Saddleback Mission Viejo Concrete pours driveways, patios and pool decks in Rancho Santa Margarita, 6 miles up Santa Margarita Parkway. The visit is free and the estimate is written there.
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Rancho Santa Margarita is a mesa with canyons at its edges. The Plano Trabuco is flat and the middle of town sits on it. Trabuco and Tijeras Creeks cut its rim into the slopes the outer tracts sit on.
The two fail differently. On the mesa the pad is close to the natural surface, so the ground under a slab is uniform and the crack we are called about is a shrinkage crack in a slab poured without enough joints, or a builder's patio lifted where sprinklers keep one side wet all summer. At the rim the pad was cut from the top of a slope and filled at the outer edge, and the fill settles, so a pool deck at the back of a Dove Canyon lot drops toward the canyon and cracks on the seam.
So the estimate says which one you have before it says anything else. On the mesa the base is 4 inches of compacted gravel over the old subgrade and the joints are cut on a 10 foot grid the day of the pour, which is the whole fix for a slab that only lacked them. At the rim the pad is probed to find the fill line, the base is dug deeper and compacted in layers on the fill side, a joint is set on the seam, and a wall holding the edge gets a footing into firm ground and a drain behind it.
Rancho Santa Margarita sits on a mesa with canyons at its edges, and the two grounds ask for two kinds of job. In the middle it is a builder's slab replaced on a level pad. At the rim it is a pool deck or a wall on a lot that ends at a canyon.
Driveways in Rancho Santa Margarita are short, because the master plan set the houses close to the street. We pour 4 inches on compacted gravel, 5 at the apron, joint it on a 10 foot grid, and send the drawing to your association first, because the front is what it reviews.
A patio on the mesa is the builder's 10 foot slab taken out and the yard finished, decades after the house was sold with it bare. We pour 4 inches on compacted gravel, joint it every 10 feet, and dowel it to the house slab so the two move as one when the summer dries the ground.
Stamped concrete in Rancho Santa Margarita matches the paver fronts the builders laid, so ashlar and running bond are asked for by name. We cast the pattern into a 4 inch slab, color it in the mix, and seal it in 2 coats, because the mesa takes full sun all afternoon.
Walks in Rancho Santa Margarita run along streets the association keeps and to doors it can see, so a new walk is approved twice. We check the tract map for the line between your panel and the association's, match the score pattern either side, and dowel the new panel to the old.
Garage floors in Rancho Santa Margarita are the builder's, and the fault we see is a crack across the door line where apron and floor were poured on different days. We saw out the cracked run, dowel the new pour to the old on both sides, and trowel it flat for a coating.
Exposed aggregate is asked for at the rim of Rancho Santa Margarita, where a yard ends at a canyon and the view is the point. We pour a 4 inch slab with the stone washed proud, keep the border smooth for bare feet, and set the joints so a crack lands in a line.
The canyon lots at Dove Canyon, Robinson Ranch and Trabuco Highlands end at a slope the grader cut, and a wall there holds the pad itself. We set its footing 18 inches into firm ground below the fill, drain behind it with rock and a pipe, and pour to a stamped plan above 4 feet.
Interior slabs in Rancho Santa Margarita go under room additions on the mesa, where a level pad and a wide side yard make the pour straightforward. We lay a 10 mil vapor barrier on compacted gravel, pour and trowel the slab flat for tile, and dowel it into the house footing.
Santa Margarita Parkway runs from our side of Mission Viejo straight into the middle of Rancho Santa Margarita, about 6 miles, so a crew is at your house in 15 minutes and a small job here is worth the trip. Permits come from the City of Rancho Santa Margarita's Building Division at City Hall on El Paseo, and nearly every street also answers to an association that reviews anything seen from it. A patio inside the lot needs no permit, a wall over 4 feet does, and we file both.
