Plaza Orange Concrete pours barn slabs, pool decks and drives across the acre lots of La Habra Heights, up from Orange. Every estimate is measured and written on site, and the walk is free.
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On an acre the slab is rarely where the truck can reach. A pad 200 feet from the road, behind the house and above a grove, is placed by pump, and the pump is chosen before anything else.
A mixer weighs about 30 tons loaded and does not leave the road on a private drive that climbs, so the concrete is pushed to the slab. A boom pump at the gate reaches a little over 100 feet and lifts the line over the house, and past that a line pump pushes through 3 inch hose laid across the lot. The hose sets the day, because a run that long takes a wetter mix, a longer pour and a crew at both ends, and it is why a job here is quoted on a walk of the route from the road to the forms.
So Curtis Ballard walks the route on the first visit, from where a pump can park to where the slab will lie, and the method is written on the estimate with the figure. The pad itself is built the same way on every part of the acre. Firm ground is found under the topsoil, 4 inches of base is compacted on it, and the slab is poured 4 inches thick with steel on an 18 inch grid, or 5 inches where a horse trailer or a tractor will stand on it, and broomed coarse where hooves will.
A lot in La Habra Heights is an acre by law, and the house takes a corner of it. The concrete we are asked for is the rest, the barn floor, the pool at the far fence, the turnaround, the terrace wall, and how it gets there is the job.
A drive in La Habra Heights is the road to the house, and its first job is to carry the pump truck and the hay delivery, not just a car. We pour it 5 inches thick on compacted base with steel in it, build a turnaround at the top, and cut a swale where the hill's water crosses.
A patio in the Heights is placed for the view, at the edge of the pad above the grove, and it is poured last, after the pool and the walls, so the pump runs are planned once. We cut to firm shale, lay 4 inches of base, and pour 4 inches pitched so runoff goes around it.
Stamped concrete here is asked for around the pool at the far end of the acre, in a stone pattern that sits with the hill rather than against it. We pump the pour to the forms, stamp a 4 inch slab with a broomed band at the water's edge for wet feet, and seal it once cured.
A walk in La Habra Heights joins the house to the barn, the pool and the gate, and it can run 100 feet with a grade in it. We pour it in 4 foot wide panels, 4 inches thick, stepping where the ground steps, and broom it coarse for the walk back from the paddock in the wet.
Garage floors in the Heights carry a tractor and a trailer as often as a car, and the old ones were poured for a car. We break out a cracked floor, lay base, and pour 5 inches with steel through it, pitched to the door, so the weight of a loaded trailer no longer cracks a corner.
Exposed aggregate on an acre goes on the turnaround and the path to the barn, where a smooth slab would be slick under a hoof or a wet boot and a stamped one would read as ornament. We seed a local pebble into the pour, wash it proud the same afternoon, and seal it once cured.
Retaining walls here are poured, not stacked, because a wall holding a paddock or a pool pad carries the ground above and the water in it. We pump the pour to the footing and stem, drain the back with gravel and pipe to daylight, and permit it where it stands over 4 feet.
Interior slabs in the Heights are the barn's tack room, the workshop and the guest house, and each is poured where a truck cannot go. We pump the concrete to the forms, pour over a vapor barrier on compacted base, trowel the floor flat, and joint it on a grid the walls will hide.
From our yard on North Tustin Street the drive is the 57 to Imperial Highway, west into La Habra, and up Hacienda Road into the hills, about 17 miles and a little under 40 minutes at 6 in the morning. The city incorporated in 1978 to keep its one acre lots, and it issues its own permits at City Hall on Hacienda Road, where a slab is a small matter and a wall, a cut into a slope or a new pad for a building is a grading question, with the county fire department reviewing the access.
The city runs along the ridge between La Habra below and Whittier and Hacienda Heights beyond, and its roads, Hacienda Road, West Road, East Road and Skyline Drive, follow the contours rather than a grid. Off them run private drives to houses that sit back on their acre with a barn, a paddock or a pool behind, and the Hacienda Golf Club takes up a canyon of its own. Horses are kept here as a matter of course, which is why so much of our work is a floor for an animal.
