Saddleback Mission Viejo Concrete pours driveways, patios, walks and pool decks in Lake Forest, the town on our north line. It is the flattest ground we work, so the slab carries its own water.
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On a flat Lake Forest lot the slab is the drainage. A patio on the old El Toro streets or in the lake tracts has no slope to shed water, so the fall is built into the concrete or it ponds at the door.
A slab that ponds fails from underneath. Standing water soaks the base, the base softens under the panel that holds it, and the panel settles and cracks along the edge of the puddle within a few winters. So every slab we pour in Lake Forest is set with a quarter inch of fall to the foot, toward a drain we have found or one we set, and where the yard is dead level a channel drain is cut into the slab at the low edge. The base is 4 inches of gravel and the joints are cut the same day.
The trees are the other thing. Dwight Whiting planted eucalyptus across the El Toro ranch as a timber crop around 1900, the timber failed and the trees stayed, and the 1970s tracts were laid out among them, which is where the Forest in the name comes from. A eucalyptus root runs shallow and wide, and it lifts a walk or a drive edge a full inch. Where a slab must pass a tree we set a root barrier along its edge, thicken it to 5 inches over the roots with steel, and joint it at the trunk.
Lake Forest sits on the floor of the Saddleback Valley, and its trouble with concrete is the opposite of ours. Water does not leave a flat yard on its own, and the eucalyptus planted a century ago lifts anything near it. Eight jobs for both.
A driveway in Lake Forest sits flat to the street, so the fall is built in rather than found. We pour 4 inches on compacted gravel, pitch it a quarter inch a foot from the garage to the gutter, set a root barrier where a eucalyptus stands at the edge, and joint it across the run.
A patio on a Lake Forest lot is poured with its own drain, because the yard is level and water at the door is the call we take every winter. We set the fall to a drain at the low edge, pour 4 inches on gravel, and joint the new slab to the house slab so the two move apart.
Stamped concrete in Lake Forest is asked for on pool decks in the lake tracts and on Baker Ranch patios, where the finish has to pass the association. We cast the pattern into a 4 inch slab with the fall built in, use a light color that stays cool in August, and seal it twice.
A walk in Lake Forest is the job the eucalyptus ruins, lifted an inch at every trunk on the 1970s streets. We cut the roots back to a barrier, pour the panels 5 inches thick over the root zone with steel through them, dowel the new into the old at each end, and joint at the tree.
Garage floors on the El Toro streets were poured in the 1960s and crack at the door where the flat apron holds water. The apron is replaced at 5 inches, doweled into the garage floor on freshly compacted gravel, and given a fall to the street so the rain runs to the gutter.
Exposed aggregate and salt finishes suit a Lake Forest pool deck, since a pale textured surface stays cool underfoot in August and hides the leaf stain the eucalyptus drops on a plain slab. The stone is washed proud on the evening of the pour and the deck sealed once cured.
Retaining walls in Lake Forest are a Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills job, holding the graded pads above the 1990s streets. We foot the wall 18 inches into firm ground, drain it behind with rock and a pipe, and take the permit through the City Building Division past 4 feet.
Interior floors in Lake Forest are the slabs for room additions and garage conversions on the older El Toro lots, set over a vapor barrier at the level of the house slab. The perimeter footing is inspected before the pour and the surface troweled flat enough for tile or a polish.
Lake Forest is the town across Mission Viejo's north boundary, so the crew reaches most of it from our yard on La Paz Road in about 15 minutes, up the 5 to Lake Forest Drive or El Toro Road, and Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills by Portola Parkway a little beyond. A permit, where a wall or a footing needs one, comes from the City of Lake Forest Building Division at the Civic Center, and the master associations in Foothill Ranch, Portola Hills and Baker Ranch review the frontage first.
The two lakes the town is named for are man-made, filled in the 1970s when the Lake Forest tracts went up around them, and the lots on their shores are the one place in town where the ground is wet close under the surface. A pool deck or a patio on a lake lot is poured on a thicker gravel base that drains toward the water and never toward the house, and the old slabs there are the ones that have heaved most, because wet ground under a slab softens everything else.
