Hawthorne Torrance Concrete pours driveways, aprons and patios in Compton, 10 miles along Alondra Boulevard from Torrance. The cloud clears here early, so the truck comes at first light.
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Compton sits 10 miles inland, and that is far enough. The marine layer that holds a Torrance morning near 60 degrees is thin here by midmorning, and the afternoon runs warmer than the coast.
Warm, dry air changes concrete more than a hot day does. A slab loses water from its surface faster than the cement inside can use it, the top skins over while the middle is still soft, and the finish tears under the float or cracks in a fine web within the week. A slab finished at eleven in Torrance is ready at nine in Compton, and a crew still setting forms at nine is late. The old slabs here were poured thin on dirt as well, with a second pour laid against the first as the cars grew.
So a Compton pour is booked for the first truck of the day and the crew is on the lot before it. Forms and steel are set the afternoon before, the base is wetted down, and the concrete goes in as the light comes up. The surface is finished in one pass, the joints are sawn that afternoon at 10 feet, and the slab is kept wet for 7 days so the strength keeps coming. Under it is 4 inches of crushed rock compacted in layers on probed ground, and number 4 bar at 18 inches.
Compton's houses went up in one push through the 1940s and early 1950s on lots of about 50 feet, and most now hold more people and more cars than they were laid out for. The concrete here is replaced for capacity as often as for age.
Most Compton driveways were widened once already, a second slab poured beside the first with no joint between, and that seam is where they break. We take both out and pour one slab 5 inches thick over 4 inches of compacted rock, jointed at 10 feet, with the fall to the street.
A Compton back yard warms early, since the marine layer thins 10 miles inland, and a patio there is in full sun by noon most of the year. We pour it before eight, keep the surface wet through the first week, and finish it with a broom coarse enough to hold a wet foot.
Stamped work in Compton is timed to the air, not the clock. Dry afternoons pull water out of the surface faster than at the coast, so we pour at first light, stamp in one continuous pass from where the truck discharged, and seal it in 2 coats after the 28 day cure.
A sidewalk panel in Compton is the City's, and replacing one starts with a permit from the City of Compton, which we file. We saw the lifted panel out, cut the root beneath it, pour the new panel 4 inches thick to meet its neighbors flush, and broom it to match the block.
Garage floors in the Compton tracts were poured thin on dirt and now serve as a workshop, a laundry or a bedroom. We break the old one out, lay a 10 mil vapor barrier over 4 inches of compacted rock, and pour 5 inches troweled flat, so the room built on it stays dry.
Exposed aggregate and a colored border are asked for at the front of Compton houses where the driveway is the whole front yard. We pour the drive as one slab, wash the stone proud in the panels and trowel the border smooth, so the lot reads as a yard rather than a parking pad.
Compton is flat river ground, so a retaining wall here edges a raised bed or holds the step between two lots rather than a slope. We footing it 18 inches into firm sand, run drain rock and a perforated pipe behind the stem, and cap it level along the top course.
A rear unit or a converted garage in Compton needs an interior slab, and the City inspects it as a habitable floor. We pour over a vapor barrier on compacted rock, thicken the edges under the walls, and trowel it flat enough for tile, with the joints cut to the plan of the room.
The drive from our office on Hawthorne Boulevard is east along Alondra Boulevard, about 10 miles and half an hour before the traffic builds. Permits inside the city go to the City of Compton's Building and Safety Division. But a Compton address is not always in Compton. Willowbrook to the north and West Rancho Dominguez to the west are county pockets with Compton mail, and a job there is permitted by Los Angeles County Public Works, Building and Safety. We check the parcel first.
The houses are 1940s and early 1950s stucco on lots around 50 feet wide, single story, with a detached garage at the back that has often become a second unit. On the streets between Compton Boulevard and Alondra Boulevard the driveway therefore serves two households, and it was poured for one. The ground under all of it is the sandy alluvium of the Los Angeles River, which compacts well and drains, so the base is rarely the problem. The thickness of what was poured on it is.
The A Line runs down the middle of the city along Willowbrook Avenue, and the 91 marks the south edge against Carson. Between them the lots are flat and the streets are wide, so a mixer backs up to most driveways and a pump is only needed for a yard behind a rear unit. Compton College sits at the west side, and the commercial slabs along Alondra and Rosecrans go in at 6 inches with joints on an 8 foot grid, since a delivery truck is the load there, not a car.
Four stages, one crew, Kenji Okamoto at every one. The pour is booked for the first truck of the day, so the two stages before it are done the afternoon before, and the estimate says which day is which.
Kenji Okamoto measures the drive, checks which jurisdiction the parcel is in, and writes the estimate on the lot, each stage on its own line.
Both old slabs come out in a morning, the sand is probed and compacted, and 4 inches of crushed rock goes down in two lifts.
Forms and number 4 bar are set the afternoon before the pour, and the City or County inspector sees them where the job needs a permit.
Concrete arrives at daybreak, is finished by midmorning, sawn that afternoon, and kept wet for 7 days. Cars after a week.
Call or send the form and you hear back within 1 business day with a day for the visit. Every estimate is measured and written on site, each stage on its own line, and it is yours to keep whether you book us or not.
Reviews
Reviews left on Google, Facebook and the BBB by homeowners across the towns we cover, Compton among them. Each names the job and the year, and the work behind it is what this page describes.
“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.”
The questions Compton homeowners and landlords put to us at the curb. Which counter issues the permit, what moves the estimate, why the truck comes so early, and how long the drive is out of use.
Tear-out and thickness, more than area. A Compton driveway that is two old slabs poured in different decades takes longer to break out than one, and the drive that goes back is 5 inches rather than the 3 the tract left, which is more concrete for the same footprint. Access is rarely a factor on these wide flat streets. Every estimate is measured and written on site, and the phone gives no figure.
The City of Compton's Building and Safety Division if the parcel is inside the city, and Los Angeles County Public Works, Building and Safety, if it is in Willowbrook or West Rancho Dominguez, which carry Compton mail but sit outside the city line. Flatwork at grade inside your lot needs no permit under either. An apron, a sidewalk panel or a wall over 4 feet does, and we file it and meet the inspector.
You hear back within 1 business day with a day for the visit, and the estimate is written before we leave. The drive is about 10 miles along Alondra Boulevard, so the crew is on the lot before the morning traffic and the concrete is ordered from a plant near the job rather than sent across from the South Bay. Most jobs start within two weeks of your approval, later only where a permit is in the queue.
Sand, mostly, laid down by the Los Angeles River, which compacts well and drains, so the base is not usually where a Compton slab failed. The slab itself is. The tract floors and drives were poured at 3 inches or less on bare ground, and a second pour was laid against the first with no joint, so the crack runs along the seam. We break both out and pour one slab on a base of compacted rock.
Two to three working days on site for a driveway, four for a drive and a garage floor together. Tear-out is the first day, the base and steel the second, and the pour is one early morning with the joints sawn that afternoon. Walk on it after 24 to 48 hours, park a car on it after 7 days, and keep anything heavier off it for 28.
Yes. Carson across the 91, Lynwood and South Gate to the east, Paramount to the southeast and Gardena to the west are all covered from the same Torrance office, and each has a page of its own because the permit counter and the ground change at the line. If your street is on a boundary, call and we will say which page and which counter is yours.
Compton borders Carson, Lynwood, Paramount and Gardena, with South Gate a mile further east, and every one is covered from the same office. Your street may sit on a line, and the page next door tells you what changes when it does.
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 site, the pour goes in at first light, and it carries a written guarantee.