Saddleback Mission Viejo Concrete builds pool decks, patios, walls and driveways in Laguna Niguel, 15 minutes down Crown Valley Parkway. Most yards here end at a slope, and we plan from it.
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The loosest ground on a Laguna Niguel lot is the last 3 feet before the slope. The pads were built out over the canyons in fill, and fill at a crest was never compacted the way the middle of a pad is.
That is where a pool deck or a patio poured to the fence fails first. The crest settles a little every wet winter, the slab loses its bearing at the outer edge and cracks along a line parallel to the slope, and once it tilts outward it sends its runoff over the crest into the slope face, the one place on the lot water must not go. So we hold a slab back from the crest, dig the outer strip to firm fill, and thicken the edge to 6 inches on its own footing where a pool sits near the slope.
The rest follows from the water. A Laguna Niguel slope has a concrete ditch along its top and terrace drains down its face, and every slab we pour is pitched toward a drain and away from the crest, a quarter inch to the foot. The base is 4 inches of compacted gravel, the slab 4 inches with an expansion joint at the pool coping, and the joints are cut on a 10 foot grid the day of the pour. A wall at the crest is footed below the settled zone and drained behind it.
Laguna Niguel was graded as terraces down its ridges, so most lots have a slope at the back and a pad that ends at its crest. Decks, walls and patios sit at that edge, and driveways pitch to the street from it. Eight jobs, planned from the edge.
A driveway in Laguna Niguel pitches from the garage to the street, and on the Niguel Summit and Beacon Hill ridges the pitch is steep. We pour 4 inches on compacted gravel, thicken the low end to 5, tool a swale at the garage door and cut the joints across the fall.
A patio in Laguna Niguel is planned from the slope crest back toward the house, so it stops short of the soft outer strip of the pad. We pour 4 inches on gravel, pitch it a quarter inch a foot to the terrace drain, and joint it on a 10 foot grid so a crack lands in a line.
Stamped decks are the finish most asked for around Laguna Niguel pools, because a slate or flagstone pattern reads well against the view from a ridge lot. We cast it into a 4 inch slab with an expansion joint at the coping, in a light color that stays cool, and seal it twice.
A walk on a Laguna Niguel lot often runs along the top of a slope to a side gate, on the ground that settles most. We dig the line to firm fill, pour it 4 inches thick with a joint every 5 feet, dowel it into the old walk at each end, and pitch it away from the slope.
Garage floors in the 1980s Laguna Niguel tracts crack at the door where the apron dropped on the pitched drive. A new 5 inch apron doweled into the garage slab and pitched to the street stops the crack returning, and a floor to be coated is moisture tested first.
Exposed aggregate and salt finishes suit a Laguna Niguel pool deck, since a pale surface stays cool under bare feet in August and does not show staining the way a dark slab does. The stone is washed proud the evening of the pour and the deck is sealed once cured.
A retaining wall in Laguna Niguel holds a pad above a slope or a slope above a pad, and either way it is drained. We foot the wall 18 inches into fill below the settled zone, set rock and a perforated pipe behind the stem, and take the permit through City Hall past 4 feet.
Interior floors in Laguna Niguel are the slabs for room additions and casitas on the larger Bear Brand Ranch lots, poured over a vapor barrier at the level of the house slab. The City inspects the perimeter footing before the pour, and the surface is troweled flat for tile.
Crown Valley Parkway starts in Mission Viejo, crosses the 5 and runs the length of Laguna Niguel to the coast, so it is the road the crew takes from our yard on La Paz Road, and a house in Rancho Niguel or Marina Hills is about 15 minutes from the truck. The permit, where the job needs one, comes from the Building Division at Laguna Niguel City Hall on Crown Valley Parkway, on the same road, and we file it and meet the inspector on the day.
The town went up as a planned community from the 1970s and most of its houses date from the 1980s, so the original pool decks and patios are 35 to 45 years old and the slope beneath them has done most of its settling. Niguel Summit and Beacon Hill sit high on the ridges with the steepest slopes, Bear Brand Ranch has the largest lots and the longest drives, and the tracts off Alicia Parkway and Niguel Road are the flattest ground in town. The slope at the back is what all of them share.
Laguna Niguel is close enough to the sea that the marine layer sits over it most mornings from May to July, and that changes the pour. A slab sets slowly under the overcast, so a morning pour is troweled and cut in the afternoon rather than by noon, and the dry Santa Ana afternoons that trouble a pour inland are rare here. The slopes drain to Salt Creek and Aliso Creek, and a slab that sends water into a slope face is the call we take each February, so ours drain to the ditch.