The oldest streets are El Toro, laid out in the 1960s on the valley floor around what is now Heritage Hill Historical Park, and their slabs are the oldest in town, cracked at the apron and lifted at the trees. Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills, up the slope toward the toll road, were built in the 1990s on graded pads and drain like our own town. Baker Ranch, the newest, has builder slabs that are rarely replaced, so the ask there is a pool deck or a patio extension.
Four stages, and the first is finding where the water will go. On a flat lot that is settled before the size is, and if a eucalyptus stands within reach of the slab, its roots are found with a probe on the same visit.
Trevor Lindqvist measures the slab, shoots the levels to find the low point, probes for roots along the line and writes the estimate there.
The drawing goes to the master association in Foothill Ranch, Portola Hills or Baker Ranch, and to the City only where a permit applies.
Roots are cut and a barrier set, the ground is dug to firm, a drain line is laid if the yard needs one, and 4 inches of gravel is compacted.
The slab is poured to the quarter inch fall, jointed that afternoon, and we run a hose across it before we leave to show the water going.
Call or send the form and the call back comes within 1 business day to book the visit. Every estimate is measured and written on site, with the fall, the drain and any root barrier drawn on it, so the water on a flat lot is planned before the truck.
Reviews
Google, Facebook and BBB reviews from homeowners in the towns we cover, one job each. Lake Forest is among the towns they come from, and the flat-lot work they describe is the work 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 in Lake Forest, on what drainage and the trees do to the estimate, who issues the permit, how close the yard is, what the lakes do to the ground and how long a slab is out of use.
Where the water goes and where the trees stand. A flat yard with no drain needs one cut into the slab or laid under it, and a eucalyptus within reach of the pour means a root barrier, a thicker panel and steel through it. What comes out and what finish goes on move it after that. We shoot the levels and probe the roots on the visit and write the number at the house, so both are on it.
Not for a flat slab at grade inside your lot, which the California Residential Code does not cover. A retaining wall over 4 feet from the bottom of the footing, a wall holding a slope in Foothill Ranch or Portola Hills and a footing under a cover need a permit from the City of Lake Forest Building Division at the Civic Center. The master associations review the frontage first, and both go in together.
Across the city line. Our yard is on La Paz Road in Mission Viejo, and Lake Forest starts at our north boundary, so the crew is on an El Toro street or in the lake tracts in about 15 minutes by the 5 and in Portola Hills a few minutes after. The call back comes within 1 business day, and the visit goes on the calendar around your week.
Eucalyptus roots. The trees were planted as a timber crop around 1900 and the 1970s tracts were built among them, and a eucalyptus root runs shallow and wide enough to lift a walk an inch at the trunk. We cut the root back to a barrier along the slab edge, thicken the panel to 5 inches over the root zone with steel through it, and joint it beside the trunk so it can be reset alone if the tree wins again.
Three to five working days on site and 7 days of curing before a car goes back on it. Tear-out and base take the first 2 days, the pour is one morning and the joints are cut that afternoon, and feet can cross it after 24 to 48 hours. On a lake lot the thicker base and the drain line add a day, and the estimate carries the dates the cars come off and go back on.
Laguna Hills and Laguna Woods to the west, Rancho Santa Margarita to the east past Portola Hills, Tustin to the north, and our own Mission Viejo across the line, each with its own page here. Irvine is next door but is not on our list, so if your street is on that side we will say so when you call. A house on any other boundary is measured on the same visit.
Lake Forest borders Mission Viejo, Laguna Hills, Laguna Woods, Rancho Santa Margarita and Tustin, and one crew covers all of them from La Paz Road. A street on a boundary is measured on the same visit, and the neighboring page describes the same work.
Open the Mission Viejo Office in Google Maps Send the form and the call back comes within 1 business day to book the visit. The estimate is free and written at your table, and the work carries a written workmanship guarantee.