Katella Anaheim Concrete pours drives, steps, patios and walls in La Mirada, across the county line and up the 5 from our yard, on ground that falls toward the creek. Measured at the house.
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A La Mirada lot often drops 3 or 4 feet from the back fence to the street. A slab poured flat on that ground either ponds at the high side or steps at the low one, and the 1950s pours did both.
The tracts went in fast on the old McNally ranch ground and the graders leveled the pad for the house and left the rest of the lot to its fall. So the drive runs downhill to a garage below the street or uphill to one above it, the back yard tilts toward the neighbor, and the patio is flat only where the house is. Water follows all of it. It runs across a drive with no crown, collects against the garage, gets under the slab in a wet winter and washes out what held it.
So a La Mirada slab is set to its grade before it is set to its size. We shoot the levels at the visit, decide where the water goes, and design the fall into the pour, a crown on the drive, a quarter inch per foot on the patio toward a drain, and where the drop is too much for a slab a step or a low wall takes it. Then it is 4 inches with bar on 4 inches of compacted base, doweled at every joint, because on a slope the panels must move as one or the downhill one leaves.
La Mirada rises from the flat by the 5 to the streets under the hills, and a lot with a fall across it needs a different slab from a lot without one. Here the work is as much steps, walls and grade as it is flatwork.
A La Mirada drive on the rising streets runs up or down to its garage, and the old one has stepped at the joints. We break it out, lay 4 inches of base and pour 4 inches with bar, doweled at each joint so the panels move together and crowned so water runs off its sides.
A La Mirada patio behind a house on a slope sits between the pad and the bank. We cut a level bench, retain the high side where the drop needs it, and pour 4 inches in 10 foot panels with a quarter inch per foot of fall to a drain at the low edge, so no water sits at the house.
Stamped concrete in La Mirada goes on a front entry or a patio, and on a sloping walk the pattern hides the change in level a plain slab shows. We stamp an ashlar or flagstone into the 4 inch pour, color it through the mix, and seal it, with a broom band where feet need grip.
A La Mirada front walk on a rising lot climbs from the city walk to the door, and the old one is too steep or has heaved. We pour it at 4 inches in square panels with a broom finish, and put a step in where the grade passes what a walk should carry, formed with a proper nosing.
A garage below the street in La Mirada takes every drop of rain the drive sends it, and the 1960s floor has spalled at the door. We break it out, pour 4 inches over a vapor barrier with a lip at the threshold and a channel drain outside it, and trowel it flat enough to coat.
Exposed aggregate suits a La Mirada drive with a fall on it because the washed surface grips a tire where a smooth broom does not. We seed river pebble into the 4 inch pour, wash it proud that evening, hold a smooth border at the walk and the garage, and seal the stone.
Retaining walls are ordinary work in La Mirada, where a back yard can drop 4 feet to the fence. We footing the wall 18 inches into firm ground, run bar through the stem, gravel and drain the back so it does not hold the hill's water, and file the permit where it passes 4 feet.
Additions and garage conversions on a stepped La Mirada lot need a floor at the house's level, not the yard's. We cut the bench, compact it, and pour 4 inches over a 10 mil barrier tied to the existing footing with epoxied dowels, troweled flat enough for tile to go down.
La Mirada is in Los Angeles County, the first town over the line from our own, and we reach it in about 25 minutes, up the 5 from Anaheim to Valley View Avenue, about 12 miles from our yard on West Katella. The county line changes nothing about the job. Permits come from the City of La Mirada, at City Hall on La Mirada Boulevard, since the city has issued its own since it incorporated in 1960, and not from the county. We file them and meet the inspector.
The 5 is the south edge of the city and the ground is flat beside it, the tracts around Valley View and Alondra Boulevard on level lots where the work is ordinary flatwork. North of Imperial Highway the ground begins to rise, and by the streets around Biola University and La Mirada Regional Park the lots have a fall across them. La Mirada Creek runs down through the middle of the city and takes the water, and a yard on either side drains toward it whether the owner planned that or not.
