Rio Hondo El Monte Concrete builds the footing and stem wall system a house stands on, to the engineer's sheet, on ground the state maps for shaking. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
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The whole system
A foundation is a system, not a slab. The continuous footing spreads the house onto the ground, the stem wall lifts the wood clear of the soil, the bolts and hold-downs tie the frame to the concrete, and the crawl space under the floor is where the plumber and the electrician work for the life of the building. Each part is drawn by an engineer and checked by the city before the next goes on. Build one part to the drawing and another to habit and the inspection is where you find out.
Rio Hondo El Monte Concrete has built foundations for new houses, two-story rear units and rebuilds here since 2015, with Ismael Duarte running every pour. The sequence is fixed. Footings are dug, steel is tied and inspected, the footing is poured, the wall forms go up with the verticals and the bolts wired to a layout, the wall is inspected and poured, and the forms come off to a top of wall level end to end. Nothing is poured on a day the inspector cannot come.
Every foundation is built to the California Residential Code under a CSLB C-8 concrete license, with liability insurance on every job, and where a parcel sits inside a seismic hazard zone the geotechnical report the state requires is read before the trench is set out. Building & Safety sees the footing steel, the wall forms and the finished bolts on three visits. The finished system carries a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built.
When it is this job
A raised wood floor needs 18 inches of clear space under its joists and a wall round the edge to carry them, so the moment the plans show joists rather than a slab the job is a stem wall on a continuous footing. It is also what puts the plumbing where a person can reach it.
Two floors put twice the weight on the footing and, in an earthquake, a lever on every corner. The engineer answers that with a wider footing, more steel in the wall and hold-downs at the shear panels, and each has a place on the sheet and a bar size, which habit never has.
The California Geological Survey maps stretches of this valley floor beside the Rio Hondo and the San Gabriel River as liquefaction zones. Inside one the city cannot issue a permit without a soils report, and the report deepens the footing, adds steel or ties the corners.
A rebuild on a cleared lot cannot reuse a 1950s footing poured 8 inches wide with no steel in it, and the city will not pass it. Once the old concrete is out the ground under it has to be probed, because the fill from the old crawl space is exactly where the new footing goes.
In every foundation
Eight things are in every foundation we build and none of them is an extra. Each is a line on the engineer's sheet or in the Residential Code, and each is there because the ground here moves in an earthquake and the wood has to stay attached to the concrete.
The old foundation is broken out to its base and hauled, and the loose fill in the old crawl space and trenches is dug out with it.
The footing trench is cut to undisturbed sand, never to fill, and the bottom is compacted and probed before a bar goes in.
12 inches wide and 12 below grade at the least, wider where the engineer says, with a number 4 bar top and bottom unbroken round every corner.
A poured wall 8 inches thick, number 4 verticals at 48 inches tied into the footing, and a bar 12 inches down from the top of the wall.
Half-inch bolts 7 inches deep at 6 feet on center with square plate washers, and every hold-down on the shear wall schedule set before the pour.
A vent for every 150 square feet of floor and an opening a person fits through, formed in the wall rather than cut afterward.
The wall is struck to a laser line and the corners checked on the diagonal, so the mudsill lies flat and the framer is not shimming.
Trenches backfilled and compacted, the lot raked, the bolt layout and the written guarantee handed over before the sill goes on.
How it can be built
Four ways the footing and wall go together for a framed floor, set against the house on top and the ground underneath. The steel, the bolts and the inspections are the same in all four, so the rows are about the shape of the concrete and what it costs in days.
| Option | Suits | Wall type | Steel | Days on site |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poured stem wall | A one or two-story house on firm sand | 8 inches thick, poured on the footing | Number 4 verticals at 48 inches | 8 to 10 working days |
| Grade beam system | A parcel inside a liquefaction zone | Deep beams tying every corner together | Cage of number 5 bars, engineered | 12 to 15 working days |
| Block stem wall | A rebuild matching a 1950s neighbor | 8-inch block, cells grouted solid | Number 4 verticals in grouted cells | 10 to 12 working days |
| Pier and girder infill | A wide floor that needs mid-span support | Perimeter stem wall plus interior piers | Number 4 in wall, dowels in piers | 9 to 11 working days |
The poured stem wall is what most engineers draw and costs the least in days; the grade beam is what a soils report adds on mapped ground, and costs most in steel.
Ground and zone
Two things decide what a foundation looks like here and neither is the size of the house. The seismic category the whole county sits in, and whether the parcel is on a state hazard map.
Los Angeles County sits in Seismic Design Category D at the least, and that alone changes the concrete. In a lower category a footing can go in unreinforced; in D the Residential Code wants a number 4 bar top and bottom in every footing, verticals in every stem wall and plate washers under every bolt, because the load the code is planning for is a house trying to slide off its foundation sideways. Every foundation we build carries that steel whether or not an engineer has been near it.
The map is the second. The California Geological Survey publishes seismic hazard zones, and the low ground along both rivers through El Monte is inside one for liquefaction, the sand losing its strength while the ground shakes. Inside a zone the city asks for a geotechnical report before it issues a permit, and the report is what turns a footing into a grade beam or deepens it. The footing on its own is described on the footings page; this page is the system it belongs to.
Trench to sill
Five stages from the engineer's sheet to a top of wall the framer can set a sill on, with three city inspections inside them. The same crew digs, ties, forms and pours, and Ismael Duarte is on the lot for each pour.
Ismael Duarte takes the foundation plan and the soils report if there is one, and probes the trench lines. The figure is written that day.
Corners are staked and the levels shot against the street. Pour days are booked round the three inspections, so no concrete waits on an inspector.
