Hawthorne Torrance Concrete pours driveways, patios and garage slabs in El Segundo, 9 miles up Sepulveda Boulevard from Torrance. The town stands on dune sand, and a slab here is formed for it.
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El Segundo stands on the El Segundo dunes. The sand under every lot between Imperial Highway and El Segundo Boulevard is the same sheet the dune preserve west of the airport runways still shows bare.
Sand is a good base and a bad wall. It compacts hard when damp and it drains, which is why the 1920s and 1940s slabs here have outlasted their thickness. But it will not hold a vertical face. A trench cut in dry sand slumps within the hour, so a footing here is formed on both sides rather than poured against the ground, and a driveway edge is formed to full depth. Add the salt in the air, which finds steel through any unsealed surface, and a slab here needs more cover and a sealer.
So the forms here are heavier than elsewhere and the trench is shored before anyone steps in it. The sand is wetted and compacted, 4 inches of crushed rock goes down in layers, and number 4 bar is chaired at 18 inches with 3 inches of cover on the side that faces the ocean. The pour is sawn at 10 feet that afternoon and kept wet for 7 days against the wind, then sealed at 28 days with a penetrating sealer and resealed every 2 to 3 years, which the coast asks of any slab near the water.
El Segundo is one square mile of houses between the refinery and the airport, on lots of 40 to 50 feet being rebuilt two stories at a time. The concrete that comes with a rebuild, the drive, the garage slab and the yard, is most of what we pour.
An El Segundo driveway is short, since the lots are shallow, and carries a two-story house's cars on 40 feet of frontage. We form it on the sand, compact 4 inches of crushed rock, and pour 5 inches with number 4 bar at 18 inches, sawn at 10 feet and sealed against the salt.
Back yards in El Segundo are small and the wind off the ocean is steady, which dries a fresh surface faster than the temperature suggests. We pour a patio early, keep it wet through the first week, and finish it with a broom that holds a wet foot, jointed every 10 feet.
Stamped concrete in El Segundo is sealed more often than inland, because salt in the air reaches an unsealed surface within a season. We pour at first light, stamp in one continuous pass and apply 2 coats of sealer after the 28 day cure, then reseal it every 2 to 3 years.
El Segundo's public walks are the City's, and the parkway trees on the older streets off Main Street have lifted many panels. We take the permit out with the City, saw the panel, cut the root, and pour the new panel 4 inches thick flush with its neighbors, broomed to match.
The garage slab under a 1940s El Segundo house was poured thin on the sand, and a rebuild or a conversion needs a floor that is flat and dry. We break it out, lay a 10 mil vapor barrier over 4 inches of compacted rock, and pour 5 inches troweled flat for a coating or a room.
Exposed aggregate suits an El Segundo front, where the lots are narrow and the drive is most of what the street sees. We wash the stone proud the same afternoon, saw the joints the next morning, and seal it after it cures, since salt air stains an open surface within a year.
El Segundo is nearly flat, so a wall here holds a raised bed or the grade between two rebuilt lots rather than a slope. Sand runs when it is cut, so the footing trench is shored and formed on both sides, drained behind the stem, and the wall is capped level along its length.
A rear unit or a converted garage in El Segundo needs an interior slab the City inspects as a floor. We pour it over a vapor barrier on compacted rock, thicken the edge under the walls to the engineer's drawing, and trowel it flat enough for tile, jointed on the room's grid.
The drive from our office on Hawthorne Boulevard is about 9 miles up Sepulveda Boulevard, past the Manhattan Beach line and into El Segundo at Rosecrans, with no freeway, so the crew is on site in half an hour and a truck from the plant follows the same road. Permits go to the City of El Segundo's Planning and Building Safety Department at City Hall on Main Street, and a curb cut or a walk panel is inspected before the pour. We file it and meet the inspector.
The houses sit between the Chevron refinery on the south and the airport on the north, west of Sepulveda Boulevard, in a grid that began in the 1910s when the refinery opened and filled through the 1940s and 1950s with the aerospace plants across Sepulveda. Off Main Street and Richmond Street the bungalows are 1920s on 40 foot lots, and toward Grand Avenue they are postwar. Many are now two-story rebuilds, and the drive and garage slab that come with a rebuild are our usual job here.
Everything here faces the weather. The marine layer sits on the town through June and the wind off the water runs all afternoon, so a slab loses water from its surface faster than the thermometer says and we keep every pour wet for a week. Salt travels on that wind, so the bar gets more cover and the surface gets a sealer at 28 days. The one thing the coast gives back is the sand, which drains so well that a patio set to fall away from the house has nowhere to hold a puddle.
Four stages, one crew, Kenji Okamoto at every one. The forms and the shoring are the difference on sand, so they are set the day before and inspected before the truck is called, and the estimate names the day for each.
Kenji Okamoto measures the lot, checks the width of the frontage and the side access, and writes the estimate on site before he leaves.
The old slab comes out, the sand is wetted and compacted, edges and footings are formed on both sides, and 4 inches of rock is compacted in.
Curb, walk and wall work is filed with the City of El Segundo, and the inspector sees the forms and the steel before the pour.
One morning's pour, joints sawn that afternoon, kept wet for 7 days against the wind, sealed at 28. Feet after 2 days, cars after 7.
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, with the forming and the sealer on their own lines, and it costs nothing and binds you to nothing.
Reviews
Reviews left on Google, Facebook and the BBB by homeowners across the beach cities and the South Bay, El Segundo among them. Each names the job and the year, and the work 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.”
What El Segundo homeowners ask before they book. What the sand does to the estimate, which permits the City wants, how far the crew comes, why the coast needs a sealer, and how long a drive is out of use.
Forming and access, more than area. On sand a footing or a driveway edge is formed on both faces instead of poured against the trench, which is lumber and crew hours a job inland does not carry, and the lots are narrow enough that a back yard is often pumped over the house. Thickness and tear-out move it after that. Every estimate is measured and written on site, with the forming on its own line.
Not for a driveway, patio or walk inside your lot at grade. You do for the apron and curb cut, any panel of the public walk, a retaining wall over 4 feet and any slab a unit will stand on, and those go to the City of El Segundo's Planning and Building Safety Department at City Hall on Main Street. We file the paperwork and meet the inspector, and you never see the counter.
About 9 miles up Sepulveda Boulevard, with no freeway between, so the crew is on site in half an hour and the concrete follows 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 El Segundo jobs start within two weeks of approval, later only when a City permit is in the queue.
Not under the slab, and yes at its edges. Damp sand compacts hard and drains, so a base on it holds. Dry sand will not stand in a trench, so every footing and every thickened edge here is formed on both sides and shored before anyone works in it. The bar also gets extra cover, because the same wind that dries the sand carries salt to the steel, and the face gets a sealer at 28 days.
Two to three working days on site, then the cure. Tear-out and forming take the first day, the base and steel the second, and the pour is one morning with the joints sawn that afternoon. You walk on it after 24 to 48 hours and park on it after 7 days. The sealer goes on at 28 days, when the slab has its full strength, and the drive is not out of use for that.
Manhattan Beach to the south and Hawthorne to the east are covered from the same Torrance office, and each has its own page. The blocks north of Imperial Highway are the City of Los Angeles, and Del Aire east of the 405 is unincorporated county, so a permit on either side goes to a different counter than the one on Main Street. We check the parcel before we file anything.
El Segundo shares its south line with Manhattan Beach and its east with Hawthorne across the 405, and both are covered from the same office. The beach cities share the sand and the salt, and their pages say what changes at each line.
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, the forming on its own line, and it carries a written guarantee.