Goldenwest Huntington Beach Concrete saws slabs, decks and drives wet, the slurry caught and the cut steel coated, since a sawn face by the sea rusts in. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
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How a cut is made here
A saw cut is the one place a slab has no cover over its steel. The concrete on top of the mesh or the bar is what keeps the salt in the air from reaching it, and a blade goes straight through that cover and leaves the steel bare on the face of the cut. Left open, that face rusts, the rust swells and the concrete beside the cut spalls off within a few winters of sea air. So no cut here is left as it was sawn. It is closed, coated or poured against before the crew leaves.
Scott Ferreira lays out every cut himself, after 19 years of opening slabs along the Orange County coast, and the jobs that bring the saw out are the ones this city is built of. A pool deck from the 1970s opened at the skimmer line, a garage floor trenched for a bathroom in a conversion off Warner, a driveway approach cut at the curb to widen it for a boat, or one broken panel taken out of a drive that is otherwise sound.
The slab is scanned for steel, conduit and pipe before the line is chalked, the blade runs wet and the slurry is vacuumed at the cut rather than hosed to the gutter, since every gutter here drains to the beach or the wetlands. Work at the curb is an encroachment permit from Public Works, held under a CSLB C-8 license with liability insurance on every job. Every cut and the pour that closes it carry a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built.
When a saw is the answer
A line of floor that is warm underfoot, or a strip of tile that sweats when the rest is dry, is a hot water line leaking under the slab. The sand under it is washing out along the pipe. The slab is cut along that stripe to reach the line, and only that much, so the rest stays whole.
A pool that drops faster than the sun takes it is leaking through a line under the deck, usually the skimmer or a return laid in 1975. The water goes into the sand under the deck and the deck settles over the leak. The deck is cut over the pipe, the line replaced, the panel repoured.
A driveway where one panel has cracked into pieces while the panels either side are whole does not need replacing. The broken one is sawn out on its joints, the base rebuilt, and a new panel poured and doweled to its neighbors. A whole new drive is a week of work for a day's fault.
A shower or a floor drain that backs up when a toilet is flushed means the lateral under the slab has sagged or broken and is holding waste. A camera finds the point, and the slab is trenched over it to replace the run. It cannot wait, since every flush pushes water into the sand.
In every cut
Eight things go with every cut at no separate line. Each one is there because this is a slab on sand beside the sea, where a blade finds pipes it was not told about, salt finds steel the moment it is bared, and slurry finds the ocean by the shortest gutter.
Ground-penetrating radar is run over the cut line to find rebar, mesh, conduit and pipe, so the blade is set to miss what the plans never showed.
Where a control joint or a panel edge is near the line, the cut is moved to it, so the slab is opened where it was already meant to break.
The blade runs wet and a slurry vacuum sits at the cut, so nothing gray runs to the curb, and the mix is hauled off rather than left in the gutter.
A diamond blade sized to the slab cuts through in one pass, 4 inches on a floor or a deck, 6 at an approach, so the edge is square.
Every bar and strand of mesh the blade opens is cut back an inch and coated with a rust-inhibiting epoxy, the step the sea air punishes if skipped.
Holes are drilled into the sawn face and steel dowels epoxied in, so the pour that closes the cut moves with the old slab, not beside it.
The cut piece is broken, loaded and taken to the crusher, the floor washed down, and a HEPA vacuum run over any interior cut before a door opens.
The trench or the opening is repoured level with the old surface, jointed to match, and the written guarantee covers the cut and the pour together.
