Katella Anaheim Concrete pours drives, patios and walks in Placentia, where a 1960s lot still has the orange tree the grove left and the roots under it. Ten miles up the 57. Measured free.
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A mature citrus tree lifts a slab within 20 feet of its trunk. Placentia lots are full of them, kept from the Valencia groves when the tracts went in, and many cracked patios here have one.
Citrus roots run shallow and wide, in the top 2 feet of soil where the water is, and a slab poured over them gives them a roof that holds moisture. So the roots grow under it, thicken, and lift the panel an inch at a time until it steps at the joint, and the fruit that drops stains the surface where the leaves collect. The grove ground brings a second thing. When the trees came out, the concrete lines that watered them mostly stayed, and a drive over a buried line has a hollow under it.
So on a Placentia lot the dig is the diagnosis. We probe for roots and old pipe before the base goes in, cut roots over an inch only with the tree well clear, and where a trunk is closer than 6 feet we set a root barrier at the slab edge and pour the slab free of it, with an isolation joint so it can sit on its own. Buried irrigation line is broken out and the void filled and compacted. The slab is then 4 inches with bar on 4 inches of compacted base, and the tree keeps its shade.
Placentia was a grove before it was a suburb, and the tract builders left a tree or two on many lots. Fifty years on, the work is a slab that has been lifted by roots, stained by fruit, or laid over something the grove buried.
A Placentia drive from the 1960s is 2 cars wide and often has a citrus tree in the strip beside it. We break it out, probe for roots and old irrigation pipe, set a root barrier along the tree side, and pour 4 inches with bar on 4 inches of compacted base, doweled to the walk.
A Placentia patio is poured around the tree, not over it. We keep the slab 6 feet from the trunk, set a root barrier and an isolation joint at that edge, and pour 4 inches in 10 foot panels with a fall of a quarter inch per foot away from the house, so fruit washes off.
Stamped concrete in Placentia goes down as a front entry or a patio, and the pattern hides the fruit stains a plain slab under citrus shows within a season. We cast an ashlar or flagstone into the 4 inch pour, color it through the mix, and seal it in 2 coats against juice.
The path from the city walk to a Placentia front door often runs beside the tree the builder left in the lawn, and roots have lifted it a panel at a time. We take it out, barrier the tree side, and pour 4 inches broom finished in square panels, flush with the city walk.
A 1960s Placentia garage floor was poured thin and with the drive, and it has cracked at the door line and wherever a root reached it. We break it out, pour 4 inches over a vapor barrier, trowel it flat enough to coat, and cut a doweled joint at the threshold.
Exposed aggregate suits a Placentia drive under citrus, because a washed pebble surface hides a fallen orange's stain where a broom finish shows it. We seed river pebble into the 4 inch pour, wash it proud that evening, hold a smooth border at the walk, and seal the stone.
North of Yorba Linda Boulevard the Placentia lots begin to climb, and a wall there holds a cut in the yard rather than a planter. We footing it 18 inches into firm ground, drain and gravel the back, run bar through the stem, and keep it clear of any tree that would push it.
Additions and garage conversions on a Placentia lot need a floor someone will live on, and the ground under it must be clear of grove pipe first. We dig, probe, fill any void, and pour 4 inches over a 10 mil barrier tied to the existing footing with epoxied dowels, flat for tile.
The city grew along the Santa Fe line, and Old Town Placentia on Santa Fe Avenue is still where the packing houses stood. The tracts spread out from there in the 1960s and 1970s over the groves, north to Yorba Linda Boulevard and east past Kraemer Boulevard, and Atwood, south of Orangethorpe by the tracks, is older than most of them. We come up the 57 from Anaheim, leave it at Orangethorpe Avenue, and are in Old Town in 20 minutes, about 10 miles from our yard on West Katella.
Permits go to the Building Division of the City of Placentia, at City Hall on Chapman Avenue, and the one that comes up on grove-era lots is the approach, because the tract drives were poured narrow and the widening reaches the public walk. A wall over 4 feet, or a slab that carries a cover, needs one too, and a patio inside the lot does not. We file whatever the job needs before the saw starts and meet the inspector, so nobody stands at a counter but us.
