Katella Anaheim Concrete replaces the 1960s drives and patios of Fountain Valley, down Brookhurst from Anaheim, with the fall built in. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
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Fountain Valley is flat. The city sits on the old floodplain west of the Santa Ana River so no lot has natural fall, and water stays on a slab until the slab is shaped to move it.
A drive poured level here ponds at the garage door and against the house, and the 1960s drives, poured thin and flat by tract crews, show it after 50 winters. The panel at the door heaved and the one by the front step sank. So every slab we pour in Fountain Valley falls a quarter inch in every foot away from the house, invisible to the eye and enough to clear it within the hour, and where the lot gives the water nowhere to go, a channel drain at the low edge takes it to the street.
The ground under the slab wants the same attention. The water table across the city is shallow, since this was the artesian farmland of Talbert before the tracts came, and a subgrade that sits wet all winter turns soft under the base. We dig to firm ground, lay 4 inches of Class 2 base and compact it in two lifts, and run steel through the slab on an 18 inch grid so the panel moves as one piece if the ground under it softens.
Fountain Valley was built almost whole between its incorporation in 1957 and the middle of the 1970s, so its concrete is all of one age and most of it is due for replacement. The eight jobs below are the ones we do here, on old farmland.
Nearly every Fountain Valley driveway we pour replaces a 1960s original, 3 to 4 inches thick on bare dirt with no steel. The new one goes in at 4 inches on compacted base, with steel on an 18 inch grid and a quarter inch of fall in every foot away from the garage door.
A patio in Fountain Valley is poured to fall away from the house, because the lot will not do it. The slab goes on 4 inches of compacted base over a subgrade dug to firm ground, is jointed every 10 feet, and is doweled into the house slab so the two cannot open into a step.
Stamped concrete in Fountain Valley is asked for on the patio more than the drive, since the tract fronts are uniform and owners keep them plain. We cast the pattern into a 4 inch slab set to drain, seal it in 2 coats, and lay the border so the fall reads as design, not slope.
Fountain Valley front walks are the tract's own, 3 feet wide and 50 years old, and most have lifted at a joint where a root or a wet winter got under them. We replace the run at 4 inches on base, joint it every 5 feet, and match the city walk at the parkway so there is no step.
Fountain Valley garage floors are the 1960s slab under a coat of paint, and the paint fails where damp comes through. We test the slab for moisture first, grind and reseal a sound one, and cut out and repour any panel that has cracked and settled, which is common at the door.
Exposed aggregate suits a Fountain Valley patio because the stone hides the dust a flat lot collects, and it drains well when the slab is pitched. We pour, wash the surface within hours, and band the edges in smooth broom so the finish stays level with the coping or the lawn.
Retaining walls in Fountain Valley are low, since the ground is flat, and they hold a raised planter or a step down to a sunken patio rather than a slope. We footing them 12 inches into firm ground below the wet subgrade, drain behind the stem, and cap them level for sitting on.
Interior floors in Fountain Valley go into garage conversions and rear additions on the 1960s tracts. A new slab is poured over a 10 mil vapor barrier, because the water under this city is shallow, and troweled flat enough to take tile or a polished finish off the trowel.
Our yard is in Anaheim and Brookhurst Street runs from it straight south through Garden Grove into Fountain Valley, so a crew is on site in about half an hour with no freeway involved. Plans go to the City of Fountain Valley Building Division at City Hall on Slater Avenue. The city permits the approach and the walk in the parkway and inspects anything in the public right of way, and the review is quick because nearly every lot is the same tract lot on the same plan.
The tracts either side of Brookhurst and Bushard Street and the blocks around Mile Square Regional Park went up in a few years in the 1960s, with the house set back the same distance and the drive the same width on every lot. That regularity helps. A tear-out here has no surprises, the old drive is 3 to 4 inches of unreinforced concrete on bare dirt, and the new one goes on 4 inches of compacted base at 4 inches thick with steel through it.