Four saws
Four ways concrete is cut on a lot here, judged against the one thing that matters beside the sea, which is how clean an edge each leaves to be coated and closed. The scan, the water and the vacuum go with all four.
| Option | Cuts what | Depth reached | Water and dust | Edge it leaves |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walk-behind slab saw | Floors, decks and drives, long straight lines | Up to 12 inches with a 30-inch blade | Wet, slurry vacuumed at the blade | Square, ready to coat and dowel |
| Hand-held cut-off saw | Corners, curves and cuts against a wall | 5 inches with a 14-inch blade | Wet, or dry under a HEPA shroud indoors | Square on short runs, finished by chisel |
| Core drill rig | Round holes for pipe, drains and conduit | Any slab or wall, 2 to 12 inches across | Wet, water caught in a ring at the bit | Smooth bore, sleeved for the pipe |
| Track-mounted wall saw | Door and window openings in block or poured walls | Up to 24 inches through a stem wall | Wet, with the wall sheeted below the cut | Plumb both ways, ready for a frame |
The walk-behind saw is the least labor for a long straight line and the hand saw the most, while a core drill is the least of all for one pipe through a wall.
Salt and the gutter
Two things follow a saw around Huntington Beach and neither is the concrete. The salt in the air goes straight for a fresh sawn face, and the gutter at the curb runs to the beach.
A slab keeps its steel dry by covering it, and a cut takes the cover off along the whole line. On the tract pool decks poured across the city in the 1960s and 1970s the steel is wire mesh near the bottom of a 4-inch slab, and a deck opened at the skimmer line and left as sawn while a leak is chased has bare mesh facing the sea air for a week. Rust starts on that face and pushes the concrete off around it, and the repair that closes the trench fails at its own edge.
The gutter is the other thing. Storm drains in this city run untreated to the Bolsa Chica, the flood channels and the surf, and gray water from a saw hosed to the curb is on the sand by the next tide, which is why the City's stormwater rules forbid it and why we do not do it. The blade runs wet because a dry cut fills the marine layer with silica, and the slurry is vacuumed at the kerf and hauled off with the broken concrete. On pool decks the vacuum keeps it out of the water too.
From scan to closed slab
Five stages, one crew, and the person who scans the slab and chalks the line is the person on the saw. Anything in the right-of-way is permitted before the blade turns, and the cut is closed by the same crew that opened it.
Scott Ferreira runs the radar over the route, marks the steel and pipes on the floor, and chalks the cut clear of them. The figure is written then.
The saw is picked for the depth and the room to run it, the cut is timed to the plumber or the pool crew, and curb work is filed with Public Works.
Floors and walls near the cut are sheeted, water goes to the blade, the vacuum sits at the kerf, and the line is sawn through in one pass.
The piece is broken and hauled, the trench opened to the line or the base, and every cut bar and strand of mesh is trimmed and coated that day.
Dowels are epoxied into the sawn face, the cut is repoured flush and jointed to match, the floor washed, and you walk the line with us at the end.
Behind the number
Feet of cut and depth start the figure, and the scan finishes it. A trench across a bare garage floor and one through a tiled hall over a tension cable are two jobs, so nothing is quoted from a sketch. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
The length of the trench and the 4-inch depth set most of it, with the base rebuilt and the pour to close it measured as their own lines.
A shared slab from the 1970s can be post-tensioned, so the scan decides whether it is cut at all, and the hours are set by the association.
The cut runs beside the shell and over three or four pipes at once, so it is hand-sawn short of the coping and repoured on an isolation joint.
Flooring lifted, rooms sheeted, a hand saw under a HEPA shroud and the spoil carried out by hand, which is labor before it is concrete.
The scan and the written figure cost nothing, and the call that books the visit comes within 1 business day. (657) 312-3698 or send us a message.
Send the form or call, and someone rings back within 1 business day to fix a time. Scott Ferreira scans the slab, chalks the line and writes the figure at your house, and you can put it in a drawer for as long as you like.
Slabs we opened
Three reviews left on Google, Facebook and the BBB, each about a slab that was cut and closed rather than one poured new, and each naming what the saw was cutting to reach.
“Our 1974 pool was losing about an inch a day and the leak test put it on the skimmer line under the deck. They scanned the deck, cut a 3-foot strip over the pipe, the pool company replaced the line, and they repoured it the same week. You cannot see the join and the pool holds level.”
“We were turning the garage into a studio and needed a trench for a bathroom drain across 18 feet of floor. Scott found a conduit on the scan that nobody knew about and moved the line a foot. Cut on a Tuesday, plumber Wednesday, floor closed Friday, and no dust reached the house.”
