Goldenwest Huntington Beach Concrete comes to Los Alamitos up Bolsa Chica Street, most often for a slab that is the first trade on a bigger job. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
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Half the concrete we pour in Los Alamitos is for a house that is growing. The lot was laid out for a three-bedroom ranch, the family outgrew it, and the footing comes before the framing.
An addition changes the ground around it. A second story puts new load on a footing poured in 1958 for one floor, a garage turned into a bedroom needs a slab that is dry and level where the old one sloped to the door, and a granny flat at the back of the lot needs its own slab foundation, permitted and inspected as a dwelling. The drive is widened at the same time, because a house with more people in it has more cars, and the patio that fed the old back door is in the way of the new one.
So we pour to the plan, not to the yard. Footings go 18 inches into firm ground below the old lawn soil, with the steel tied to the drawing the engineer stamped, and a slab under a room is poured over a vapor barrier on a compacted base with anchor bolts set on the day. Flatwork follows the framing and is built as we build it at home, silt compacted in lifts under crushed rock, 4 inches of concrete under cars and 5 under a pickup, joints sawn the afternoon of the pour.
Los Alamitos houses are small for their lots, 1950s and 1960s ranches with room behind them, so owners here add on rather than move. A second story, a garage conversion or a granny flat starts in concrete, and the drive is redone with it.
A Los Alamitos drive is widened more often than replaced, for the third car an addition brings. We cut the old edge straight, dowel the new strip into it so the two move together, and pour 4 inches on a compacted base, 5 where a pickup parks, with the apron permitted.
The patio behind a Los Alamitos ranch is in the way of the addition, so it is poured last, to the new back door. It goes 4 inches thick on compacted silt under crushed rock, jointed every 10 feet and graded to the side yard, because a lot on the plain has no fall of its own.
Stamped work goes in front of a Los Alamitos house that has just been made bigger, where a new entry wants a new walk. We stamp the pattern into 4 inches, color the mix through and seal at 28 days, so the surface a new front door opens onto matches the house behind it.
The walk from the street to a Los Alamitos porch is two owners' concrete, the city's parkway strip and then your lawn. We replace both under one encroachment permit, pin the new panel to the neighbor's so the joint stays flush, and saw the joints that day.
A Los Alamitos garage is converted more often than refloored, and a conversion needs a slab that is level and dry where the old one fell to the door. We pour a new floor over a vapor barrier on a compacted base, level with the house, so the room passes inspection as living space.
Exposed aggregate suits the front of a Los Alamitos ranch because the stone hides the silt a smooth slab shows after every rain. We wash it proud the same afternoon, run a troweled edge along the house and seal the slab at 28 days, so drive and step read as one surface.
A wall in Los Alamitos holds a raised bed or a pool terrace on a flat lot, so it is low and long. We footing it 18 inches into firm silt below the topsoil, drain behind the stem to a pipe that daylights at the street and cap it level, because the plain drains nowhere on its own.
An interior floor here goes into the addition or the converted garage, poured over a vapor barrier because the silt under the lot is wet half the year. We finish it smooth enough for tile and hold it level with the existing floor, so old and new meet on one plane.
Bolsa Chica Street runs north from Huntington Beach, becomes Valley View Street past the 405 and puts a crew at Katella Avenue in about 20 minutes, 9 miles from our office. City permits come from the Community Development Department at Los Alamitos City Hall on Katella Avenue, and an addition, a conversion or a granny flat goes through plan check there before a footing is dug. A lot in Rossmoor, west of Los Alamitos Boulevard, is unincorporated, so Orange County issues its permits.
The Joint Forces Training Base and its airfield take the south-east of the city, and the houses run around it from Katella Avenue north to Cerritos Avenue and Bloomfield Street. The tracts there went up in the 1950s and 1960s on lots deep enough for a pool and a second unit, which is why the state's granny flat rules have brought so much work to one small town. Old Town, around Los Alamitos Boulevard where the sugar factory stood, has smaller lots and wants a walk and an apron.
The ground is the plain of the San Gabriel River, which runs down the west edge along the county line with Coyote Creek beside it. It is silt over sand, a few feet above sea level, and it holds winter water longer than the dune sand under our office, so a footing dug in February is pumped before it is poured and a slab is graded to the street rather than left to a yard with no fall. The marine layer reaches this far most spring mornings and keeps a fresh pour damp.
Four steps when the concrete is the first trade on a Los Alamitos job. The estimate is written at the first visit and costs nothing, and the footing inspection is booked before the mixer is.
Scott Ferreira reads the plan, measures the footprint on the lot, probes the old lawn soil and writes the estimate at the house.
The footing and slab go through plan check at City Hall on Katella Avenue, or the county for Rossmoor, and the inspections are booked.
Footings are dug to firm ground, the steel is tied to the drawing, and the city inspector signs the trench before any concrete arrives.
The footing and slab are poured, anchor bolts set and the surface wet cured for 7 days. The framer starts when it is signed off.
Call or send the form and we reply within 1 business day. Scott Ferreira drives up Bolsa Chica, measures the footprint and the drive, and prices the footing, the slab and the flatwork on separate lines of an estimate written at the house,.
Reviews
Reviews from Google, Facebook and the BBB, left by people whose footings, slabs and drives we built in Los Alamitos and the towns around it. The work behind each one is the work described 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 in the tracts north of Katella Avenue and in Rossmoor: what moves the estimate, who permits an addition, the wet plain, the drive from our office and how long the concrete takes.
Whether the slab carries a building. A footing and a slab foundation for an addition are engineered, inspected twice and poured with anchor bolts, and that is more hours than a patio of the same size. After that it is access to the back of a deep lot, then thickness and finish. Every estimate is measured and written on site, with the foundation work and the flatwork as separate lines.
The Community Development Department at Los Alamitos City Hall on Katella Avenue, after plan check, and its inspector signs the footing trench and the slab before the framer starts. A lot in Rossmoor is unincorporated, so Orange County issues that permit instead. A patio or a drive redone inside your lot needs none from either, and the apron and parkway take an encroachment permit.
About 9 miles, straight up Bolsa Chica Street and Valley View Street, or up the 405 to Seal Beach Boulevard. We reply within 1 business day and the visit is inside the week. Because the ground here is the same coastal plain we work at home, Scott Ferreira can usually tell you at the first visit what is under the lawn and what the footing will be dug into.
Yes in winter. The plain sits a few feet above sea level and holds water after rain, so a footing trench dug in January can fill overnight. We pump it, dig to firm silt below the old topsoil, and pour when the inspector has seen the bottom dry. A slab over it goes on a compacted base with a vapor barrier, because a floor over wet silt with no barrier pushes damp up through the flooring.
About a week on site for a footing and a slab, split around two inspections. The dig and the steel take two days, the inspector sees the trench, the footing is poured, then the slab is formed and poured on a second morning. The framer can start once the slab is signed off, and the drive and patio are done last so the trucks are gone. Cars go on a new drive after 7 days.
Seal Beach to the south, Cypress to the north, Westminster to the east and La Palma and Stanton beyond them are all on our list, and so is Rossmoor under this page. Long Beach and Lakewood are across the county line, and we cover Lakewood but not Long Beach. If your house is on Katella near the line, call and we will tell you which page applies.
Los Alamitos shares its lines with Seal Beach, Cypress and Westminster, and the crew that comes up Bolsa Chica works all of them. A house on one of those lines is better served by that town's page, which names its permit counter and its ground.
Open the Huntington Beach Office in Google Maps Call or send the form and we reply within 1 business day, then book the visit. The estimate is free and written at the house, and the job carries a written guarantee.