Plaza Orange Concrete pours patios, pool decks and drives in La Palma, along the 91 from Orange. The city is flat, so the slab sends the water. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
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La Palma is flat. The city sits on the old floodplain of Coyote Creek, laid out on pasture in the 1960s, so water goes nowhere on its own and a slab here has to be built to send it somewhere.
The tract grader gave each lot a slight fall to the street when the houses went up, and 50 years of lawn, planters and side yard paving have filled that in. A patio then poured level to meet the sliding door, on a lot walled in block on three sides, has nowhere to send the rain. It stands at the sill, rots the frame, and works under the slab edge until the corner drops. A pool deck poured the same way sends its splash back into the coping, where it sits until it lifts the tile.
So every slab we pour in La Palma has a fall, a quarter inch to the foot away from the house, and a place for the water to go at the low edge. Where the side gate falls to the street, the slab is graded to it. Where the walls close the yard in, a channel drain is set into the low edge and piped out through the side yard, or on the flattest lots cored through the curb under the city's permit. The base is compacted to the same fall, so the slab is not graded on top only.
La Palma is 1.8 square miles of former dairy pasture with no rise across it you can see, so nothing on a lot drains by itself. The patios, pool decks and drives we pour here are built first for where the water goes, and then for how they look.
A driveway in La Palma is the one slab on the lot that the grader's fall still reaches, so it is poured to run to the gutter. We take out the drive and the apron together, compact 4 inches of base to the same fall, and pour 4 inches with steel through it under the city's permit.
Patios are the job we do most in La Palma, because the yard is walled in block on three sides and the builder's slab at the door was poured level. We pour 4 inches on base with a quarter inch of fall to the foot, set a channel drain at the low edge, and pipe it out the side yard.
Stamped concrete in La Palma is asked for on pool decks and patios, and a stamp holds water in its texture if the slab under it is flat. We cast the pattern into a 4 inch slab poured to a fall, run the grout lines with the slope, and seal it in 2 coats so pool water beads off.
A walk in La Palma runs down the side yard, and it is the drainage path for the whole back yard whether built as one or not. We pour it in short panels with a fall toward the street, keep the surface below the door sills, and leave a drain slot where the gate meets the drive.
Garage floors in La Palma date from the 1960s and 70s and were poured level with the drive, so water from a washed car runs in rather than out. We break out the old floor, lay 4 inches of base, and pour a new 4 inch slab pitched to the door and troweled flat enough to coat.
Exposed aggregate suits a La Palma pool deck because it grips wet feet and hides the calcium a pool leaves, and it drains like any finish if the slab has a fall. We wash the stone proud the same afternoon, keep the border smooth for the coping, and seal it once cured.
Retaining walls in La Palma are short, since nothing on the floodplain needs holding back, and what they mostly do is raise a bed or a level pad above a yard that ponds. We footing them below the topsoil, drain behind the stem so the bed is not a second tray, and cap them level.
Interior slabs in La Palma go under the garage conversion and the backyard unit a small lot has room for, and a floor someone lives on must not draw water from a yard that ponds. We pour over a vapor barrier on base set above the outside grade, and cut the joints under the walls.
We come to La Palma on the 91 from the 57 interchange and leave it at Valley View Street, about 25 minutes from our yard in Orange. The freeway is the north edge of the city, so no job here is more than a few minutes from the ramp. Permits come from the Community Development Department at City of La Palma City Hall on Walker Street, and work in the drive approach, the parkway or a drain out through the curb needs an encroachment permit from Public Works as well.
The tracts between Walker Street and Valley View Street, from the 91 south to Crescent Avenue, are the whole city, two story houses of the 1960s and 70s with a pool in the yard on many blocks. Central Park and Kennedy High School sit on Walker Street in the middle of it. The lots are small, over 3,400 people to the square mile, and the side yard is the drainage path for the whole back yard. Where those side yards have been paved level, the back patio is the first thing to flood.
Coyote Creek is the channel on the city's west edge and the county line with Cerritos, and everything in La Palma drains to it through the street gutters. That is the only route the water has, so a lot has to reach its gutter and a slab has to reach its lot line. The lowest ground is the blocks nearest the channel, where the fall to the street is least and a drain line does the most. We measure a yard the morning after rain since a puddle shows what a level cannot.
Four stages, one crew and one figure written at the door. In La Palma the stage that matters is the first, because where the water leaves the yard is decided before the base goes in and cannot be changed after the pour.
Curtis Ballard measures the slab, runs a hose to see where the yard drains today, and writes the figure at the door before he leaves.
We file with the Community Development Department for the lot and with Public Works for any drain through the curb or work in the approach.
Old concrete and soft ground come out, the subgrade is cut to the fall, and 4 inches of base is compacted on the same slope, drain set in it.
The pour takes a morning and the joints go in that day. Walk on it after 24 hours, park on it after 7 days, and run a hose to see it drain.
Call or send the form and we call back within 1 business day to set the visit. The measure and the written figure cost nothing, and if your patio or deck holds water after rain, say so and we will bring a hose and a level and show you where it goes.
Reviews
Our reviews are left on Google and Facebook by homeowners across central and north Orange County, La Palma among them, about the patios, decks and drives this page describes and how they drain.
“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 people in La Palma ask before booking, on what moves the estimate on a flat lot, the permits, the drive from Orange, why water stands on a patio, how long a pool deck is out, and the blocks by the creek.
The drain, more than the slab. Area and thickness are the same on every lot, but on a walled La Palma yard the water needs a channel drain and a pipe to the side yard or the curb, and that pipe is the line on the sheet that changes from one house to the next. Access is second, since a mixer cannot reach most back yards here and concrete is barrowed through the gate. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
Not for flatwork on your own lot at grade. A permit from the Community Development Department at City Hall on Walker Street is needed for a retaining wall over 4 feet, a footing under a patio cover and any slab a structure sits on, and an encroachment permit from Public Works for the drive approach, the parkway and a drain cored through the curb, since the curb is the city's. We file whichever the job needs.
About 25 minutes on the 91, and the freeway runs along the north edge of the city, so the ramp at Valley View Street is a few minutes from any street in La Palma. The mixer comes the same way with a full drum, which is why we pour here in the morning before the 91 fills, and why a La Palma job is set as a fixed day rather than a window that slips.
Because the patio is level and the yard is walled. A slab poured flat to meet the door, with a block wall on three sides, is a shallow tray, and the fall the grader gave the lot in the 1960s has long since been filled by lawn and planting. The fix is not a coating. It is a slab with a quarter inch of fall to the foot, a drain at the low edge and a pipe that leaves the yard, so the rain has one way out.
About 9 days, and the pool stays open for most of them. The old deck comes out and the base goes in over 2 days, the pour is a morning, and the deck needs 24 hours before anyone walks on it and 7 days before furniture goes back. We tent the water during the break out so the dust stays out of it, and the coping is set level to the water before the deck is poured to fall away from it.
Yes, in how far the water has to travel. The blocks nearest the Coyote Creek channel are the lowest in the city, and the fall from a back yard to the gutter is least there, so a patio drain on those streets is more often piped through the curb than to the side yard. The top of the ground is softer there too, and it is dug out and replaced with base. East of Walker Street the yards reach the street more easily.
La Palma touches Buena Park to the north and east and Cypress to the south, with Los Alamitos and Stanton a few minutes beyond, and each has a page here. Cerritos across the creek is in Los Angeles County and is not a town we reach.
Open the Orange Office in Google Maps Send the form and we call back within 1 business day. The figure is written on your lot, and the work carries a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built.