“The lateral under our hall had broken and the shower was backing up. They cut a trench 22 feet long through the tile and the slab, coated the mesh where it was cut, and once the pipe was in they poured it back flush with dowels into the old floor. Eighteen months on, no line in the new tile.”
Before you book
What moves the figure, how long the floor is open, whether the City permits a cut, what insurance pays for under a slab, and what is guaranteed once the trench is closed, answered for a slab here.
Feet of cut and depth first, then what the scan turns up. A 4-inch garage floor is sawn at walking pace, and a 6-inch approach or a footing takes a bigger blade and a slower one. Rebar, conduit or a post-tension cable on the line changes the route or the saw, and a cut inside a finished house adds sheeting, a hand saw and spoil carried out by the bucket. All of it is measured and written down at your house.
Usually three to five days, and the cutting is the shortest part. A trench across a garage floor is sawn and broken out in a morning, and the floor is then open for as long as the plumber or the pool crew needs the line, which is most of the time. The closing pour goes in the day they finish, takes feet after 24 hours and flooring after 7 days. A doorway cut in a wall is sawn, framed and finished inside a day.
Yes. The scan, the saw, the water and the vacuum, breaking out and hauling the piece, coating the cut steel, drilling the dowels and repouring the cut flush with the old floor are all inside the one figure, so the slab is handed back closed and not as a trench. What sits outside it is named at the visit, the plumbing or the pool line the cut was made for, and tile or flooring laid back over the new concrete.
Not the cut itself, when it is inside your lot line. What the cut is for usually does, since a drain, a gas line or a water line under the slab is a plumbing permit from the City's Community Development Department, and the inspector sees the pipe before the trench is closed. A cut at the curb, the approach or the sidewalk is in the right-of-way and takes an encroachment permit from Public Works, which we file.
Often for the cut, rarely for the pipe. Many policies pay to open and close the slab to reach a sudden leak, since that is the cost of getting to a covered loss, while the pipe that failed from age is the owner's. That makes the cutting and the repour a line the adjuster wants on its own, which is how we write it. Photograph the wet floor before anything is sawn, keep the leak report, and ask your carrier first.
The edge and the pour, together. The terms name the coating on the cut steel, the dowels into the old slab, the depth and the finish of the closing pour, and they are printed on the estimate before you sign. It is a written guarantee. Settlement over a trench somebody else backfilled, a leak in the plumber's line, and staining on the new concrete sit outside it. A repour of ours that opens is put right.
Diamond blades sized to the slab, on a walk-behind saw for floors and drives, a 14-inch hand saw for corners and walls and a core rig for holes, all run wet with a slurry vacuum at the cut. The scan is ground-penetrating radar, the steel coating is a rust-inhibiting epoxy and the dowels are set in epoxy too. The saw, the blade and the coating are named on the estimate, so what arrives matches what you agreed to.
Only for the scan at the start and the walk-through at the end. Between them the crew needs water, power, an open gate and the room over the cut emptied, and a cut inside the house means one room sheeted off and a saw running for two or three hours. Pets go out for the morning, and if the cut crosses the only way in from the garage, say so at the visit and it is bridged with plate each evening.
Towns we cut in
The eight nearest towns on the list, with the straight-line distance from the office on Edinger Avenue beside each. Every slab is scanned at the property before a figure is written.
Four jobs that follow a cut or are done in the same trench, on the same scan, by the same crew, and itemized on the one written estimate.
A deck opened for a pipe and poured back to the coping, or replaced once the lines are new.
The floor trenched for a conversion, then repoured level and sealed so it hoses down clean.
One broken panel sawn out on its joints and poured new, doweled to the panels either side.
A slab cut open to reach a footing or a lateral under a corner that has settled.
Call or send the form and you hear back within 1 business day. Say what the cut is for and whether it is inside the house, on the deck or at the curb, and the visit can be booked for a day inside the same week.