Goldenwest Huntington Beach Concrete pours driveways, patios and slabs in La Mirada, up the 605 from Huntington Beach, on days the wind allows. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
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La Mirada sits under the Puente Hills, and in fall the Santa Ana wind comes off them dry. On the coast we pour under a marine layer that keeps a slab damp. Up here the air pulls the water out of one.
That matters because concrete cures by keeping its water, not by losing it. A slab poured on a still morning in La Mirada holds its moisture long enough for the crew to finish it and cover it. Pour the same slab on a morning when the wind is running at 10 percent humidity and the surface dries while the concrete under it is still wet, shrinks against it, and cracks in a fine web before the joints can be cut. It is the crazing on so many 1950s drives here, and it cannot be fixed later.
So a La Mirada pour is booked by the weather as much as the calendar. From September into December we check the wind and the humidity the evening before, and on a red flag morning the mixer stays at the plant and the job moves a day, which is written into the estimate. On the day the slab goes down at first light, a curing compound goes on as soon as the finish is done, and the surface is covered and kept wet for 7 days. The ground is clay, so 4 inches of crushed rock goes under it.
La Mirada was built in one decade on flat ranch ground under the Puente Hills, and its concrete is all the same age. Every job here is a replacement, and every one is scheduled around a wind the coast does not get.
A La Mirada driveway is longer than a coastal one, because the tract set the garage well back from the street, and the extra panels are where it cracked. We pour 5 inches where a pickup parks and 4 for cars, on 4 inches of compacted base, with the apron doweled to the city walk.
The patio behind a La Mirada house was poured with it in the 1950s and has settled toward the fence on clay that swells and shrinks. We take out the old slab, compact the ground in lifts, and pour 4 inches on crushed rock base, jointed on a grid and covered the same day.
Stamped concrete in La Mirada is a patio that has to survive a Santa Ana afternoon before it has cured, so we do not stamp on a wind day at all. We cast the pattern in a 4 inch slab, color the mix through rather than the top, and seal it in 2 coats at 28 days.
The front walk on a La Mirada lot runs a long way to the door, past a parkway tree the city planted in the 1950s, and it lifts at the tree first. We cut the roots back, lay a base, and pour 4 inches doweled into the drive, with the encroachment permit for the panel at the curb.
Garage floors in La Mirada were poured on the clay with no barrier, so the old slab sweats in winter and heaves at the door. We break out the failed panels, lay a vapor barrier over 4 inches of compacted base, and pour 4 inches troweled flat enough for a coating or a workshop.
Exposed aggregate is asked for on a La Mirada front, because a light stone surface stays cooler in the sun than a broom finish and hides what the parkway trees drop. We seed the stone into a 4 inch slab, wash the paste off before it hardens, and seal it so the stone stays clean.
La Mirada lots on the north side fall toward the street, and a pool cut into that fall leaves a bank the deck has to stop at. We footing a retaining wall 18 inches into firm ground, run steel through the stem, and drain behind it, so the deck above sits on ground that stays put.
An interior slab in La Mirada, for a garage turned into a room or a unit in the back yard, goes over a 10 mil vapor barrier on gravel, because the clay holds winter water. We thicken the edge where the walls land, trowel it flat for tile, and meet the inspector at the trench.
Our office is on Edinger Avenue in Huntington Beach, and the crew reaches La Mirada up the 405 to the 605 and off at Rosecrans Avenue, about 20 miles and 40 minutes, with the mixer coming from a plant nearer the job. La Mirada is in Los Angeles County but issues its own permits, so plans go to the Community Development Department at City Hall on La Mirada Boulevard, and the apron or the public walk takes an encroachment permit from the city's Public Works Department. We file both.
The city was laid out in the 1950s on the McNally ranch and built in a decade, so nearly every street is the same tract on the same plan, a single-story house set back from a wide street with the pool behind it. The streets around Biola University and La Mirada Regional Park sit on the higher ground toward the north, where the lots fall and the yards are terraced, and the tracts off Valley View Avenue and Rosecrans are flatter and the pools sit level with the house.
