Katella Anaheim Concrete pours drives, patios, walls and the paved band beside a house in Yorba Linda, 6 miles from our Anaheim yard over the river on Lakeview Avenue. Written on your lot.
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In November 2008 the Freeway Complex Fire came over the hills from Corona into Yorba Linda, and the houses it took had fuel against their walls. Concrete here is drawn with that in mind first.
Fire agencies ask for a band of ground beside the house that will not burn, the first 5 feet out from the wall, and the state has been writing that band into law for its highest hazard lots. A concrete path or patio run right to the stucco is the plainest way to build it, because there is nothing in it to catch an ember. So a Yorba Linda patio is poured to the wall, a side yard on the hill side is paved fence to fence, and the timber deck above the slope comes back as a slab on a wall.
The ground under it is hill clay that swells with the winter rain and shrinks through the summer, so a slab against the house on the hill side is poured on 4 inches of compacted base with steel on a grid and a joint at the wall, graded a quarter inch a foot away from the foundation to a drain at its low edge. The flat streets along Yorba Linda Boulevard and Main Street, where the town was before the tracts, sit on river sand and need none of that, but they carry the oldest drives.
Half of Yorba Linda backs onto open hills, Chino Hills State Park to the north and the canyons above the river to the east, and the state maps much of it at very high fire hazard. Concrete is the one surface a fire cannot use.
A Yorba Linda drive feeds a 3 car garage and runs 40 to 60 feet, poured 4 inches on compacted base with steel under the pad beside it where the trailer parks. On a sloped lot it is graded to shed to the street and jointed on the line where the cut ground meets the fill.
A Yorba Linda patio is run to the wall of the house rather than stopped at a planting strip, so the first 5 feet carry nothing that burns. We pour 4 inches on base over the clay, steel on a grid, a joint at the wall, and a fall away from the foundation to a drain at the low edge.
Stamped concrete in Yorba Linda is the pool deck and the court, in slate or ashlar colored light, because a dark slab on the hill is too hot to stand on by noon in August. We stamp it the day of the pour, seal it in 2 coats, and sample the color for the association first.
A paved side yard on the hill side of a Yorba Linda house is asked for as often as a walk now, fence to fence and 4 inches thick, because a path with bark either side of it is not a firebreak. We grade it to a drain at the low end and joint it every 4 feet.
A Yorba Linda garage holds 3 cars and the tools for a big lot, and its 1980s floor is checked for a crack that has displaced before it is coated. A sound floor is ground and sealed. One that has moved on the clay comes out and is repoured 4 inches on base over a barrier.
Decorative work in Yorba Linda is a light colored field with a smooth border or an exposed aggregate walk, chosen as much for heat as for looks, since a pale surface is markedly cooler underfoot in July than a dark one. We sample it on the lot in full sun before ordering.
Retaining walls in Yorba Linda hold the yard above a trail or the pad above a slope, and a wall over 4 feet is engineered, permitted by the city, footed below the fill into firm clay and drained behind the stem to a pipe. Where a timber deck stood, a wall and a slab replace it.
An interior slab in Yorba Linda is a casita, a tack room or a garage converted under the state ADU law, and there is room on the lot for any of them. We pour 4 inches over a 10 mil barrier on compacted base, trowel it for tile, and give a barn floor a fall to a drain.
Lakeview Avenue crosses the Santa Ana River from Anaheim into Yorba Linda, so a crew from our yard is on a Yorba Linda lot in about 20 minutes, 6 miles, up the 91 and over the bridge. The city incorporated in 1967 and is the birthplace of Richard Nixon, whose library stands on Yorba Linda Boulevard. Permits for a wall over 4 feet, a footing under a cover or anything cut into a graded slope go to the City of Yorba Linda Building Division. Flatwork at grade on your own lot needs none.
The tracts that back onto the open hills are the ones the fire reached, and the houses rebuilt there after 2008 already have the paved band and the slab where the deck was. The 1970s and 80s tracts west of them, off Bastanchury Road and Fairmont Boulevard, mostly do not, and that is where a paved side yard and a patio run to the wall are asked for now. East Lake Village is under an association that rules on what shows from the street, so a colored court there is sampled for it first.
