Hawthorne Torrance Concrete pours driveways, garage slabs and patios in Carson, 6 miles east along Carson Street. The ground is low and was slough before it was tract, so we probe it first.
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Carson is the lowest ground we pour on. It sits on the flat floor of the Dominguez Channel watershed, and parts of it were slough and marsh before they were drained and built over.
Low ground does two things to a slab. It holds water under it, so a base that was never compacted goes soft every winter and the panel above it rocks and cracks at the corners. And it is uneven, because a tract graded across old marsh, a former tank farm and a filled ditch has firm ground on one lot and soft fill on the next, and the builder poured the same slab on both. That is why two identical 1960s houses on one Carson street can have one sound driveway and one broken in four pieces.
So the first thing done on a Carson job is a probe of the subgrade, before the estimate is written. Where the rod goes in easily we dig the soft material out and replace it, then lay 4 inches of crushed rock and compact it in layers. Number 4 rebar goes in on an 18 inch grid, and the slab is never less than 4 inches, 5 where a truck parks. The joints are sawn the same day at 10 feet, which keeps a crack straight when one panel's ground moves and the next stays put.
Carson was county land until 1968, so the tracts that went up through the 1950s and 1960s were inspected by the county, and the slabs under them range from 4 inches on rock to 3 inches on dirt. Replacing them is most of our work here.
A Carson driveway from the 1960s was laid for one car and now carries two, plus a pickup. We take out the old slab, compact 4 inches of crushed rock over ground we have probed, and pour 5 inches with number 4 bar at 18 inches, so a work truck can park on it every night.
Back yards in Carson are wide and flat, which is the easy part, and low, which is not. A patio poured level here holds water against the house after a January storm, so we set the slab to fall an inch in 8 feet away from the wall and joint it every 10 feet.
Stamped concrete in Carson goes down early, because the marine layer clears here by midmorning and the slab sets faster than it does at the beach. We pour at first light, stamp before the surface skins over, and seal it in 2 coats after the 28 day cure.
Carson's public walks are the City's, and a panel lifted by a parkway tree needs an encroachment permit before it is cut. We file it, saw the lifted panel out, cut the root beneath it where the City allows, and pour the new panel flush with the ones either side.
Garage floors in the Carson tracts were poured at 3 inches or less on bare dirt, and on this low ground the damp comes up through them. We break the old slab out, lay a vapor barrier over 4 inches of compacted rock, and pour 5 inches troweled flat enough to coat.
Exposed aggregate suits a Carson front walk because the lots face wide, flat streets and a plain broom finish reads as nothing at all from the curb. We wash the stone proud the same afternoon, saw the joints the next morning, and seal it once it has cured.
Carson is flat, so a retaining wall here holds a raised bed or a planter rather than a hillside, and what it needs most is a drained footing, because water sits close under parts of the city. We footing it into firm ground, run drain rock and a pipe behind it, and cap it level.
A converted garage in Carson needs an interior slab that stays dry, and the old floor never will. We pour a new slab over a 10 mil vapor barrier on compacted rock, trowel it flat for tile or vinyl, and cut the joints on a grid that suits the room rather than the crew.
Carson Street runs east from our office on Hawthorne Boulevard straight to Carson City Hall, about 6 miles, so the crew is on a Carson lot in 20 minutes without touching the 405. Permits go to the City's Building and Safety Division at City Hall on East Carson Street, and anything at the curb or on the public walk takes an encroachment permit as well. We file both and meet the inspector, who sees the base and the steel before the truck is called.
The city only incorporated in 1968, so the tracts around Avalon Boulevard, Main Street and Wilmington Avenue were built under the county and inspected loosely, and the slabs under them vary house to house in a way Torrance slabs do not. Some lots were tank farms and oil leases before they were homes, and the ground under those is fill of whatever was to hand. We treat every Carson yard as unknown until the rod has been in it.
Water is the other thing to know. The Dominguez Channel crosses the city on its way to the harbor, and the lots nearest it are where we most often find water close under the surface, so a garage floor on those streets gets a vapor barrier without being asked. Most of the city is only a few feet above the channel, so every slab is set to fall toward the street and never toward the house, and a patio drain goes in where the yard has nowhere lower to send the water.
