Plaza Orange Concrete replaces the 1960s drives, walks and patios of Cypress from Orange, 14 miles along Katella Avenue, a whole lot at once. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
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The concrete in Cypress is the age of the houses, and the houses are the age of the city. What we replace here is the tract builder's original, poured in the 1960s and failing on every lot at once.
Cypress incorporated in 1956, the dairies sold up, and the tracts went in across the flat over the next 10 years, single story houses on level lots with a drive, a walk, a step and a 10 foot slab at the back door, all poured at 3 inches with no base and no steel. The owners bought and stayed, which is why the median age here is over 40 and 2 in 3 houses are owner-occupied. A slab like that fails in the same order on every street, the walk first, then the apron, then the patio.
So a Cypress job is usually the whole lot, because once the drive is out it costs less to do the walk and the patio in the same week than in 3 separate ones. Everything goes back on 4 inches of compacted base with steel on an 18 inch grid, 4 inches thick and 5 at the apron, and because the ground is level we build the fall into the slab, a quarter inch a foot away from the house, so the new patio drains to the yard and not to the door the old one drained to.
Cypress was built in one push in the 1960s, 2 in 3 houses are owner-occupied and the owners stay, so the concrete on most lots is the builder's, 60 years old and failing at once. The eight jobs below are written for a lot replaced in one visit.
A Cypress drive is the tract builder's 3 inch slab, cracked at the apron where 60 years of cars turned in. It comes out whole, 4 inches of base goes in compacted, and the new drive is 4 inches with steel and a 5 inch apron, widened where a second car has been parking on the lawn.
A Cypress patio is the 10 foot slab the builder floated level with the lawn behind the sliding door, and 60 years of watering has tilted it toward the house. We replace it at the size the family uses, on 4 inches of compacted base, with a quarter inch a foot of fall built in.
Stamped concrete in Cypress goes at the back, once the plain drive and walk are in, because that is where it shows. We cast an ashlar or flagstone pattern into a 4 inch slab with the same base and steel as the drive, color it through the mix, and seal it twice.
Cypress walks were poured with the parkway tree beside them and the tree has won. We pull the encroachment permit from Public Works, saw the lifted panels at their joints, cut the root with the tree kept, and pour new panels doweled to the old so nobody trips at the join.
A Cypress garage floor is the original slab and often the soundest concrete on the lot, so most need a moisture test and a coating rather than replacement. Where it has heaved or sits below the drive, we break it out, lay base and a 10 mil barrier, and pour 5 inches with steel.
Exposed aggregate suits a Cypress drive that is also the parking court, because the washed stone hides oil and tire marks that a plain broom shows and grips in the rain. We seed river stone into a 4 inch slab, wash the paste off at the right hour, and border it with a band.
Retaining walls in Cypress are low, because nothing on the plain falls more than a step, and most hold a raised bed or a pad for a shed. We pour a footing 18 inches into firm ground below the soft top foot, tie the bar into a stem, and cap it level. Under 4 feet, no permit.
Garage conversions and additions in Cypress need an interior slab that meets the 1960s house floor without a step. We pour on 4 inches of base over a lapped 10 mil barrier, which the original never had, dowel into the house slab at the door, and trowel it flat for tile or wood.
Katella Avenue leaves Orange a few blocks north of our yard and runs 14 miles west without a change of name, past the stadium, Disneyland and Stanton, into Cypress at Knott Avenue and on past the race course to Los Alamitos. We take it when the 22 is stopped, which is most afternoons, and it places a Cypress address at once, north or south of Katella. Permits go to the Building Division at Cypress City Hall on Orange Avenue, and the curb is an encroachment permit from Public Works.
The tracts north of Lincoln Avenue, around Cypress College and up to the La Palma line, are where the walks have lifted furthest, because the parkway trees planted with them are 60 years old now. South of Katella, toward Cerritos Avenue and the Los Alamitos line, it is the back patios that have tilted, floated level with the lawn and watered against the house for 60 years. Along Katella at the 605 end, the business park is the one part of the city with no 1960s slab on it.
Cypress is level, and level is the ground problem here rather than clay or slope. The plain was pasture and the top foot is dark and soft with what the dairies left in it, but under that is sandy loam that compacts well once it is exposed. So the base goes on stripped ground, not on the lawn, and because nothing on the lot falls anywhere on its own, every slab is poured with its fall built in and a drain at the low corner, so a storm leaves by the side yard.
Four stages, one crew, and the figure written at your house. In Cypress the estimate usually covers the drive, the walk and the patio together, so the first stage measures the lot rather than one slab.
Curtis Ballard measures every slab on the lot, checks where each one drains, and writes one figure for all of them at your table.
The drive, walk and patio come out in one day and are hauled through the front, and the stripped ground is compacted.
Four inches of Class 2 base is plate-compacted, forms are set to the fall, and the Public Works permit covers the curb.
Poured in one morning, joints cut that afternoon, feet after 24 hours and the car back on the drive after 7 days.
Call or send the form and we will ring back within 1 business day to book the visit. We drive out Katella, measure every slab you want done, and write one figure at your house before we leave, and it costs nothing.
Reviews
Reviews left on Google and Facebook by homeowners across the towns we cover, Cypress among them. The slabs behind them replaced the builder's originals on base with steel, 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 Cypress ask before booking, from whether to do the whole lot at once, to which office takes the permit, why the old patio drains toward the house, and how long the drive is out of use.
Usually, yes, if all of it is the builder's. The break-out crew, the haul, the base delivery and the mixer are booked once instead of 3 times, and the drive is already out for the walk and the patio to follow it. If the garage floor is sound it stays. The figure moves with the total area and the thickness at the apron, and it is written at your house with every slab measured, whichever ones you decide to include.
From the Building Division at Cypress City Hall on Orange Avenue, when the job needs one. A drive, walk or patio at grade on your own lot does not. A wall over 4 feet, a footing under a patio cover, and an interior slab for a conversion do. The approach at the curb and the public walk in front of the house are an encroachment permit through Public Works, and we pull that one for every drive we replace.
Because it was floated level and the ground under it has moved. The builder's patio was poured flat with the lawn, and 60 years of watering the lawn against its outer edge softened the ground there, so the outer edge sank and the slab now tilts to the door. The fix is not a topping. It comes out, the soft ground is replaced with compacted base, and the new slab is poured with a quarter inch a foot of fall.
About 30 minutes along Katella Avenue, which runs from a few blocks north of our yard straight into Cypress without a turn, or a little less on the 22 to Valley View Street when it is moving. Cypress is 14 miles west, at the far side of the patch we cover, so we run jobs there with La Palma and Los Alamitos in the same week. When you call we ring back within 1 business day to book the visit.
Ten days, the same as a drive on its own. The whole lot comes out on day one, base and forms go in on day two, and it is all poured on the third morning, so doing the walk and the patio with the drive adds no days to the drive. Feet are on every slab after 24 hours and the car is back on the drive after 7 days. You park on the street for the week, and a plank across the walk keeps the front door reachable.
Yes, and Buena Park and Stanton, all from the yard in Orange along the same road. The houses in La Palma and Los Alamitos are the same era as Cypress and fail the same way, so a Cypress week usually has a job in one of them. Each town has a page of its own because the permit office and the ground change at the line, and if your street is on the Los Alamitos side, that page names the office you need.
Cypress shares lines with La Palma, Buena Park, Stanton and Los Alamitos, and we cover all four from the same yard in Orange. Each has a page of its own, because the age of the houses and the permit office change at the line, even when the street does not.
Open the Orange Office in Google Maps Send the form, we ring back within 1 business day, and the figure is written at your house. The finished work carries a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built.