Harbor Fullerton Concrete pours driveways, patios, walks and footings in Whittier, where the house is often a century old and the concrete round it on its second life. Free written estimates.
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In most of Whittier the house came first and the concrete was added to it, so a new slab has to meet a raised foundation, a porch step and a parkway tree that were all there before it was.
The streets around Greenleaf Avenue and Whittier College went up between the 1900s and the 1930s on raised foundations, and the first concrete on those lots was a pair of ribbon strips to the garage and a walk to the porch. East Whittier and Michigan Park filled in through the 1940s and 1950s over the old groves, with one drive and no patio. Under both is the sand the San Gabriel River spread across the flats, and it carries a slab well. What fails is the old concrete, not the ground.
So we start at the house and work outward. Where a slab meets a raised foundation it stops at an isolation joint packed with felt, so the slab and the house move separately in a shake, and the step at the door is rebuilt to the height the threshold already has. Where a walk meets a parkway tree the roots are cut back where small and bridged with steel where not. The new work is 4 inches on compacted base, 5 under a drive, jointed every 10 feet, more than what it replaces.
Whittier was laid out by Quakers in 1887 and Uptown still has the bungalows to show for it, so the work here replaces something that has lasted 60 or 90 years. A ribbon drive, a lifted walk, a garage slab 3 inches thin, a footing under a porch.
Half the drives in Uptown Whittier are still a pair of 1920s ribbon strips, and the rest are 1950s pours with no joints. We take either out, cut the roots back from the parkway tree, and pour a full 5 inch drive on 4 inches of compacted base, jointed every 10 feet.
A Whittier patio meets a raised foundation more often than a slab, so it stops at an isolation joint and the step to the door is rebuilt to the old threshold. We pour 4 inches on base with the fall away from the crawl space vents, so the patio does not drain under the house.
On the bungalow streets a stamped patio is asked for in brick or flagstone rather than slate, to sit with the house. We stamp into a 4 inch slab with a plain border, color it to the porch rather than the trim, and seal it twice. A listed house takes the drawing to Planning.
Whittier's street trees lift the public walk and the front path on nearly every block, and the walk is replaced under a city permit we file. We cut the small roots, bridge the large ones with steel, dowel the new panel into the old so the joint stays flush, and match the broom.
A detached Whittier garage from the 1920s or 1940s has a slab 3 inches thin and cracked into pieces, and it is replaced rather than coated. We pour 4 inches over a 10 mil barrier on compacted base, trowel it flat, and where the garage is becoming a room, level it to the house.
Exposed aggregate suits the 1950s streets of East Whittier, where the ranch houses were built with it and a plain gray patio looks like a repair. We match the stone size to what is on the lot, wash it out to the same depth, and seal it, so the new panel reads as the house's own.
In Friendly Hills and on the streets climbing north of Uptown the lots step, and a wall holds the yard. Under 4 feet we build on a footing dug 18 inches into firm ground, gravel and a pipe behind it, with no engineer needed. Over 4 feet the wall is engineered and plan checked.
A Whittier garage turned into an ADU, or a room added behind a bungalow, needs an interior slab the old lot never had. We lay a vapor barrier on compacted base, pour it level to the existing floor, float it for tile or polish, and saw the joints to suit the room.
From Fullerton a crew takes Harbor Boulevard north into La Habra and Whittier Boulevard west from there, and is in Uptown in about 25 minutes. Whittier is a city in Los Angeles County with its own building office, so permits go to the City of Whittier Building Division at City Hall on Penn Street, not to the county. Flatwork at grade needs none. A footing, a wall over 4 feet and work on the public walk or the approach do, and we file and meet the inspector.
Uptown's older streets carry a historic designation, and visible work on a listed house goes through Planning before the building division sees it, which adds a few weeks to a front walk and nothing to a back patio. The city's street trees are the other thing to know. They were planted with the streets, some over a century ago, and they lift the public walk and the first panel of nearly every drive, so a job here almost always begins with a root.
The Whittier Narrows earthquake of 1987 cracked chimneys and unreinforced walls across Uptown, and it is why we get asked about foundations here more than anywhere else we work. Flatwork is not tied to the house, by design. A footing under a porch or a room addition is, and it goes 18 inches into firm ground with the steel and the anchor bolts the plan check asks for. Friendly Hills and the streets north of Uptown climb into the Puente Hills, where a wall holds the yard.
