Katella Anaheim Concrete pours drives, patios, walks and garage floors in Tustin, 8 miles south of our Anaheim yard down the 55. Three ages of housing, one written figure, measured on your lot.
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Some of the oldest concrete in Orange County is in Old Town Tustin, and some of the newest is a mile south on the old air station. The two fail differently, so we read the house before the ground.
Around Main Street and El Camino Real the walks and porch steps went in with the houses, thin and without steel, and a century of roots and lawn watering has lifted them in plates. They are worth matching rather than modernising, because a new step at an old bungalow shows from the street if the riser is off. In the tracts between the 5 and Irvine Boulevard the drives are 1960s and 70s, thin and jointed too far apart, and they have cracked wherever the ground chose. Those come out whole.
Tustin Legacy is the flat ground of the Marine Corps air station, closed in 1999 and built over since, and its concrete is young enough that the work there is addition rather than replacement, a patio behind a house the builder left with a bare yard, or a wider apron where a second car has appeared. Tustin Ranch, on the rise toward Peters Canyon, is 1980s and 90s and under association rules, so a drive or a court there is drawn for the committee before it is poured.
Tustin has houses from three centuries of building, the 1870s grid of Old Town, the 1960s and 70s tracts along Irvine Boulevard and Red Hill, and the streets going up on the old Marine air station since 2010. Each asks for a different job.
A Tustin drive is replaced whole rather than patched, because a 1970s slab between the 5 and Irvine Boulevard has cracked along its own weak lines and a patch only joins them. We pour 4 inches on compacted base, 5 where a truck parks, and joint it every 10 feet.
Patios are the job in Tustin Legacy, where houses built since 2010 were handed over with a bare yard behind a small builder's slab. We tie the new pour to the old with dowels, grade it away from the house, and finish it broomed or with a salt texture for bare feet.
Stamped concrete in Tustin Ranch goes to the association before it goes on the ground, because the committee rules on what shows from the street. We bring the pattern and the color sample to the lot, pour the court 4 inches on base, and seal it in 2 coats.
Old Town Tustin walks are matched, not modernised. Around Main Street a replaced panel is formed to the width and the broom grain of the one beside it, and where the walk is in the public right of way the approach goes through the city before we cut a line.
Garage floors in the older Tustin tracts were poured thin and are now cracked through, and a coating will not hide that. We break the slab out, compact the base, lay a vapor barrier, and pour 4 inches troweled flat enough to coat or to tile without grinding.
Decorative work at a Tustin bungalow is a broomed or exposed aggregate finish that suits the age of the house, not a pattern that fights it. We keep the color close to the old cement gray and use the finish, not the pigment, to set the new work apart.
Retaining walls in Tustin are on Red Hill and in Tustin Ranch, where a lot was graded into the slope and the yard steps at the fence. A wall over 4 feet is engineered and permitted, footed into firm ground below the fill, and drained behind the stem to a pipe.
An interior slab in Tustin is a casita floor or an ADU behind a 1960s house, and state law now lets one onto most lots. We pour over a 10 mil barrier on compacted base, trowel it flat for tile, and place the joints where the walls will stand over them.
A Tustin crew leaves our Anaheim yard on the 55 south and is off at Fourth Street or the 5 in about 20 minutes, 8 miles door to door, so a Tustin day starts at the same hour as an Anaheim day. The city incorporated in 1927 around the grid Columbus Tustin laid out in the 1870s, and its permits come from the City of Tustin Building Division at City Hall on Centennial Way. Flatwork at grade needs none. A wall over 4 feet, a footing under a cover and work on the public walk do.
The ground splits at Red Hill. West and south of it the city sits on the flat of the Santa Ana plain, old orchard loam that takes a slab well once the topsoil is off and 4 inches of base is compacted in its place. On the hill itself, and up into Tustin Ranch, the lots were graded into a slope, and a patio on the downhill side of the house has fill under its outer edge placed for the house, not for a slab. We probe that edge before we form, and step the base down to firm ground.
Old Town is the one part of the city where a replaced walk is expected to look like the one it replaces. The Cultural Resource District covers the blocks around Main Street, and a change that shows from the street in it is reviewed for how it looks, so we form to the old profile and broom to the old grain. Tustin Ranch adds the association instead. The tract committee wants the color and the finish on paper, and a court that shows from the street goes to it before the city.
Four stages, and the first one sets the other three, because the house tells us whether the job is matching, replacing or adding. The walk round the lot comes before any figure is written, and the figure is written there.
Omar Espinoza reads the age of the slab, finds the fall and the truck access, measures it and writes the figure on the lot before he leaves.
Old concrete is broken and hauled, topsoil comes off to firm loam, soft fill at a slope edge is replaced, and 4 inches of base is compacted in.
Flatwork at grade needs nothing. Walls, footings and covers go to Centennial Way, and a Tustin Ranch court goes to the association first.
Most Tustin jobs are 2 or 3 days on site. Joints are sawn the day of the pour, feet go on at 24 hours and a car at 7 days.
Call or send the form and Omar Espinoza calls you back within 1 business day to fix the visit. Every estimate is measured and written on site, and the drive down the 55 from Anaheim costs you nothing.
Reviews
These are our own reviews, left on Google and Facebook by homeowners across north Orange County. Tustin is the south end of that run, and the work behind them is the work described above.
“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 we hear on Tustin lots before a job is agreed, on what moves the figure, on the city and the district, on the drive from Anaheim, on the hill and on how long a slab is out of use.
The age of what comes out, then access. A 1920s walk in Old Town is thin and breaks up fast, while a 1970s drive between the 5 and Irvine Boulevard is thicker and often has wire in it, which doubles the demolition. A side gate under 4 feet means the mix is barrowed rather than chuted. The tape and the figure are written on the lot, and nothing is priced from a photograph.
A patio at grade, no. A retaining wall over 4 feet, a footing under a cover, and any work on the public walk or the driveway approach, yes, and the application goes to the Building Division at City Hall on Centennial Way. Inside the Cultural Resource District around Main Street a change that shows from the street gets a second look. We file it and meet the inspector.
You hear from Omar Espinoza within 1 business day, the visit is fixed for that week, and the crew comes down the 55 from our yard in Anaheim, 8 miles, in about 20 minutes. Once a job starts the same crew is on your lot each morning until it is finished, so a Tustin job is never left half poured while another town is served.
Yes. Below Red Hill the city sits on orchard loam that drains and carries a slab once the topsoil is off. On the hill, and up through Tustin Ranch toward Peters Canyon, the lots were graded into the slope, and the downhill edge of a yard is fill. We probe it, dig the soft part out, and step the base down to firm ground, because a patio with fill under one corner settles at that corner.
About 10 days from the first morning. Demolition and base take a day, the pour takes a day, and then the slab needs 24 hours before anyone walks on it and 7 days before a car goes back on it. The joints are sawn the same day it is placed, which is what keeps the shrinkage cracks on straight lines instead of wandering across the drive.
All three, and they are three different jobs. In the Legacy the concrete is young and the work is a patio or a wider apron behind a house the builder finished bare. In Tustin Ranch it is a court or a pool deck drawn for the association first. In Old Town it is a walk or a step formed to the profile of the one it replaces. The same crew does all of it.
Tustin is the southern end of our run from Anaheim, 8 miles down the 55, and Villa Park and Yorba Linda sit north of it on the same side of the county. Fountain Valley and Westminster are west, past Santa Ana. On a city line, read the page next door.
Open the Anaheim Office in Google Maps Send the form, hear from us within 1 business day, and get a figure written on your lot. The work carries a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built.