Trenches cut to undisturbed sand, the cage tied with the verticals standing, the inspector signs the card, and the footing is poured the same day.
Forms go up on the footing, bolts and hold-downs are wired to the layout, the wall is inspected and poured, and the top is struck level to a laser.
Forms off after 2 days, trenches backfilled and compacted, and the bolt layout and the guarantee handed to you and your framer on the walk-through.
Behind the figure
The engineer's sheet sets most of the number before anyone visits, because it fixes the footing width, the wall height and every bar. The lot sets the rest, what comes out and what the probe finds. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
The plain run of the job. Footing, stem wall, bolts and vents round one footprint, priced by the length of wall and the height the floor sits at.
More footing width, more steel and hold-downs at every shear panel, and often a tighter lot to get a pump and a truck to the back of.
The soils report may call for a grade beam, deeper footings or a heavier cage. Each is on the sheet and priced from it, never from a guess.
Breaking out the old footing and digging the old fill from the crawl space is added before the new trench is cut, and the ground is probed twice.
The visit and the written figure cost nothing, and the call to book them comes within 1 business day. Bring the foundation sheet if it is drawn. (626) 774-7973 or send us a message.
Send the foundation sheet with the form, or call, and someone rings back within 1 business day. Ismael Duarte walks the footprint, probes the trench lines and writes the figure at the lot, and it holds until your framer is booked.
Foundations we built
Left on Google, Facebook and the BBB by three owners who had a footing and stem wall system built for a house or a unit, and each says what the city saw or the framer found.
“We tore down my grandmother's 1952 house and rebuilt on the lot. Ismael found the old crawl space full of loose fill, dug it all out and cut the new trenches into clean sand. Three inspections and the city signed every one of them on the first visit.”
“Our two-story unit at the back needed a grade beam because the parcel is in a liquefaction zone. They built it exactly to the engineer's sheet, and the hold-downs were all standing where the framer wanted them. Not one bolt had to be moved.”
“The top of the stem wall was so level the framer put his own laser on it and then just started laying sill. Eighty feet of wall and the diagonals were within a quarter inch. The whole foundation was done in nine working days as they said it would be.”
Before you book
What the engineer's sheet does to the figure, how many days the crew is there, what the city sees and when, and what is guaranteed once the framer has the walls up, answered for a lot here.
The length of wall and the height of it, then the steel, then the ground. A foundation is measured by the feet of footing and stem wall it runs, and a floor set 30 inches above grade is more wall than one set 18. The engineer's sheet fixes the bar sizes and the hold-downs, so a two-story unit carries more steel per foot than a bungalow. The lot adds whatever comes out first and whatever a soils report has put in.
Eight to ten working days for a poured stem wall on a house-sized footprint, and the inspections are inside that. Two days to dig and tie, an inspection and a footing pour, two days to form the wall and set the bolts, an inspection and a wall pour, then 2 days before the forms come off and a day to backfill. A grade beam adds a week of steel. The framer can set sill 7 days after the wall is poured.
Everything from the trench to the bolt layout is in it. Digging, hauling the spoil, the steel, the forms, the concrete, the bolts, the hold-downs, the vents, the backfill and the inspections we attend. Left out and named at the visit are the engineer's fees, the geotechnical report if the parcel needs one, the permit itself, and demolition of a house still standing. The figure you sign is the one billed.
Three, and the first two come before any concrete. Building & Safety sees the footing trench with the cage tied and the verticals standing, then the stem wall forms with the bolts and hold-downs wired in, and after the pour it checks the finished bolts against the sheet before the framer covers them. The permit is the building permit for the house or unit, and the inspections are stages on it.
Only after a covered event, and a house that has settled over 60 years is not one. A standard homeowner policy excludes earth movement, settlement and wear, and a separate earthquake policy is what covers a foundation cracked by a quake, with its own deductible. A vehicle that struck the house or a fire that took it down is where a carrier pays for the rebuild, foundation included. Ask your insurer first.
The construction of it. Footing width and depth, the bar sizes and spacing, the wall thickness, the bolt and hold-down layout, and the level of the top of wall are all printed on the estimate and built to the engineer's sheet, and the foundation carries a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built. Ground movement the engineer did not design for sits outside it.
A 3,000 psi ready-mix, or the strength the engineer names if it is higher, placed the morning it is batched. Grade 60 rebar throughout, number 4 bars in the footing and the wall unless the sheet says number 5, lapped 24 inches at every splice. Half-inch galvanized anchor bolts with 3-inch square plate washers, and hold-downs from the shear wall schedule, cast in wet. All of it is written on the estimate.
Not after the first visit, until the walk-through at the end. Between them the lot is a building site with trenches open, so the fewer people on it the better. We need a gate the truck fits through, water, and the survey stakes left where the surveyor put them. The inspector calls the day before each visit and we meet him, so nobody has to take a morning off.
Towns we build in
Eight towns nearest the office on Peck Road, each with how far it is in a straight line. A foundation anywhere on the list is priced from the sheet and the probe, standing on the lot.
Four jobs that come before a new foundation or go up beside it. The same crew does them from the same set of drawings, and they are written as lines on the one estimate rather than quoted apart.
A footing alone, for a porch, a deck post or a wall the house does not carry.
The one-pour slab-on-grade for a unit that needs no crawl space under it.
Lifting a standing house onto piers so the foundation under it can be rebuilt.
A wall on its own footing where the lot steps and the foundation cannot.
Call or send the form and you hear back within 1 business day. Say whether the plans are drawn and whether the lot is cleared, and Ismael Duarte can walk the footprint with you inside the week, sheet in hand.