Four stages. The first is finding the crest and the drains, because on a terraced lot the edge of the slab is decided before its size is, and the association's review is run before the crew is booked.
Trevor Lindqvist measures the pad, marks the slope crest and the terrace drain, and probes the outer strip for the soft fill that settles.
The drawing goes to your association, and to the City if a wall or a footing needs a permit. The crew is booked once both come back.
The outer strip is dug to firm fill, 4 inches of gravel is compacted, the edge footing is formed and the steel is tied before the pour.
The slab is poured and pitched to the drain, the joints are cut that afternoon, and we test the fall with a hose before we leave the yard.
Call or send the form and we ring back within 1 business day to book the visit. Every estimate is measured and written on site, and on a Laguna Niguel lot that means the slope crest and the drains are marked on it, not just the square feet.
Reviews
Reviews on Google, Facebook and the BBB from homeowners across the towns we cover, one job each. Laguna Niguel is among the towns they were left from, and the decks they describe are the ones above.
“Our driveway in Aegean Hills had dropped two inches on the fill side of the pad. They probed it, found the soft half, dug it deeper and packed the base in lifts. They poured 720 square feet at 5 inches, cut the joints across the slope that afternoon, and two winters on nothing has moved.”
“The wall holding our back slope in Laguna Niguel leaned a little more every winter. They took it down, dug the footing 18 inches into hard ground, set drain rock and a pipe behind the new wall and poured it in a day. The first storm since ran clear out of the drain, not over the top.”
“Our pool deck in Lake Forest was the original 1990s one and had lifted at the coping. They cut it out, set an expansion joint around the pool, poured 480 square feet with a salt finish and had it walkable in two days. Bare feet in August and it stays cool enough to stand on.”
What we are asked at the door in Laguna Niguel, on what the slope does to the estimate, who issues the permit, how long the drive is, what the fill under a pad does and how long the deck is closed.
How close the slab comes to the slope. A deck or a patio that runs to the crest needs its outer strip dug and refilled and its edge thickened on a footing, which is more base and more steel than the same slab in the middle of a pad. Then it is what old slab comes out and which finish goes on. We measure the lot and write the number at the house, so the slope is in the figure from the start.
The Building Division at Laguna Niguel City Hall on Crown Valley Parkway. A flat slab at grade inside your lot does not need one under the California Residential Code, but a wall over 4 feet from the bottom of the footing, a wall holding a slope above it and a footing for a cover do. Most neighborhoods here also have an association that reviews the drawing, and both go in together.
The yard is 15 minutes away. We are on La Paz Road in Mission Viejo, and Crown Valley Parkway takes the truck across the 5 and through the whole of Laguna Niguel, from Rancho Niguel at the top to Bear Brand Ranch near the coast. Calls and the form are answered within 1 business day, and the visit goes on the calendar for a day that suits you.
Yes, at the edge. Laguna Niguel pads were built out over the canyons in fill, and the last few feet before the crest are the softest ground on the lot, so a slab poured to the fence settles at its outer edge and tilts toward the slope. We keep the slab back from the crest, dig the outer strip to firm fill, and pitch the finished surface to the terrace drain so nothing runs over the edge.
A week from the pour to bare feet on it in the ordinary way, and 3 to 4 working days of tear-out, base and forms before that. Under the marine layer the slab is walkable after 48 hours rather than 24, and it reaches full strength at 28 days. The pool stays covered through the tear-out so nothing goes in the water, and the coping joint is sealed before the deck is handed back.
Aliso Viejo and Laguna Hills to the north, Laguna Beach on the coast side, Dana Point and San Juan Capistrano to the south, and our own Mission Viejo across the 5. Each has its own page here. A street on the line between two of them is reached on the same drive down Crown Valley Parkway, and the lot is measured the same way whichever side of the line it sits on.
Laguna Niguel borders Aliso Viejo, Laguna Hills, Laguna Beach, Dana Point, San Juan Capistrano and Mission Viejo, and the crew works every one of them from the yard on La Paz Road. If your street is on a boundary, the page next door covers the same visit.
Open the Mission Viejo Office in Google Maps One call or one form, and we ring back within 1 business day to book the measure. The estimate is free and written at the house, and the work carries a written workmanship guarantee.