The ground is the Puente Hills, and the topsoil is deeper on the old grove terraces than on the ridges, so the depth to firm ground is probed at every pad rather than assumed from the last one. Water on an acre runs across the surface, since there is no curb or storm drain to take it, and a slab is set so runoff passes around it and on down the hill. The dry months set the rules. A saw runs wet, a fuel can stays on the drive, and a pour in brush is booked for a still morning.
Four stages, with the route from the road decided at the first, because on an acre the way the concrete travels sets the price and the day as surely as the size of the slab does.
Curtis Ballard walks from the road to the pad, measures the slab, notes where a pump can park, and writes the figure on site.
The pad is cut to firm ground, the spoil kept on the lot, and 4 inches of base is compacted, with the fall set to carry water past.
We file with the City of La Habra Heights at City Hall on Hacienda Road, and a new building pad is reviewed for fire access as well.
The pump is set at the gate or the hose laid up the drive, the slab is poured and cut in a day, and hooves and wheels wait 7 days.
Call or send the form and we ring back within 1 business day to book a morning. The walk from the road to the pad and the written figure cost nothing, and we are up in the Heights most weeks.
Reviews
Our reviews, on Google and Facebook, from homeowners across the towns we cover from Orange. La Habra Heights is one of them, and the pads and walls they describe are the work set out 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.”
What an owner in La Habra Heights asks before booking, on what a long pump run adds, who signs the permit, how far Orange is, what is under the topsoil, how long a barn floor takes and which towns we cover.
The hose. A boom at the gate reaches a little over 100 feet, and past that the concrete travels by line pump through hose laid across the acre, which means a second machine, a longer pour and a crew at each end. The slab itself is priced by area and thickness as anywhere. Every estimate is measured and written on site, after the route from the road has been walked, so the pump is in the figure and not a surprise.
A slab on its own does not, but a slab with a building on it does, and so does a wall over 4 feet or a cut into a slope. Those go to the City of La Habra Heights at City Hall on Hacienda Road, and a new building on the acre is looked at for fire access as well, because the county fire department has to be able to reach it. We prepare the drawing and file it, and you visit no counter.
About 17 miles, and the last 3 are the slow ones. The 57 takes us to Imperial Highway, the highway takes us into La Habra, and Hacienda Road climbs into the Heights on a road that follows the hill, so a crew leaves at 6 and is at your gate around 7. Concrete comes from the plant nearest you, ordered for a time that gives the driver a clear run up the road before it is busy.
Deeper on an old grove terrace than on a ridge, and we probe rather than assume. The hills are weathered shale, and where a terrace was cut and planted decades ago the topsoil over it can be 2 feet of loose material that has never carried a load. A pad is cut through that to the firm shale, base is compacted on it, and the spoil is kept on the lot, because on an acre there is always somewhere to put it.
Two days on site and a week before the horses. The cut and the base are the first day, the pour the second, with the joints sawn that afternoon and the surface broomed coarse for hooves. A stable floor is pitched to a drain and left 7 days before an animal stands on it, because a hoof on a young slab leaves a mark, and the wash rack is coated only after a full month of cure.
La Habra at the foot of Hacienda Road, Brea to the east along Imperial Highway, and La Mirada beyond La Habra, all from the same yard in Orange. Whittier and Hacienda Heights on the county side of the ridge are not on our list, so a lot that sits on the city line is worth a call before a visit is booked.
La Habra Heights sits above La Habra, with Brea to the east and La Mirada to the southwest, and we cover all three from the same yard as the Heights. A lot at the bottom of Hacienda Road can be either city, so the page next door may be the one you need.
Open the Orange Office in Google Maps Send the form and we call back within 1 business day to book the walk and the measure. The figure is free and written on site, and the work carries a written guarantee.