Plaza Orange Concrete pours drives, decks, footings and foundations in Newport Beach, down the 55 from Orange, built for sand or terrace. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
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Newport Beach is two grounds. The Peninsula, Balboa Island and Lido Isle sit on sand and fill a few feet above the tide, while Newport Heights, Corona del Mar and Eastbluff sit on the terrace above.
On the sand side, a hole dug for a footing meets water before it meets firm ground, so footings are wide and shallow on compacted base rather than deep and narrow. Sand drains well but holds no shape, which is why an apron on Balboa Island poured straight onto it settles at its edge within a few winters. Salt air reaches steel through any crack, so the cover over the bars is deeper here than inland. On the terrace the ground is firm marine sediment, except at the bluff edges, which move.
So we ask two questions on every Newport Beach visit before we ask about finish. Which ground is the lot on, and is it inside the coastal zone. The first decides the base, the steel cover and the depth of the footing. The second decides whether the job is a building permit alone or a coastal review as well, since most of the city west of the bay and along the bluffs is inside the zone the city administers under its Local Coastal Program. Both answers are written into the estimate.
Newport Beach houses are rebuilt more often than they are repaired, so the concrete here is often new construction on an old lot. A footing, a slab, a drive and a walk go in together, and on the sand side a few feet above the water table.
A Newport Beach driveway on the Peninsula or Balboa Island is short, opens onto an alley, and is often poured with the house. We compact the sand base in lifts, run steel with 2 inches of cover on the sea side of the slab, and broom it lightly so it does not glare.
Patios in Newport Heights and Dover Shores sit on the terrace, on firm marine deposits that hold a slab well. Along the bay front they sit on fill and sand. There we set 4 inches of compacted base and dowel the slab to the house so it does not drop away from the door.
Stamped concrete in Newport Beach is usually a courtyard or a pool surround, patterned to match the stone on the house. We cast the pattern into a 4 inch slab, color it in the mix rather than on top, and seal it for salt air, since a surface color here fades in two summers.
A front walk in Corona del Mar or Eastbluff crosses the parkway to a city walk, and the panel where the two meet is the one that cracks. We dowel the new walk into the public panel, grade it to the street, and file the encroachment permit for the part past the lot line.
Garage slabs on the Peninsula are poured close to the water table, so the ones that fail are damp rather than cracked. We take out the slab, lay clean rock and a 15 mil vapor barrier, pour 4 inches with steel, and leave a surface a coating will bond to rather than lift off.
Exposed aggregate and sand finishes are asked for in Newport Beach because they read as beach rather than driveway, and they hide the salt bloom a smooth gray slab shows within a year. We wash the surface to a pale stone, band the edges smooth, and seal it against chlorides.
Retaining walls come up on the bluff edges of Newport Heights, Cliff Haven and Corona del Mar, where a lot steps toward the bay. A wall on a bluff lot needs an engineer's design and a geotechnical letter, and often a coastal review. We build to the drawing and drain the stem.
Interior slabs go in with the rebuilds along the Peninsula and Lido Isle, where a whole house is replaced on a 30 foot lot. We pour over a vapor barrier and clean rock, since the ground is wet a few feet down, and trowel the slab flat enough for stone or a polish straight on it.
We come down the 55 from Orange until it becomes Newport Boulevard and carries us onto the Peninsula, about 15 miles. For Corona del Mar and Newport Coast we take the 73 to MacArthur Boulevard. Building permits come from the Community Development Department at the Civic Center on Civic Center Drive, and for a lot in the coastal zone the same department reviews the job under the city's Local Coastal Program. Repair in kind is often exempt and a new drive on a bluff is not.
The Peninsula and Balboa Island are built on 30 foot lots that back onto alleys, so a mixer does not reach the work. Concrete is pumped from the alley or the street, and the pour is planned around the pump's reach and the neighbors' parking. Lido Isle is the same. On the terrace, Newport Heights and Dover Shores have driveways a truck can chute into, and the job is a day shorter for it. Newport Coast adds an association review of color and finish before the city sees the plan.