The Santa Ana winds come down the river gorge from October to December, hot and dry, and they drove the 2008 fire. They also dry the top of a fresh slab faster than water can rise from below, which crazes the surface with hairline cracks. On a wind day we pour at first light, fog the surface, and cover it the moment the broom is off it, or we do not pour. The rain, when it comes, comes down the canyons hard, so a slab below a slope gets a channel drain on its uphill edge.
Four stages, and the first walk of the lot looks at the hill side of the house before the front, because the band that will not burn and the fall away from the slope are set before a figure is written.
Omar Espinoza walks the hill side first, sets the paved band and the falls, measures the drive and the patio, and writes the figure there.
Mulch, planting and old slab come out, the clay is probed for soft fill at the slope edge, and 4 inches of Class 2 base is compacted in.
A slab at grade needs no permit. A wall, a footing or a cut into a graded slope goes to the Building Division, and we meet the inspector.
A summer pour starts at 6 and is sawn by noon. Walk on it at 24 hours, park at 7 days, and the trailer pad takes its load at 14.
Call or send the form and Omar Espinoza calls back within 1 business day to fix the visit. Every estimate is measured and written on site, the hill side of the house is walked on the same trip, and the river bridge is 20 minutes from our door.
Reviews
Our own reviews, left on Google and Facebook by homeowners across north Orange County. Yorba Linda is over the river from our yard, and the patios and pads above are the work they describe.
“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 Yorba Linda owners ask before a job is agreed, on what moves the figure, on the paved band beside the house, on the city and the association, on the clay, on the wind and on the wait for the drive.
The lot. A Yorba Linda house has a 3 car garage, a drive to match and often a pad beside it, and the yard runs to a slope or a trail fence, so the square feet are simply more. Then the hill, where a mixer cannot back to the pour and the mix is pumped, and the slope edge, where soft fill is dug and replaced. The tape decides it on the lot, and the figure is written there.
Yes, and it is the simplest way to build the first 5 feet. Fire agencies ask that the ground against the house carry nothing that burns, and a slab run to the wall has no mulch, no bark and nothing to trim. It is graded away from the foundation and drained at its low edge so it does the work the planting strip was doing for water. A wood deck above the slope is the thing most often replaced with it.
The City of Yorba Linda Building Division, for a wall over 4 feet, a footing under a cover and anything cut into a graded slope, and a lot on a hillside tract often carries a soils report from the grading that the plan checker wants to see. We file it and meet the inspector. A slab at grade on your own lot needs nothing, and a court that shows from the street in an association tract goes to its committee first.
Carefully, or not at all. A hot dry wind down the canyon takes the water off the top of a fresh slab faster than it can rise from below, and the surface crazes into hairline cracks before it is finished. On a wind day we pour at first light, fog the surface, and cover the slab as soon as it is finished. If the forecast is a strong wind we move the pour, because a slab poured in it is one we come back to replace.
Walk on it after 24 hours, park a car after 7 days, and put the trailer or the motorhome on the pad after 14, because the pad is thicker and takes longer to reach its strength. A drive is out for about 10 days from the first morning, with the demolition and base on the first, the pour on the second, and the joints sawn that afternoon so the shrinkage runs straight.
Clay, and the slope edge. The hills are clay that swells wet and shrinks dry, and a patio poured on it without base rides up and down with the seasons, while its outer edge sits on the fill the grader placed for the house, which settles. The two motions pull the slab from the wall. We dig the soft fill out, compact 4 inches of base, run steel on a grid, and joint the slab at the wall so it moves as one piece.
Yorba Linda borders Placentia and Brea to the west and Chino Hills over the ridge, and Villa Park and Diamond Bar are a short run on, all covered from the same yard in Anaheim. A lot on the county line gets the same crew and a different permit counter.
Open the Anaheim Office in Google Maps Send the form, hear from us within 1 business day, and get the figure written on your own lot. The work carries a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built.