The streets around the lake and along Avenida de las Banderas and Antonio Parkway were laid out on the flat of the mesa, on level pads with paver fronts and a 10 foot slab at the back door, and most of the work there is that slab replaced. Dove Canyon, Robinson Ranch and Trabuco Highlands are the rim, on cut and fill pads that end at a canyon, with longer drives and a slope or a wall at the back of most lots. The 241 runs along the west edge and the national forest starts at the east.
The wind is the local fact that changes a pour. Rancho Santa Margarita sits against the Santa Ana Mountains at the mouth of Trabuco Canyon, and a Santa Ana wind comes down it dry and hot before it reaches Mission Viejo, so a slab poured on a wind day skins over before it can be finished. We watch the forecast, pour at first light in a Santa Ana, and keep every slab wet for 7 days. The rest of the year the marine layer holds the morning cool into June.
Four stages and a crew 15 minutes away. The visit, the association paperwork and the pour are all quicker here than anywhere else we work, and the estimate is written on the spot.
Trevor Lindqvist measures, probes the pad at the rim for the fill line or checks the joints on the mesa, and writes the estimate on site.
We draw the submittal for your architectural committee with the estimate, and file with the city only where a wall or a roof needs it.
The builder's slab comes out, the base is dug to firm ground and 4 inches of gravel are compacted over it, deeper on a fill side.
The pour is one morning and the joints are cut that afternoon. We walk it with you against the estimate, and cars go on a drive after 7 days.
Call or send the form and you hear back within 1 business day, and because the town is next door the visit is usually inside the week. Every estimate is measured and written on site, line by line.
Reviews
Homeowners across the towns we work left these on Google, Facebook and the BBB. Rancho Santa Margarita is the town nearest the yard, and the crew in them is the one that comes to you.
“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 people in Rancho Santa Margarita ask before booking, about the estimate, the association and the city, how fast we come, which ground their lot is on, the days on site and the towns around.
Which ground the lot is on, then size. A slab on the mesa is a straight replacement on a level pad. A pool deck or a wall at the rim adds probing, a deeper base on the fill side and, for a wall, a footing and a drain. Finish moves it after that, stamped or exposed over broom. We measure it on a free visit and write the figure at your house.
No for a patio, a drive or a walk inside your lot line. Yes for a wall over 4 feet from the bottom of the footing, for any wall holding a slope above a house, and for a slab under a room. The City of Rancho Santa Margarita's Building Division issues them, your association reviews anything seen from the street first, and we file both and meet the inspector.
15 minutes. The yard is on La Paz Road in Mission Viejo and Santa Margarita Parkway runs straight to you, so the visit is booked inside the week and a crew is at your house before 7 on the morning of the pour. You hear back within 1 business day from the first call, and a job here never waits on a long drive.
If the yard ends at a fence with a slope beyond it, the rim. If the yard is level to the back fence and the neighbor's house sits behind it, the mesa. Dove Canyon, Robinson Ranch and Trabuco Highlands are mostly rim, and the streets around the lake are mesa, but the visit settles it, because the probe finds the fill line before anyone guesses.
3 to 5 working days on site, and less waiting than anywhere else we work. Break-out and base take the first 1 or 2 days, the pour is one morning, the joints are cut that afternoon and the walk-through is the same day. Feet stay off for 24 to 48 hours and cars off a driveway for 7 days. An association review adds its own weeks before the start, so the submittal goes in with the estimate.
Mission Viejo is our own, and Lake Forest and Laguna Hills are on the list, each with a page. Coto de Caza, Ladera Ranch and Trabuco Canyon are unincorporated and permitted by Orange County rather than a city, and they are not on the list, so a job across that line is one we will talk through on the first call.
Rancho Santa Margarita borders Mission Viejo on the west, and Lake Forest and Laguna Hills are a few minutes further. Across the 241 and up the canyon the ground is county land. If your street sits on a line, read the page for the town it falls in.
Open the Mission Viejo Office in Google Maps Send the form and we call you back within 1 business day to book the visit, usually inside the week. The estimate is free and written on site, and the work carries a written guarantee.