Rio Hondo El Monte Concrete pours driveways, patios, walks and garage floors in Vincent, 6 miles east along the 10 from our office. Every job is measured at the house before a date is set.
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Vincent sits a few miles below the mouth of San Gabriel Canyon, on the coarsest part of the river's fan. The stones under a lawn here are the size of a fist, the gravel the Irwindale pits quarry.
That cobble is the reason a Vincent slab is easier to keep than to build. Ground this coarse drains as fast as water reaches it and never swells, so an old drive here is rarely heaved from below. What it does is fight the tear-out. A footing trench hits stone at a spade's depth, an edge form has to be pinned through gravel that will not hold a stake, and a 1958 builder often poured a thin slab straight onto the stones with no base, which is why the wheel tracks have worn to bare stone.
We plan for the stone rather than fight it on the day. Tear-out is priced from a probe at the visit, because a 1950s slab with no base breaks up faster than one on gravel fill. The subgrade is graded and the largest stones raked out, then 4 inches of Class 2 base goes down and is plate-compacted so the slab sits on a plane, not on points. Forms are pinned with steel stakes driven through the cobble, and the slab is poured 4 inches thick with steel on a grid, 5 inches under a work truck.
Vincent is a tract of 1950s and 1960s houses that Covina and West Covina grew around and never annexed. Eight in ten are owned by the people living in them, so the work here is the first replacement of what the builder poured.
A Vincent drive from the 1950s was often poured thin straight onto the fan gravel, and the wheel tracks have worn through to bare stone. We break it out, lay 4 inches of compacted base so the new slab sits on a plane, and pour 4 inches thick with steel on a grid.
The back yards on the tract streets of Vincent are reached through a gate a barrow wide, so a patio here is placed by barrow or pump rather than chuted. We pour 4 inches on compacted base, joint it every 10 feet, and grade it with the fan's fall to the south so it drains itself.
Stamped concrete in Vincent is usually a front walk and porch landing meant to read as stone against a stucco 1960s house. We stamp a 4 inch slab in the pattern you pick, color it through the mix rather than on top, and seal it twice so the texture holds up to the summer sun.
The sidewalk outside a Vincent house sits in county road right-of-way, so replacing it needs a county permit and we apply for it. The walk from the sidewalk to your door is yours. We pour it in square panels on compacted base, broom finished so it is not slick after rain.
A 1950s garage floor in Vincent was poured on cobble with no barrier under it, so it draws damp and will not hold a coating or a floor. We pour a new slab on 4 inches of base over a 10 mil vapor barrier, troweled flat, which is what a conversion under the state ADU rules needs.
Exposed aggregate suits Vincent because the stone is already here. We seed the surface with rounded river gravel, wash the paste off before it sets so the stones stand proud, and saw the joints straight. It gives a walk or patio the grip of a broom finish without the look of one.
The fan under Vincent falls gently south, so a retaining wall here holds a step of a few feet at a lot line rather than a hillside. We foot it into the cobble below the topsoil, drain behind the stem, and take the county permit where the wall is taller than the code exempts.
An interior floor in Vincent is most often the slab for a garage turned into a room or a unit added behind the house. We pour it on a vapor barrier so it stays dry enough for tile or wood, trowel it flat, and dowel it into the existing foundation so the two stay level.
Your post says Covina, your street is maintained by the county, and your building permit comes from the Building and Safety Division of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, not from Covina City Hall. That surprises most owners in Vincent the first time they build a wall. We deal with the county on every unincorporated job we do, so the application is filed by us, and flatwork at grade on your own lot needs no permit at all.
The crew comes east on the 10 and leaves it at Azusa Avenue, which puts a truck on Vincent Avenue about twenty minutes after it leaves our yard. The streets between Azusa Avenue and the Covina line were laid out in one push, so lots are alike, the drive runs straight to a single garage, and the side yard is a gate's width. Where a mixer cannot reach the back of a lot the concrete goes through the gate by barrow, and that decides how a patio pour is crewed and timed here.
The fan slopes south toward the 10, so a Vincent yard has a natural fall and a slab graded with it drains without a drain. The water table sits far below, which is why the Santa Fe Dam basin to the north-west can be left to soak into the same gravel. The summer heat is the other constant. From June to September a slab poured after 10 in the morning sets before it can be finished, so the pump or the truck is booked for first light.
The site is probed and measured, the figure is written there, then the work is one crew from break-out to sealer. A county permit, where one is needed, is in hand before the first cut.
Ismael Duarte measures the slab, probes the cobble under it to see how the old concrete will break, and checks the gate width for a barrow.
A wall or a footing goes to Los Angeles County Building and Safety and we meet the inspector. A drive or patio at grade needs no permit.
The old slab is broken and hauled, the largest stones raked out of the subgrade, and 4 inches of base laid and compacted to a level plane.
Poured early to beat the heat, jointed the same day, walkable after 24 hours and carrying a car after 7 days. The gate is left as we found it.
Call or use the form and we ring back within 1 business day with a time. Every estimate is measured and written on site, so what you are quoted was measured at your house, not guessed from a map.
Reviews
Reviews left on Google, Facebook and the BBB by homeowners in the towns we cover. Vincent is one of them, and the work described on this page is the work those reviews are about.
“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.”
Six things owners in Vincent want settled before they book, from which office issues the permit to how the cobble under the lawn changes the job and how long the drive is closed.
No. Vincent is unincorporated, so a permit is issued by the Building and Safety Division of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, whatever the mailing address says. A retaining wall above the code's exempt height, a footing under a patio cover and any work in the county road right-of-way need one. A drive, a patio or a garage floor at grade on your own lot does not, and we file whichever applies.
How the old slab was built, then the width and the depth. A 1950s Vincent drive poured straight onto cobble without base breaks out fast and cheaply, while one on gravel fill takes a saw and more crew hours. A drive widened to two cars adds base and steel in proportion. Every figure is written at the house after a probe, because two drives on the same street can be built two different ways.
About twenty minutes. Our office is 6 miles west, the route is the 10 to Azusa Avenue, and the mixer follows the same road. Ring and we call back within 1 business day to fix the visit, and because the drive is short a Vincent job is often measured the day after the call.
Because the San Gabriel River put it there. Vincent lies on the upper fan of the river, close to where it leaves the mountains at Azusa, and the stones it dropped are largest nearest the canyon. That cobble drains fast and never heaves a slab, which is good news for the finished concrete, but it means excavation for a footing or a wall is slower here than on the finer sand nearer El Monte.
A little over a week. Break-out and base take a day, the pour is done by mid-morning, and the concrete carries a car after 7 days. Foot traffic is fine after 24 hours. Most Vincent houses have a single drive and street parking, so we pour toward the end of the week and the slab is back in use by the following weekend.
Yes. The side yards on the tract streets off Vincent Avenue are a gate wide, and where a truck chute cannot reach the concrete is wheeled through by barrow or placed by pump. That adds crew hours to the same slab, so the gate is measured on the first visit and the method is written into the estimate rather than discovered on the morning of the pour.
Vincent is wrapped by Covina and West Covina, with Baldwin Park across the 605 and Azusa up the road toward the canyon. We pour in all of them from the same office, and the page for each says what changes there.
Open the El Monte Office in Google Maps Send the form and we ring back within 1 business day to book the visit. The estimate is measured and written on site at no charge, and the finished work carries a written guarantee.