The houses are 1950s and 1960s, single story with a two car garage and a drive poured to the standard of the day, and 49,095 people live in them on lots larger than the tracts on our side of the line. What a La Mirada owner asks for is a drive that has stepped at the joints, a patio that holds water at the house, or a bank at the back of the yard that wants a wall and a level place to sit. Summer is milder than Anaheim, and the pour still starts early from July.
One crew, one written figure, no second number. On a sloping La Mirada lot the levels are shot at the visit and the sheet says where the water will go before anything is agreed.
Omar Espinoza measures the slab, shoots the fall across the lot, finds where the water goes now, and writes the figure at your house.
The old slab comes out, a level bench is cut where the ground drops, drains are set at the low edge, and 4 inches of Class 2 base compacted.
A wall over 4 feet, an approach or a covered slab goes to La Mirada City Hall on La Mirada Boulevard. We file it and meet the inspector.
A wall is poured a day ahead, then 4 inches with bar, doweled and jointed the same day. Walk on it in 24 hours, park on it in 7 days.
Send the form or call, and Omar Espinoza will come back to you within 1 business day with a time. He measures the slab, shoots the fall across the lot, and writes the figure at your house with the grade already in it.
Reviews
Our own reviews, left on Google and Facebook by homeowners in the towns we cover. La Mirada is the town across the county line, and the stepped drives and walls above are the jobs behind them.
“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 comes up at a La Mirada visit, on what a slope adds to the figure, whose permit a wall or an approach needs on this side of the county line, the drive from Anaheim, and how a lot with a fall is drained.
Steps, walls and drainage, and each is a line on the sheet. A slab on a level La Mirada lot by the 5 is area and thickness. The same slab on a rising street north of Imperial Highway needs a bench cut, a wall or a step to take the drop, and a drain at the low edge, and that is crew hours a flat lot never sees. Omar Espinoza shoots the levels at the visit, so the grade is in the figure he writes at the house.
From the city. La Mirada has been incorporated since 1960 and issues its own permits from City Hall on La Mirada Boulevard, so the county line between it and Anaheim changes the office but not the answer. A wall over 4 feet, a new approach across the city walk, and a slab that carries a cover need one. A drive or a patio replaced inside the lot line does not. We file it and meet the inspector on the day.
About 25 minutes. Our yard is on West Katella Avenue, and the crew takes the 5 north to Valley View Avenue, about 12 miles, and is on a La Mirada street before the freeway fills. We answer a call or the form within 1 business day, the visit is booked for that week, and the job is scheduled once the written figure is agreed. La Mirada is the far end of what we cover northwest, and a crew is there most weeks.
Because the drive falls toward the garage and was poured with no crown and no drain. On a La Mirada lot where the garage sits below the street, every storm runs down the slab and stops at the door, and the water gets under the slab edge and softens what supports it. The fix is a slab crowned to shed water to its sides, a channel drain across the threshold, and 4 inches of compacted base that does not wash out.
Three to four days, against two for flatwork alone. A wall is footed and poured a day before the slab it holds, and steps are formed and poured with the slab. The concrete is walked on after 24 hours and driven on after 7 days, and a wall is backfilled after 7 as well, once it can take the load. The joints are cut the day of the pour, and on a slope they are also doweled, so the panels move as one piece.
Toward the street or a drain, never toward the neighbor or the house, and yes, a slab is where that is decided. Most La Mirada yards fall toward La Mirada Creek whichever side of it they are on, and a patio poured to that natural fall with a quarter inch per foot and a drain at its low edge sends the water where the ground already wanted it. A patio poured flat sends it under the fence instead.
La Mirada touches Buena Park to the south, La Habra to the east, Cerritos to the southwest and Whittier to the north, and we cover all four from the same Anaheim yard. Each has a page of its own, since the ground and the permit office change at every one.
Open the Anaheim Office in Google Maps Call, or send the form, and the reply comes within 1 business day with a time for the visit. Nothing is charged for the measure, and the job carries a written workmanship guarantee.