Rio Hondo El Monte Concrete pours driveways, patios and garages in Montebello, downstream on the river we are named for. Every estimate is measured and written on site, and the visit is free.
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Montebello is half river and half hill. East of Montebello Boulevard the ground is Rio Hondo floodplain sand, and north of Beverly Boulevard it climbs into the Montebello Hills and their clay.
The floodplain is the easy half. Before the channel was built the Rio Hondo spread across it every few winters and left sand and fine gravel, so yards on the east side drain fast, compact well and hold a slab still. The hills are the western end of the Puente Hills, marine siltstone that weathers to a clay which swells wet and shrinks dry. A driveway poured straight onto that clay when the hillside tracts went in is the one we now replace, cracked where the ground rose and fell.
So we build to the ground and not to the postcode. On the river sand a slab is 4 inches on 4 inches of compacted base, with number 3 steel on an 18 inch grid and joints at 10 feet. On the hill clay the base goes to 6 inches, the slab to 5, and the subgrade is soaked and compacted before either goes down, so the clay has already swollen when the concrete meets it. A hillside driveway is also formed with a thickened edge on the downhill side, because that is where the ground moves first.
Montebello has been a city since 1920 and most of its houses are older than their owners, so the concrete around them has already failed once. What we replace here was poured for a lighter car and a smaller family, on ground that has moved.
A Montebello driveway from the 1920s was poured for one car and no steel, and the 1950s ones are not much thicker. We break the old slab out, widen the base to the line the household actually parks on, and pour 4 inches with steel through it and joints at 10 feet.
A patio in Montebello is usually a replacement for a slab the builder poured too thin at the back door. We take the old one out, lay 4 inches of compacted base, and pour a jointed 4 inch slab doweled to the house slab and graded away from the wall so winter rain leaves the yard.
Stamped concrete is asked for at the front of the 1920s bungalows, where a plain gray walk looks wrong against the porch. We stamp a slate or flagstone pattern into a 4 inch slab, color the mix in the body so wear never shows gray, and seal it in 2 coats renewed every few years.
Walks in Montebello lift where the parkway trees have grown under them, and the lifted panel at the curb is the city's, not yours. We replace the private walk to your door, and for the public panel we pull the encroachment permit and pour to the city's section so it passes once.
A garage floor in a 1950s Montebello tract was poured on bare dirt and has cracked into plates you can rock with a foot. We break it out, set a vapor barrier over compacted base and pour a new 4 inch slab jointed on a grid, flat and dry enough to take a coating when you want.
Exposed aggregate suits a Montebello front yard because it hides the dust that blows off the hills and reads well at close range from the porch. We pour 4 inches, wash the surface at the hour the mix allows so the pebble stands proud, and band the edge with a smooth border.
Retaining walls belong to the hillside streets, where a back yard on a cut and fill pad steps down to the fence behind. We foot the wall below the clay that swells, drain it with gravel and a pipe behind the stem, tie its steel into the footing, and file it with the city first.
Garage conversions and back-house additions are common in Montebello because the 1920s lots are deep and the households have grown. The interior slab is poured over a vapor barrier on compacted base, thickened at the edge to carry the walls, and finished flat enough for tile.
The river in our name runs from El Monte down through the Whittier Narrows and along the east edge of Montebello, and its channel is the city's line with Pico Rivera. We follow it. The 605 south to the Pomona Freeway and west to Montebello Boulevard is about 6 miles, or 20 minutes loaded, and Rosemead Boulevard through the Narrows to Beverly Boulevard is the back way when the freeway stops. That matters on a hot day, because a truck of concrete has a working life of about 90 minutes.
The oil field in the Montebello Hills was found in 1917, and the city was incorporated three years later on the flat below it. The housing dates from both. The blocks either side of Whittier Boulevard hold bungalows from the 1920s on lots laid out for one car, and the tracts between Beverly Boulevard and the river are the 1950s. The hillside streets around the Town Center went in last, on pads cut and filled out of the clay, and those are the yards that need the most under the slab.
A permit comes from the Building and Safety Division at Montebello City Hall on West Beverly Boulevard. Flatwork at grade in your own yard needs none. A retaining wall over 4 feet, a footing that carries a cover, and any apron or walk across the public right of way do, and the last is an encroachment permit from the engineering counter. The Whittier Narrows earthquake of 1987 was centered a few miles from here, and inspectors have read the ties on footings closely since.
