacted in lifts, and 4 inches of crushed rock base is laid and compacted on top. A driveway is poured 5 inches where a pickup or a trailer parks and 4 inches for cars, with number 3 steel on a grid, and the joints are sawn the same day. We seal the slab at 28 days, because Fountain Valley is 4 miles from the water and a sealed surface still earns its keep here.
Fountain Valley was built in one push through the 1960s and most of its concrete is original. The jobs here are second slabs, wider and thicker than the first ones and carrying more, on lots that have kept the same owners for decades.
A Fountain Valley driveway was poured for one family car and now takes 2 and a work truck, so we widen it to the lot line and pour it 5 inches on 4 inches of compacted base. The approach at the curb is city property, and we pull the encroachment permit for it.
The builder's patio behind a Fountain Valley house is a 10 foot slab at the back door, and 60 years on it has settled toward the fence. We take it out, compact the ground under it, and pour the new patio to the fence in one piece, jointed on a grid and sloped away from the house.
Stamped work in Fountain Valley goes on patios and pool decks more than drives, because a stamped drive ends up sealed every year against tire marks. We cast the pattern in a 4 inch slab, color it integrally so a chip does not show, and seal it in 2 coats at 28 days.
The front walk on a Fountain Valley lot is 3 feet wide from the drive to the porch, and it is the first slab the tract poured to lift where a parkway tree has grown under it. We cut the roots back, lay a base, and dowel the new panel into the drive so the joint stays flush.
Garage floors in Fountain Valley crack at the door, where 60 years of cars have crossed the same line, and heave where the water table has pushed up under a thin slab. We saw out the failed panels, lay a vapor barrier and base, and pour 4 inches flat enough to coat.
Exposed aggregate is the finish Fountain Valley asks for on a front walk and a porch, because it hides the sand a beach town tracks in and it grips wet. We seed the stone into a 4 inch slab, wash the surface before it hardens, and seal it so the stone stays clean.
A Fountain Valley yard is flat, so a retaining wall here is a raised bed or a pool surround rather than a slope held back. We footing it 18 inches into compacted ground below the topsoil, run steel through the stem, and put a drain behind it because the water table is close.
A garage turned into a room or a unit in the back yard in Fountain Valley needs a floor someone will live on. We pour it over a 10 mil vapor barrier on a gravel base, because water sits a few feet down here, and trowel it flat enough for tile or a floating floor.
Our office is on Edinger Avenue in Huntington Beach, and Edinger runs east under the 405 into Fountain Valley along the north side of Mile Square Park, about 4 miles, so a crew is on a Fountain Valley street in 15 minutes with the mixer behind it and no freeway in the route. Plans go to the City of Fountain Valley Building Division at City Hall on Slater Avenue, and a new approach at the curb or a cut in the public walk takes an encroachment permit from Public Works. We file both.
The city is a grid of 1960s tracts between the 405 and the Santa Ana River, and the lots run a little wider than the ones on our side of the freeway, which is why a mixer can usually back to the front of a Fountain Valley job where in Huntington Beach it often cannot. Green Valley, the planned community off Brookhurst with its greenbelts and its association, is the exception. The lots are smaller, the walks are shared, and the association sees a drawing before the city does.
Water is the other thing we plan for. The river runs down the east edge of the city behind a levee, and the streets closest to it, off Brookhurst and Talbert, sit lowest and hold water longest after a storm. We probe the ground on the visit, dig out anything soft, and lay a draining base under every slab there. The salt air that shapes our work at the beach reaches Fountain Valley weaker, so the steel is held at standard cover rather than the 3 inches we give it at the pier.
One crew from the office on Edinger, one visit to measure, one written figure. Most Fountain Valley jobs are a replacement, so the sequence starts with what comes out and how it leaves through the side gate.
Scott Ferreira measures the slab, probes what is under it, checks the fall and notes what will park on it, then writes the estimate at the curb.
We file with the City of Fountain Valley Building Division, with Public Works where the curb is touched, and with the Green Valley association.
The old slab is sawn and hauled, soft ground dug out, the subgrade compacted in lifts and 4 inches of crushed rock laid and compacted on top.
Poured 4 or 5 inches to what parks on it, joints sawn that afternoon, cars back on after 7 days and the surface sealed at 28.
Call the office or send the form and we call back within 1 business day. The visit is on the way to most of our jobs, and the estimate is written at your property with demolition, base, concrete and finish as separate lines.
Reviews
Reviews left on Google, Facebook and the BBB by people whose slabs we have poured across the towns we cover. Fountain Valley is one we are in most weeks, and the jobs behind these are the ones above.
“Our pool deck was the original 1972 surface, lifting at the coping. They cut it out, compacted the sand, poured 640 square feet at 4 inches with an isolation joint at the pool, and sealed it at 28 days. Scott Ferreira measured it on a Thursday and we had the written estimate before he left.”
“The old driveway had sunk where the sand washed out under it and the cars scraped at the apron. They pulled the encroachment permit themselves, compacted the base in three lifts, poured 5 inches for my husband's truck and cut the joints that afternoon. Two winters on, not a crack.”
“We wanted a patio that looked like slate without the joints weeds get into. Scott Ferreira laid the pattern out with us on the visit, the crew poured 380 square feet, stamped it in ashlar and sealed it at 28 days. A full year of salt air later it still looks like the day it was finished.”
What we are asked at the curb in Fountain Valley, on cost, permits, how thick a drive should be for what parks on it, the water under the city and how long the slab is out of use.
What is coming out, then what will park on the new slab. A 1960s drive on Fountain Valley ground lifts in pieces and is quick to remove, but a patio that was poured over an older one takes a day longer. A slab poured 5 inches for a truck costs more in concrete and steel than one poured 4 for a car. Every estimate is measured and written on site, so both are on the estimate before you decide.
Not for flatwork inside your lot line, which the California Residential Code exempts. The approach at the curb and the public walk are the city's, and work there takes an encroachment permit from Fountain Valley Public Works. A wall over 4 feet or a slab under a room takes a building permit from the Building Division at City Hall on Slater Avenue. We file whichever applies.
4 inches for cars, 5 where a pickup parks and 6 under a motorhome or a boat on its trailer. The original tract drives here were poured thinner than any of those on ground with water a few feet under it, which is why so many have cracked along the wheel line. The thickness we pour is written on the estimate and checked at the walk-through.
About 4 miles east along Edinger Avenue, under the 405 and past Mile Square Park, which is 15 minutes with the mixer following. We reply within 1 business day and book the visit inside the same week, and because the drive is short a Fountain Valley job can be measured on the way to or from another one.
Yes, from underneath. The city sits on the river plain with water a few feet down in winter, and a base that stays wet softens and lets a thin slab flex. We dig to firm ground, lay a crushed rock base that drains, and pour a floor slab over a vapor barrier so the damp does not come up through it. Near the river off Brookhurst we probe deeper before we decide the base.
About 10 days from the first saw cut to the first car. Removing the old slab and building the base takes the first day or two, the pour and finish are one morning, and the joints are sawn that afternoon. Walk on it after 24 hours and park on it after 7 days. Keep a trailer or anything heavier off it for 28 days, when the concrete reaches full strength.
Fountain Valley shares its west line with Huntington Beach, where our office is, and Westminster sits across the 405 to the north. We cover both from Edinger Avenue, so if your street runs along a boundary the page next door is as good as this one.
Open the Huntington Beach Office in Google Maps Send the form or call and we reply within 1 business day to book the measure. The estimate is free and written at your property, and every job carries a written workmanship guarantee.