The house sets the levels, the trees set the joints and the city sets the paperwork, in that order. A Whittier job is measured against all three before the figure is written, and most are 2 or 3 days on site after that.
Grant Yoshida takes the threshold height, the foundation line and the roots within 10 feet, measures the drive or patio and writes the figure.
The ribbon strips or the thin slab come out, roots are cut back or bridged, and 4 inches of Class 2 base is placed and plate-compacted.
Nothing at grade needs paperwork. A footing, a wall or the curb approach is filed by us at City Hall on Penn Street, Planning first if listed.
Most Whittier jobs are 2 or 3 days on site. Joints are sawn the same day, the slab takes feet at 24 hours and a car at 7 days, the step last.
Call or send the form and Grant Yoshida rings back within 1 business day to fix the visit. Measuring is free, the figure is written before he leaves the porch, and Whittier Boulevard is a run we make most weeks.
Reviews
Google and Facebook hold our reviews, from homeowners in the towns we cover out of Fullerton. The Whittier ones are about the replaced drives and the porch footings this page describes.
“Our drive had dropped at the apron and split right across. Grant dug a hole before he wrote anything and showed me the clay sitting eight inches down. They took out 740 square feet, cut that clay back and poured five inches. He was here at half six on pour day.”
“The bank behind our garden had been creeping toward the house for years. They set a 34 foot wall four feet high, drained the back of it properly and got the encroachment paperwork through Engineering themselves. Two wet winters later and nothing has moved an inch.”
“Our 1958 garage floor was powdering every time the car came in and it was damp along the back wall. Out it came, a sheet went down over the base, and 420 square feet went back at five inches. It has stayed dry through two winters and I hose it off.”
What we are asked at the door in Whittier, on cost, on the city and its historic streets, on the drive from Fullerton, on the old house and the 1987 earthquake, on timing and on the towns around.
The old concrete, first. Breaking out a pair of ribbon strips is quick, but a 1950s drive poured 6 inches thick with no joints is a day with a breaker before anything new goes in. Then the roots, because every one we bridge adds steel and thickness to that panel. Then the fit to the house, since a step rebuilt to an old threshold is form work a tract job never has. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
Not for a drive, a patio or a walk at grade on your own lot. You do for a footing, a retaining wall over 4 feet, and any work on the public walk or the approach at the curb, issued by the City of Whittier Building Division at City Hall on Penn Street. Whittier is its own city inside Los Angeles County, so the county has no part in it. A listed house in Uptown goes to Planning first for anything visible.
About 8 miles, and 25 minutes along Harbor Boulevard and Whittier Boulevard with no freeway to sit on. You hear back within 1 business day, the visit goes into that week, and the same crew returns each day until the job is done. Whittier is close enough that we do not lose a day to the drive.
It changes the footings, not the flatwork. A patio or a drive is never tied to a raised foundation. It stops at an isolation joint so the house and the slab move on their own in a shake, which is what the California Residential Code expects. A footing under a porch or an addition is the other case, built to the plan check, 18 inches into firm ground with the steel and the anchor bolts drawn.
About 10 days. The old drive comes out in a day, sometimes two if it is a thick unjointed pour, the base goes in the next, and the pour is one morning. Walk on it the day after, drive on it a week after that. Uptown streets have parking for the days between, and on the narrower ones we time the approach so the curb is open for a single day.
La Habra and La Habra Heights to the east, on the road we drive in on, La Mirada and Santa Fe Springs to the south, and West Whittier-Los Nietos on the west, which is county ground and has its own page for that reason. We do not cover Pico Rivera or Hacienda Heights. A lot on the Whittier side of any of those lines is ours.
Whittier sits at the west end of our run, with La Habra and La Habra Heights between it and Fullerton, La Mirada and Santa Fe Springs to the south, and West Whittier-Los Nietos across the city line. Each has a page written for its own streets.
Open the Fullerton Office in Google Maps Send the form and we ring back within 1 business day. The figure is written at your door, and the work carries a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built.