Four stages, one crew, and Kenji Okamoto at each of them. Because the ground here is the variable, the probe comes before the figure, and the figure is written on the lot and does not change once it is.
Kenji Okamoto rods the subgrade at the corners, measures the area and the access, and writes the estimate on the lot before he leaves.
The old slab is broken out and hauled the same day, soft ground is dug and replaced, and 4 inches of crushed rock is compacted in layers.
Right-of-way work is filed with the City of Carson, and the inspector sees the base and the steel before the pour is booked.
The pour goes in at first light, joints are sawn the same afternoon, and you walk on it after 24 to 48 hours and park on it after 7 days.
Call or send the form and we reply within 1 business day with a day for the visit. Every estimate is measured and written on site, after the ground has been probed, and it costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Reviews
Reviews left on Google, Facebook and the BBB by homeowners across the South Bay, Carson among them. Each is about one job, named and dated, and the work behind it is the work described on this page.
“The garage slab in our 1955 house had heaved and the door would not close. They broke it out in a morning, found no base under it, compacted 4 inches of rock, poured 440 square feet at 5 inches and troweled it smooth. The estimate was written in our driveway and the invoice matched it.”
“We built an ADU and Hawthorne Torrance Concrete did the slab. They set the forms to the plans, the City inspector passed the steel first time, and the pour went in before eight in the morning. 620 square feet, edges thickened to 12 inches, and the framers were on it a week later.”
“Our slope in the Riviera crept onto the patio every winter. They dug footings 30 inches into the clay, poured a 42-foot wall with weep holes and a drain behind it, and backfilled with gravel. Kenji Okamoto came back after the first rains to check it. Dry, straight, and it has not moved.”
What comes up at the curb in Carson, answered as it is answered there. What moves the estimate on low ground, which permits the City wants, how far we travel, and how long a driveway is out of use.
The ground under it, before the size of it. A Carson lot where the rod finds soft fill needs that material dug out and replaced before the base goes down, and that is the line on the estimate that varies most between two driveways of the same size. Tear-out of the old slab and the thickness poured come next. Every estimate is measured and written on site, which is why no figure is given over the phone.
Not for a driveway, patio or walk inside your lot line at grade. You do for the apron at the street, any public sidewalk panel, and a retaining wall over 4 feet, and those go to the City of Carson's Building and Safety Division at City Hall on East Carson Street. The right-of-way work takes an encroachment permit on top. We file all of it and stand with the inspector, and the counter is our trip.
About 6 miles along Carson Street, with no freeway between us, so the crew is on site in about 20 minutes and a truck from the plant reaches you on the same road. You hear back within 1 business day with a day for the visit, and the estimate is written before we leave the lot. Most Carson jobs start inside two weeks of your approval, later only when a City permit is in the queue.
It is once it has been checked, and not before. Carson is low and flat, much of it drained marsh and some of it former oil and tank-farm land, so firm ground and soft fill sit side by side on one street. Where the probe finds soft material we dig it out and replace it, then compact 4 inches of crushed rock in layers, and the slab sits on that rather than on whatever the tract grader left.
Two to four working days on site, then the cure. The old slab comes out on day one, the base and steel go in on day two, and the pour is one morning with the joints sawn that afternoon. You can walk on it after 24 to 48 hours and park a car on it after 7 days. Anything heavier than a car waits 28 days, when the concrete reaches its full strength.
Gardena to the north, Lomita to the southwest and Compton across the 91, all from the same office on Hawthorne Boulevard in Torrance. Each has its own page, because the ground and the permit counter change at the city line. A street with a Carson address that sits in unincorporated Rancho Dominguez is permitted by Los Angeles County rather than the City, and we file with whichever applies.
Carson shares its lines with Gardena, Compton and Lomita, and the crew covers all of them from the same Torrance office. If your street sits on one of those lines, the neighboring page names the permit counter that applies to you.
Open the Torrance Office in Google Maps Send the form or call, and we reply within 1 business day to book the visit. The estimate is free and written on the lot once the ground is probed, and it carries a written guarantee.