Plaza Orange Concrete pours drives, patios and pool decks in Chino Hills from Orange, over the county line, every one held back from the slope. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
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The most important line on a Chino Hills lot is the top of the slope, and the specification is set from it. A slab poured out to that edge is standing on the least supported ground on the property.
The tracts were graded as benches, a level pad with a manufactured slope below it, planted and held by the terrace drains the grader cut. The pad edge is where the fill was pushed out furthest and compacted least, and it is the first ground to move when a wet winter follows a dry one. The California Residential Code asks a footing near a slope to sit back from its face by a share of the slope's height, and a patio run out to the fence ignores that and sheds its water over the face.
So we find the pad line before we measure anything, hold the slab back from it, and thicken the outer edge into firm material where the setback cannot be met. Every slab falls toward the house side into a drain and out to the street through a pipe, never over the slope. The base is 4 inches of compacted rock and the slab is 4 inches with steel on an 18 inch grid, and where a slope has to be held, that is a retaining wall with a footing below the fill and drainage behind it.
Nearly every house in Chino Hills sits on a graded pad with a slope at the back or the side, and the eight jobs below are framed for that. The question on every one is where the pad ends, because the slab stops short of it.
A Chino Hills drive is long, often 60 feet from the street to a garage set back on the pad, with an RV pad beside it. We draw the joints before the pour so the cracks land in them, pour 4 inches on compacted base with a 5 inch apron, and fall it to the gutter, not the slope.
A patio in Chino Hills is measured from the pad line inward, not from the fence, because the last few feet before the slope are fill pushed out and never compacted. We hold the slab back, thicken its outer edge into firm ground, and drain it to the house side and the street.
Stamped concrete on a Chino Hills pad is asked for at the back where the view is, and the association usually has a say in the color. We submit the sample to the board, cast a slate or ashlar pattern into a 4 inch slab, color it through the mix, and seal it twice.
A Chino Hills walk runs from the drive to the front door across a level pad, and the panel at the curb belongs to the city. We pour the private part broomed on compacted base, jointed at 5 feet, and pull the encroachment permit for the city panel so it stays flush with the old.
A garage floor in Chino Hills was poured with the house and is usually sound, so the work is a slab flat and dry enough to coat. We test it for moisture first, because a slab with no barrier under it pushes water through an epoxy, and where it fails we pour 5 inches with steel.
Exposed aggregate suits a Chino Hills pool deck and a sloping drive alike, because the washed stone stays cooler underfoot in the hill sun and grips wet. We seed river stone into a 4 inch slab, wash the paste off at the right hour, and border it with a smooth band.
Retaining walls are the job Chino Hills asks for most, because a graded pad ends in a slope and the builder's timber has rotted. We pour on a footing set into firm ground below the fill, tie the bar into the stem, drain the back with rock, and file the detail with the city.
Additions, casitas and garage conversions in Chino Hills need an interior slab someone will live on, and the association reviews the building before the city does. We pour on 4 inches of base over a lapped 10 mil barrier, dowel it into the house slab, and trowel it flat for tile.
Chino Hills is the one town we cover in San Bernardino County, and we reach it from Orange up the 91 through Santa Ana Canyon to the 71, then Chino Hills Parkway or Soquel Canyon Parkway, about 20 miles. It has been a city since 1991, so permits go to the City of Chino Hills Building Division at the Civic Center on City Center Drive, and a wall or a slab near a slope outside the city's exemption gets a plan check first. Most tracts add an association review, and we submit to both.
The older level part of the city is Los Serranos, down by the Chino line, where the houses go back to the 1920s on ranch ground that was never graded, and a slab there is a base and drainage job rather than a setback one. The tracts along Chino Hills Parkway and up to Butterfield Ranch and Vellano are the benches, 1980s through 2000s, and Carbon Canyon and Sleepy Hollow at the Brea end sit in the canyon bottom on the wash, where a truck reaches the front and nothing else.
The city's lots are the most open of any town its size we cover, under 700 people to the square mile against more than 2,000 in Orange, so the slabs are bigger and the trucks reach. A drive here can be 60 feet long with an RV pad beside it, and a pool deck wraps the whole pad. A mixer backs onto most lots and a pump reaches the rest, and the joint layout is drawn before the pour, because a 60 foot drive without planned joints cracks in 3 places of its own choosing.