The ground is clay and alluvium rather than the sand we pour on at home, and it swells in a wet winter and shrinks by late summer, which is what has lifted and dropped the old drives in La Mirada for 60 years. So a base of crushed rock goes under everything we pour here, and a floor slab goes over a vapor barrier. The crew is on this side of the county line most weeks, since La Mirada, La Habra, Buena Park and Cerritos are grouped into the same days.
One crew, one visit to measure, one written figure, and a pour date that can move by a day if the wind comes up. The order below is the same for a drive, a patio or a slab under a room.
Scott Ferreira measures the slab, opens the ground under it to see the clay, reads the fall to the street and writes the estimate on site.
Flatwork inside the lot line needs none. The apron, the walk, a wall over 4 feet or a slab under a room goes to the City of La Mirada. We file.
The old slab is broken out and hauled, the clay is compacted in lifts, and 4 inches of crushed rock base is laid and compacted on top.
Poured at first light on a day the forecast allows, cured and covered the same morning, joints sawn that afternoon, cars back on after 7 days.
Call the office or send the form and we reply within 1 business day. The visit is free, and the estimate is written at your property with demolition, base, concrete, curing and finish as separate lines, so you see each part before you decide.
Reviews
Reviews left on Google, Facebook and the BBB by people whose concrete we have poured across the towns we cover, La Mirada among them. Each one names the job and the year it was done.
“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 in La Mirada, on cost, permits, the drive up from the coast, why we watch the wind, the clay under the city, how long a slab is out of use and the towns around it.
What is under the old slab, then the drive to the garage. A La Mirada drive on clay with no base takes a day longer to prepare than one on gravel, because the clay is dug out and replaced, and the tract set the garage well back, so the drive carries more panels than a coastal one. Area, thickness and finish move it after that. Every estimate is measured and written on site, so each line is on paper first.
Not for flatwork inside your lot line, which the California Residential Code exempts. The apron and the public walk belong to the city, and work there takes an encroachment permit from La Mirada Public Works. A retaining wall over 4 feet or a slab under a room takes a building permit from the Community Development Department at City Hall on La Mirada Boulevard. We file whichever the job needs.
About 20 miles, up the 405 to the 605 and off at Rosecrans Avenue, which is 40 minutes at the hour we drive it. La Mirada is the farthest north we go in Los Angeles County, and we reply within 1 business day and book the visit on a day the crew is already on that side of the line, with a job in La Habra, Buena Park or Cerritos.
Because a dry wind dries a slab faster than heat does. On a Santa Ana morning the air off the Puente Hills can be under 10 percent humidity, and it takes the water off a fresh surface while the concrete under it is still wet, so the top shrinks and cracks in a web before the joints are cut. We check the forecast the evening before, move the pour a day if the wind is up, and wet cure every slab here for 7 days.
Yes, it is clay and alluvium off the Puente Hills rather than sand. Clay swells when it is wet and shrinks when it dries, so a slab poured straight on it in La Mirada lifts in February and drops in August until it cracks. We dig the clay out under the slab, compact what is left in lifts, and lay 4 inches of crushed rock base that drains, so the slab sits on something that does not move with the season.
About 10 days from the first saw cut to the first car, and a day longer if the wind moves the pour. The old drive comes out on the first day, the base goes in on the second, the pour is one early morning and the joints are sawn before the crew leaves. Walk on it after 24 hours and park on it after 7 days. Keep anything heavier off it for 28, when the concrete reaches full strength.
La Mirada has La Habra across the county line to the east, Buena Park to the south and Cerritos to the southwest, and we cover all three from Huntington Beach. If your street runs along one of those lines, 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 visit. The estimate is free and written at your property, and every slab carries a written workmanship guarantee.