Plaza Orange Concrete replaces drives, pool decks and patios in Lake Forest, down the 5 from Orange. The year of your tract decides the job. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
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Lake Forest was built four times, and the year of the tract decides the job. El Toro in the 1960s, the lake tracts in the 1970s, Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills in the 1990s, Baker Ranch since 2013.
The El Toro tracts along El Toro Road and Jeronimo Road have drives of the 1960s, thin and unreinforced, cracked through and past patching. The lake tracts off Lake Forest Drive have the 1970s pool deck with the coping pulled from the slab and the deck fallen from the water line. Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills sit on pads cut and filled into the foothills in the 1990s, and their patios move where the cut meets the fill. Baker Ranch has yards the builder left bare, with a graded swale.
So the job is read off the tract. In El Toro the old drive comes out whole and a new slab goes down on base with steel in it. Around the lakes the deck and the coping are done together, the coping reset level to the water and the deck poured to fall away from it. In Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills the subgrade is probed for the fill line, soft material is replaced, and the slab is jointed across the change. In Baker Ranch the swale is kept and the association sees the drawing first.
Lake Forest was built in four pushes, El Toro in the 1960s, the lake tracts in the 1970s, Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills in the 1990s and Baker Ranch in the last decade, and the concrete in each is a different age with a different fault.
A driveway in Lake Forest is a 1960s El Toro slab past patching, or a 1970s lake tract drive that has carried cars for 50 years. We take out the drive and the apron whole, compact 4 inches of base, and pour 4 inches with number 3 steel through it, jointed on the street's lines.
Patios in Lake Forest depend on the tract. In El Toro and by the lakes they replace a builder's slab, in Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills they cross a cut and fill line found first, and in Baker Ranch they start from bare ground. Each is 4 inches on base.
Stamped concrete in Lake Forest is asked for on the 1990s hillside patios and the Baker Ranch yards, where the association reviews the pattern and the color as well as the plan. We draw it for the association first, cast the pattern into a 4 inch slab, and seal it in 2 coats.
Walks in Lake Forest lift under the eucalyptus in the older tracts, where the shallow roots run under a panel and tip it. We saw the lifted panel, cut the root where the city or the association allows, set a barrier, and pour the panel level with its neighbors.
A garage floor in Lake Forest is 1960s in El Toro and 1970s by the lakes, cracked at the door line and, in the hill tracts, dropped at the corner over the fill. We break it out, replace any soft material under it, lay 4 inches of base, and pour a new floor pitched to the door.
Exposed aggregate suits a Lake Forest pool deck because it grips wet feet and it is the finish many 1970s lake tract decks were built in, so a replacement matches its neighbors. We wash the stone proud the same afternoon, keep a smooth band at the coping, and seal it once cured.
Retaining walls in Lake Forest are a hill tract job, holding a Foothill Ranch or Portola Hills yard level where the pad falls away. We footing the wall into the cut side below the fill, drain behind the stem to a pipe that leaves the yard, and permit anything over 4 feet.
Interior slabs in Lake Forest go under the garage conversion in El Toro and the backyard unit a lake tract lot has room for, both floors someone lives on. We pour over a vapor barrier on compacted base, trowel the floor flat for tile or plank, and cut the joints under the walls.
We reach Lake Forest on the 5 south from the 55, leaving at Lake Forest Drive or El Toro Road, about 35 minutes from our yard in Orange, and the 241 toll road takes us on to Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills. Building permits come from the Building Division at the City of Lake Forest Civic Center on Civic Center Drive. The 1990s tracts and Baker Ranch each have a master association that reviews anything seen from the street, and we draw for it before the permit is pulled.
El Toro is the old town, the 1960s tracts either side of El Toro Road with Heritage Hill Historical Park at their edge, and the drives there are the oldest concrete in the city. The lake tracts around the two lakes off Lake Forest Drive are the 1970s, with pool yards and the association clubs on the water. Foothill Ranch sits against Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park below the 241, Portola Hills climbs above it, and Baker Ranch fills the ground between Bake Parkway and the toll road.
