Concrete patio construction in La Palma CA - a patio built for how you use it

Most people call us because the yard is bare dirt, an old slab has cracked and sunk, or water sits by the back door every time it rains. The price moves with the size, how thick the slab has to be for what it'll carry, the finish you pick, whether an old patio has to come out first and how easily a truck can reach the yard. The schedule turns mostly on whether the city wants a permit for your patio and on the weather around pour day, since concrete sets best when it isn't baking. I'll come out to your property, look it over and give you a written estimate with your own numbers.

Before we price a patio I ask about hot tubs, heavy furniture and how our truck can reach the backyard, because each one changes the plan, from how thick we pour to whether the job needs a pump when the truck can't get close. On the first day our crew digs out the old dirt or slab and packs the subgrade, the ground the slab sits on, firm and even, since a base that's only raked flat settles later and takes the concrete down with it. We check where the water runs and set the forms so the patio falls away from your house and doesn't send runoff into the neighbor's yard. Rebar goes in next, steel that holds the slab together if it ever does crack, and we pour early in the day, because concrete placed in the midday heat dries too fast on top and turns weak and dusty later. A broom finish, a light texture dragged across the surface, gives you grip when it's wet. We cut control joints, shallow grooves that give the slab a planned place to crack, while the concrete is still fresh, since cutting them late or skipping them is how cracks end up wherever they like. Then the slab cures, the slow stretch where concrete gains its strength, and it needs to be left alone for that. When a budget gets tight, people usually want to cut the base and keep the fancy finish, and I'll steer you the other way. Nobody sees the base on day one, but it decides whether the patio still sits flat years from now, and a finish can be dressed up later while a bad base can't be fixed without starting over.

Permits here go through the city's Building and Safety office, which takes applications online through its OpenGov portal, and almost every improvement plan goes through plan check, the city's review of the drawings, before a permit is issued. There's no one-line patio rule I can quote you, so whether your patio needs a permit is a question for Building and Safety, and they list 714-690-3340 for help with an application. When a job does need one, we handle the application and book the city inspections, so you don't have to learn the portal.

A lot of backyards here sit behind the house with only a narrow side yard to get through, so access is the first thing I look at, and it's the same story on jobs in Cypress and Buena Park. We also break out plenty of older patios that cracked and dropped, and we dig those out completely instead of pouring new concrete on top.