Weather runs on a coastal clock here. The marine layer keeps a slab cool and damp through a summer morning, which is good for the cure and bad for the finish, so we time the broom to the burn-off rather than to the hour. Winter swell and a king tide raise the water table on the sand side, and a footing dug that week fills, so we watch the tide tables when we book a Peninsula job. Every slab we pour in Newport Beach gets a penetrating sealer before we leave.
The ground, the zone and the access are settled at the visit and written into one figure, so the counter and the pump are booked before the first truck is ordered and the number does not change after.
Curtis Ballard probes the ground, checks the parcel against the coastal zone map, measures the pump reach from the alley, writes the estimate.
We file with Community Development at the Civic Center, add the coastal review where the lot needs it, and meet the inspector ourselves.
Sand is compacted in lifts, base goes down, a vapor barrier and deeper-cover steel follow on the sea side. The forms are checked for fall.
The pour is pumped where a truck cannot reach, finished on the marine layer's clock, and sealed. Walk on it after a day, park after a week.
Call or send the form and we will reply within 1 business day with a time. The visit settles which ground your lot is on and which permit it needs, and the figure is written there and does not move.
Reviews
Google and Facebook reviews from homeowners across the towns we cover from Orange, Newport Beach among them. The sand-side and terrace jobs described above are the work they describe.
“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 owners on both sides of the bay ask before a pour, covering what moves the estimate here, the coastal permit, the water table on the sand, salt and steel, timing and the towns we reach from the same yard.
Whether the truck can reach the work. On the Peninsula, Balboa Island and Lido Isle it cannot, so the concrete is pumped, and the pump and the extra crew hours are the largest single difference between a job there and the same slab in Newport Heights. After that it is the ground, since sand needs a vapor barrier and deeper steel cover that a terrace does not. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
Sometimes, and the parcel decides. Most of the city west of the bay and along the bluffs is in the coastal zone, which the city administers under its Local Coastal Program through the Community Development Department. Replacing a drive in kind is usually exempt. A new drive, a wall on a bluff lot or anything that changes drainage toward the bay is reviewed. We check the parcel and file what it needs.
A few feet down, and higher on a king tide. That is why footings on the Peninsula and the islands are wide and shallow rather than deep, why garage slabs there are poured over a capillary break and a vapor barrier, and why we book those jobs around the tide tables in winter. A footing dug on the wrong week fills with water before the steel goes in. On the terrace above the bay none of this applies.
Not if the steel is buried deep enough. Chlorides travel through concrete slowly, so the defense is cover. We set the bars with 2 inches of concrete over them on the sea side rather than the inch and a half used inland, use a denser mix with less water in it, and seal the surface. Where a slab has already spalled from rusting bars, the steel is too shallow to save, and the slab comes out.
Most flatwork runs 3 days on site, a day more than inland because of the pump and the tighter lots. A driveway or a deck is walkable after 24 hours and takes a car after 7 days. A footing or a slab for a rebuild is scheduled with the framer, and the inspection is booked before the pour rather than after it, so the framer is not waiting on us.
Yes, both are Newport Beach and we cover the whole city. Corona del Mar is terrace ground with bluff edges, Newport Coast is the hills annexed to the city, with association review over finish on top of the city's own. Both are reached down the 73 rather than the 55. Beyond the city line we cover Lake Forest and Laguna Woods from the same yard, and Costa Mesa and Irvine are not on our list.
Newport Beach is the one beach city we cover, and its neighbors inland are a different ground altogether. Tustin, Fountain Valley, Lake Forest and Laguna Woods are reached from the same yard in Orange, and the page for each carries its own conditions.
Open the Orange Office in Google Maps Send the form and we will reply within 1 business day to set the visit. The estimate is written on your lot at no charge, and the finished work carries a written guarantee.