Four stages, one crew and one written figure. The first stage is the visit, because whether your lot is river sand or hill clay decides the section, and a section chosen from a photograph is a guess we will not make.
Ismael Duarte tapes the area, probes the ground for clay, checks the fall to the street and writes the figure before he leaves.
Walls, footings and right of way work are filed with Building and Safety on Beverly Boulevard. Flatwork in your own yard is exempt.
The old slab is broken out and hauled, soft ground dug and replaced, base laid and compacted in lifts, steel tied at mid depth.
One morning to pour, joints cut the same day. Walk on it after 24 hours, park on it after 7 days, and the street is swept before we go.
Call or send the form and we call back within 1 business day with a time. The visit and the written figure are free, and a Montebello address is one of the closest we serve, so the date is usually inside the fortnight.
Reviews
The site's own reviews, left on Google and Facebook by homeowners across the towns we cover. Montebello is one of them, and the driveways and patios behind the words are the ones described above.
“Our drive had sunk where the water line went in years ago and you could feel it in the car. They dug the soft fill right out, rolled clean base into it and put 540 square feet down at four inches. Ismael was here at seven in the morning and the saw went over it before he went home.”
“A ficus outside our place on Ramona had lifted two panels and we were getting complaints about it. They sawed out on the joints, cut the roots back behind a barrier, laid seventy feet of new walk and took care of the encroachment permit themselves. Nobody catches a foot on it now.”
“We use the garage as a workshop and the old floor was cracked right across, with the edges crumbling away wherever you swept. It came out, a heavy sheet went down over the sand, and five inches of new floor went on top. A year of trolley jacks and there is not a mark on it.”
The questions that come before a booking in Montebello, from what the hills add to a figure to which counter at City Hall the permit comes from and how the ground here behaves in an earthquake.
Yes, because the ground under it is different. A slab on the hill clay takes 2 more inches of base, 1 more inch of concrete, a wetted and compacted subgrade and a thickened downhill edge, and each of those is material and hours a slab on the river sand does not need. The area of the slab still sets most of the figure, and after that comes access, since a hillside back yard is usually reached by barrow.
The Building and Safety Division at Montebello City Hall on West Beverly Boulevard, for anything with a footing or a wall over 4 feet. Work across the public walk or curb is an encroachment permit from the engineering counter in the same building. Flatwork at grade inside your own fence needs neither. We file what is needed the week we measure and meet the inspector at the footing, so you never queue.
Yes. Montebello is one of the nearest towns to our yard, about 6 miles down the 605 and the 60, so a single walk or a garage floor is worth the trip in a way it would not be from farther off. Small jobs are grouped by street so the crew and the mixer make one run, which is why a visit is booked within 1 business day but the pour date may be a week or two out. The figure is written on site the same as a large job.
A slab at grade rides an earthquake well, because it moves with the ground rather than against it. What cracks is a slab with no steel and no joints, since the panel has nowhere to move. Every driveway we pour here carries number 3 steel on an 18 inch grid and joints at 10 feet, and a footing is tied to its wall with vertical bars, which inspectors have looked for since the Whittier Narrows quake of 1987.
Two on site for most back yards, three where a barrow run through a side gate is the only way in. Day one is demolition, digging and base, day two is steel and the pour, and the joints are cut before we leave. Then the concrete needs 24 hours before it is walked on and 7 days before furniture with legs goes on it. On the hill clay a day is added at the front for wetting and compacting the subgrade.
Both. Montebello is on the west bank and Pico Rivera on the east, and we cover the two from the same yard upstream in El Monte. The bridges at Beverly Boulevard and Whittier Boulevard put a crew on either side in minutes. The ground is the same river sand on both banks close to the channel, so a driveway in Pico Rivera and one on the east side of Montebello take the same section. Only the permit office differs.
Montebello meets Pico Rivera across the river, Monterey Park over the hills to the west and South El Monte through the Narrows to the north, and we cover all of them from El Monte. If your street is on a line, the page for the town next door may fit.
Open the El Monte Office in Google Maps Send the form and we call back within 1 business day to book the measure. The figure is free, and the work carries a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built.