Four stages, one crew and one written figure. In Chino Hills the first stage includes finding the pad line and the terrace drains, because where the slab can go is decided before how big it can be.
Curtis Ballard locates the top of the slope and the drains, measures the slab inside it, and writes the figure at your house.
Plans go to the Building Division on City Center Drive where the job needs them, and to your association's review at the same time.
The old slab comes out, soft fill at the pad edge is dug and replaced, 4 inches of base is compacted and the drain line is laid.
The slab is poured falling toward the drain, joints cut to the drawing, feet after 24 hours and vehicles after 7 days.
Call or send the form and we will ring back within 1 business day to set a time. We come up the 71, walk the pad line with you, measure inside it, and write the figure before we leave, and the visit costs nothing.
Reviews
Reviews left on Google and Facebook by homeowners across the towns we cover, Chino Hills among them. The slabs behind them were held back from the slope and drained to the street, as described above.
“Our drive goes right down the lot to a garage on the alley, and it had broken into about nine pieces. They took out 540 square feet, put five inches back and got the joints in before they left that evening. Curtis was here at seven for the pour.”
“Three of the pepper trees out front had lifted the walk into a trip hazard and the city had already been round. Seventy feet of panel came out, a barrier went in against each root plate, and the new walk has stayed flat through two winters.”
“The back of our lot falls away hard and the old patio had cracked right across the middle. They stepped the new one down in two levels, 380 square feet of it, and formed a drain along the low edge. Nothing has stood on it since, even in February.”
Six things people in Chino Hills ask before booking, from why a slab has to stop short of the slope, to which office and which board sign off, and when the drive takes a car.
How close the slab runs to the slope, then its size. A patio held back from the pad line on firm ground is a plain pour. One that has to reach the fence needs its edge dug out and thickened into firm material, and one that has to hold the slope is a retaining wall with a footing and drainage, a different job. After that the figure moves with area, thickness and the drain line, and it is written on your pad.
The city. Chino Hills incorporated in 1991, so the Building Division at the Civic Center on City Center Drive issues the permit, not San Bernardino County. Flatwork at grade on your lot needs none. A wall over 4 feet, a wall holding a slope whatever its height, a footing under a cover and an interior slab do, and a wall near a slope goes to plan check. Your association reviews the finish, and we submit to both.
Because the fence stands on the edge of the fill. A Chino Hills pad was made by pushing graded soil out to the slope, and the last few feet before the face were placed last and compacted least, so a slab out there settles at the fence and cracks. The California Residential Code asks a footing to sit back from a slope by a share of its height. We hold the slab back to firm ground, or thicken its edge into it.
About 20 miles, up the 91 through Santa Ana Canyon and north on the 71 to Chino Hills Parkway or Soquel Canyon Parkway, which is 30 to 40 minutes outside the rush. It is the far side of the hills from us and the one town we cover across the county line, so we run Chino Hills jobs in a block with Diamond Bar and Brea. When you call we ring back within 1 business day to book the visit.
Seven days after the pour, with feet on it after 24 hours. A 60 foot Chino Hills drive takes about 3 days on site before that, one to break out and haul, one for base, forms and the drain line, and the morning of the pour, so the cars are on the street for about 10 days in all. An RV goes back on it at 28 days, when the concrete has reached its design strength.
Yes, and Yorba Linda on the other side of Carbon Canyon, all from the yard in Orange. Diamond Bar is next door along the 57 and is graded the same way, so the pad line rule holds there too, and Brea and Yorba Linda are back in Orange County with their own permit offices. Each town has a page of its own, and if your street is in Sleepy Hollow or Carbon Canyon on the Brea side, read that page after this one.
Chino Hills backs onto Diamond Bar along the 57 and onto Brea and Yorba Linda through Carbon Canyon, and we cover all three from the same yard in Orange. Each has its own page, because the permit office and the ground change at the county line.
Open the Orange Office in Google Maps Send the form, we ring back within 1 business day, and the figure is written on your pad. The finished work carries a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built.