The lots run larger toward the hills north of Yorba Linda Boulevard and smaller on the flat south of it, and the trees are on both. Kraemer Memorial Park on Bradford Avenue and Tri-City Park at the Brea and Fullerton line are the two open spaces the crew knows, and the streets around Kraemer are the 1960s pattern, 60 foot lots, a two car drive and a citrus tree by the side gate. August here is inland heat, so the pour starts at 6 and is covered by noon.
One crew, one visit, one written figure. In Placentia the roots and the old grove pipe are found at the dig, and the sheet already says what happens if they are.
Omar Espinoza measures, walks the tree line, probes for roots and grove pipe, checks the fall, and writes the figure at the house.
The old slab is broken out, roots are cut or barriered, buried pipe removed and the trench compacted, then 4 inches of Class 2 base.
An approach, a wall or a covered slab goes to Placentia's Building Division on Chapman Avenue. We file it and meet the inspector.
Four inches with bar, isolated from the tree edge, jointed the same day. Walk on it in 24 hours, park on it after 7 days.
Call or send the form and Omar Espinoza will reply within 1 business day with a time. He walks the slab and the tree beside it, probes where the roots run, and writes the figure at the house before you agree to anything.
Reviews
What people say on Google and Facebook after we have poured for them, across the towns we cover. Placentia is one of them, and the patios beside orange trees above are the jobs behind the words.
“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.”
The questions that come up on a Placentia visit, on what moves the figure for a slab with a tree beside it, which permits the city issues, how we reach Old Town from Anaheim, and what the grove ground holds.
The tree, before the area. A Placentia patio beside a mature citrus means root cutting, a barrier along that edge and an isolation joint, and that is crew hours the same slab in an open yard does not need. Then the size, the thickness and the finish, and whether the old slab hides a grove irrigation line that has to come out. Omar Espinoza probes the ground at the visit and writes the figure at the house.
The approach, a wall over 4 feet, and any slab that carries a cover. A drive or a patio replaced inside your lot line needs none. The permit comes from the Building Division of the City of Placentia at City Hall on Chapman Avenue, and the approach is the common one here, because the 1960s drives were poured narrow and a wider one reaches across the public walk. We file it and are there when the inspector comes.
Up the 57 and off at Orangethorpe Avenue, about 10 miles and 20 minutes from our yard on West Katella. We answer a call or the form within 1 business day, the visit is booked for a morning that week, and the job is scheduled once the written figure is agreed. Placentia is on the same side of the county as our own city, so a crew is often there the same week for two jobs at once.
Not over them, beside them. A slab poured on citrus roots is lifted within 5 years, and cutting the roots to pour it kills a tree the lot was built around. So the slab stops 6 feet from the trunk, a root barrier goes in at that edge 24 inches deep, and the slab is isolated from it so it sits on its own. The tree keeps its shade over the patio and the patio keeps its level.
Two days on site, then a week before it is driven on. The break-out, the probing for roots and old pipe, the base and the pour take 2 days for a 2 car drive, and a third if a buried irrigation line has to come out and the void be filled. The slab is walked on after 24 hours and takes a car after 7 days, and the joints are cut the day of the pour so the cracks run straight.
Concrete irrigation pipe, mostly. The groves were watered through buried concrete lines with standpipes at the row ends, and when the trees came out the pipe usually stayed. It turns up a foot or two down, cracked and hollow, and a slab poured over it drops as the pipe collapses. We break it out where it crosses a slab, fill and compact the trench, and lay 4 inches of Class 2 base on ground with nothing to give.
Placentia borders Yorba Linda to the east, Brea to the north and Anaheim to the south, and we cover the first two from the same yard we serve our own city from. Each has a page of its own, since the ground and the permits change at every line.
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. The measure and the figure cost nothing, and the job carries a written workmanship guarantee.