The eastern edge of the city is the Santa Ana River channel and the western edge is Huntington Beach, and the whole city drains slowly toward the river by storm drain rather than by gravity across the ground. That is why the fall has to be built into the slab. The 405 crosses the middle of the city, and we book the streets north of it and south of it on separate days, since the freeway is the one thing in Fountain Valley a truck waits for.
Four stages for a flat lot. The fall is set out with a level before the base goes in, because on ground this level the slab is the only thing that will ever move the water.
Omar Espinoza measures the slab, shoots levels from the house to the curb, and marks where the water will go. The figure is written on site.
The 1960s slab is broken out and hauled, the wet subgrade is dug to firm ground, and 4 inches of Class 2 base is laid and compacted.
We file with the City of Fountain Valley Building Division for the approach and meet the inspector at the forms. No counter visit for you.
The slab is poured to the fall set out on the visit, jointed within 12 hours, and kept damp for 3 days. Walk after 24 hours, park after 7.
Call or send the form and we will call you back within 1 business day. Omar Espinoza measures the slab and shoots the levels on the visit, and the written figure carries the fall and any drain the lot needs.
Reviews
What homeowners across the towns we cover from Anaheim wrote on Google and Facebook after the work. Fountain Valley is one of them, and the slabs behind these words were poured as this page says.
“Our drive was the one the house came with, and the sand under it had washed away at the gutter end. They dug ten inches deeper, brought angular rock in and packed it in lifts, then put down 560 square feet at a five inch depth. It has been through two winters now without a mark.”
“Half our garage stands on cut and half on fill, which nobody had ever mentioned to us. Omar probed until he found the line, dug the fill side deeper, and set a joint straight along it. The floor went in at 440 square feet, five inches thick, and it is still one flat plane.”
“A ficus root had pushed our frontage walk up into a step the postman kept catching. The crew cut the root, stood a barrier against it, laid fresh base and poured 84 feet at four inches, and they sorted the paperwork with the city themselves. Flat all year since.”
What a Fountain Valley homeowner asks before replacing a 1960s slab: what moves the figure on a flat lot, which counter takes the permit, what the water table does to a base, and how long the drive is shut.
The tear-out first, since nearly every job here replaces a 1960s slab rather than pouring on open ground. Then the drain, if the lot gives the water nowhere to go, and then thickness and finish. The area is the same on most tract lots, so it is the old concrete and the water that separate one figure from the next. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
The City of Fountain Valley Building Division at City Hall on Slater Avenue. A drive, patio or walk inside your own lot needs no permit. A new or widened approach across the parkway, a wall over 4 feet and any footing for a cover do, and the city inspects the approach before it is poured and after.
Yes, through the base. The city was artesian farmland before 1957 and the water is still shallow, so a subgrade left bare sits wet through winter and softens under the slab. We dig out anything soft, lay 4 inches of Class 2 base and compact it, and put steel through the slab so a soft patch cannot tilt one panel on its own.
Because the drive was poured flat, and Fountain Valley gives it no fall of its own. Tract crews in the 1960s screeded to the forms and let the ground decide, and on this floodplain the ground decides nothing. A new drive is set to fall a quarter inch a foot away from the house, so it drains in the hour after the rain stops.
About 9 days. Tear-out and base take a day, the pour takes a morning, and then 24 hours before you walk on it and 7 days before you park on it. The car stays on the street for that week, which on a tract street is the only inconvenience, since every house has curb parking in front of it.
Yes. Westminster is next door to the north-west and we cover it from the same yard, along with Cypress, Los Alamitos and the rest of north Orange County. Fountain Valley is the furthest south we go on Brookhurst Street, and the crew that pours here is the one that pours in Anaheim.
Fountain Valley is the southern end of our coverage, and Westminster, Cypress and Los Alamitos sit between it and our yard. Each town on the list below has its own page, so if your street sits on a city line, read the one that names it.
Open the Anaheim Office in Google Maps Send the form, we call back within 1 business day, and the measure costs nothing. The work carries a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built.