The forest in the name is real. Dwight Whiting planted the eucalyptus in the 1900s, and the groves still stand through the older tracts and along Serrano Creek, where their shallow roots lift walks and drives the way a parkway tree does. The two lakes are built, not natural, and their shores belong to the associations, so a deck on the water is drawn for them. Inland heat sets the summer calendar, with pours started early from June to September.
Four stages and one figure, written on the lot before a date is held. The tract decides the second stage, since a 1960s drive is a break out, a 1990s pad is a subgrade problem, and a Baker Ranch yard is a drawing for the association.
Curtis Ballard measures the slab, reads the tract's age off the street, probes the ground in the hill tracts, and writes the figure at the curb.
Where a master association reviews the yard we draw for it first, then take the permit at the Civic Center. Nothing for you to fetch.
The old slab is sawn and hauled, soft fill in the hill tracts is dug and replaced, and 4 inches of base is compacted to the fall.
The pour takes a morning and the joints are cut that day. Walk on it after 24 hours, park or set furniture on it after 7 days.
Call or send the form and we call back within 1 business day with a time for the visit. The measure and the written figure cost nothing, and if you can tell us the tract and the year, we arrive knowing what the job most likely is.
Reviews
Our reviews are left on Google and Facebook by homeowners across central Orange County and the towns south of it, Lake Forest among them, about the drives, decks and patios this page describes.
“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 Lake Forest ask before booking, on whether the tract changes the estimate, who approves the work, what is under a hillside pad, how long a pool deck is out, and a bare Baker Ranch yard.
Yes, through what has to come out. A 1960s drive in El Toro is a full break out and haul, and the haul is the biggest line. A 1970s pool deck by the lakes adds the coping. A 1990s patio in Foothill Ranch or Portola Hills may need the soft fill under it dug and replaced. A Baker Ranch yard has nothing to remove. Every estimate is measured and written on site, and each of those is a line you can read.
Both, depending on the tract and the job. Flatwork at grade in your own yard needs no city permit. A retaining wall over 4 feet, a footing under a cover and any slab a structure sits on take a permit from the Building Division at the Civic Center. In Foothill Ranch, Portola Hills, Baker Ranch and the lake communities the master association reviews anything seen from the street or the water, and we draw for it.
About 35 minutes on the 5 south, leaving at Lake Forest Drive or El Toro Road, and the 241 carries us on to the hill tracts. The mixer comes the same way, so Lake Forest pours are booked for the morning before the 5 fills at the El Toro Y, and a job here is planned as a fixed day rather than a window. The figure is written at the curb on the first visit.
A pad cut and filled into the foothill in the 1990s, firm where the grader cut into the hill and softer where it filled the downhill side, and the line between the two runs under most back yards. A patio poured across that line settles on the fill side. We probe for the line, dig out the soft material to firm ground, replace it with compacted base, and place a joint over the change.
About 9 days from break out to furniture, and the pool stays open for most of it. The old deck and the coping come out over 2 days, the coping is reset level to the water, the deck is poured on the third morning, and it takes foot traffic after 24 hours and furniture after 7 days. The water is tented during the sawing so the dust stays out, and the deck is poured to fall away from the coping.
Yes, and it is the easiest job in the city, since nothing comes out. Two things are kept. The graded swale the builder cut to carry the yard's water to the drain stays where it is, with the slab set to fall to it, and the drawing goes to the association before anything is poured, since the yard is seen from the neighbors. The slab is 4 inches on compacted base, jointed on a 10 foot grid.
Lake Forest meets Laguna Woods across El Toro Road, and Laguna Woods has its own page here, as does Tustin up the 5. Irvine, Mission Viejo, Laguna Hills and Rancho Santa Margarita border the city too, but they are not towns this site covers.
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.