Hawthorne Torrance Concrete pours parking slabs, driveways and walks in Hawthorne, 5 miles up the boulevard in our name. Every estimate is measured and written on site, and the visit is free.
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Hawthorne concrete carries more cars per lot than any town we cover. A duplex on a 50 foot lot off Prairie Avenue parks 4 cars on one drive, and a 1960s court parks 12 on the slab behind the building.
A slab that carries that much traffic fails in a particular way. It was poured 3 or 4 inches thick when the building went up, with no joints and no steel, and sixty years of cars turning on the same spot have broken it into plates that rock. The sand under most of Hawthorne drains well and is not the problem. The problem is the load, and a landlord who patches the plates with asphalt every spring is paying for the same slab twice a decade without ever owning a sound one.
So the specification here is set by the traffic. A parking slab is poured 5 inches thick on 4 inches of compacted rock, 6 inches where a work van or a truck parks, with number 4 steel on an 18 inch grid and joints sawn every 10 feet so the panels move as a set. The drive is poured in halves on a court, so half the stalls stay open through the job and no tenant is asked to park on the street for a week. The old slab goes out the same way, one half at a time.
About 1 home in 4 in Hawthorne is lived in by its owner, so the caller here is as often a landlord as a resident, and the work follows. Parking slabs under courts, walks between units, and duplex drives, planned so tenants keep their cars.
A Hawthorne driveway is shared by a duplex more often than not, so it is poured for the 4 cars that turn on it rather than the 1 it was built for. That means 5 inches over compacted rock with number 4 steel, jointed every 10 feet so it cracks where we cut, not where cars turn.
A patio behind a Hawthorne rental is the one outdoor space the tenants have, so it is poured to be walked on daily and hosed down. Four inches with a broom finish for grip, graded away from the building, and jointed so the panels stay level under the table and the grill.
Stamped concrete gives a Hawthorne front yard the look of pavers with nothing for weeds or a tenant's tire to lift. The pattern is stamped into a 4 inch slab in ashlar or running bond, the color goes through it so a chip does not show, and it is sealed in 2 coats.
The walk between units on a Hawthorne court is where a tenant trips and a landlord is called, so a lifted panel is replaced rather than ground down. The new panel matches the old walk in width and level, is doweled to it, and the joint between them never becomes a step.
Hawthorne garage slabs under a 1950s court were poured 3 inches thick with no base, and the cars have broken them into plates. The plates come out, rock and a vapor barrier go in, and 5 inches is poured and troweled flat, one bay at a time so the other cars stay parked.
Exposed aggregate suits a Hawthorne entry court because the stone hides tire marks and oil better than a plain broom finish does. The stone is seeded into the surface, the cement washed back the same afternoon so the aggregate stands proud, and the slab sealed after its cure.
A retaining wall in flat Hawthorne is a property line wall holding a neighbor's yard a foot or two above yours, or the edge of a raised parking pad. It is footed 18 inches into firm sand, drained behind the stem so water never builds against it, and topped level for fencing.
An ADU in a Hawthorne garage or a laundry room added to a court needs an interior slab flat enough to floor over. It is poured 4 inches thick over a vapor barrier, troweled smooth for tile or plank, and the joints are set where a wall will cover them so nothing shows in the room.
Hawthorne Boulevard runs north from our office in Torrance through Lawndale into Hawthorne without a turn, which is where the business took its name and why a crew is here inside 15 minutes. The permits are the City of Hawthorne Building Division's, at City Hall on West 126th Street, one for a wall or an ADU slab and an encroachment permit where the apron or the sidewalk is touched. Both are filed by us, and the inspector meets us at the base.
Not every Hawthorne address is in the city. Del Aire and Wiseburn on the west side, and Lennox to the north, are unincorporated Los Angeles County and take their permits from the County, so the first thing we check is the parcel. Inside the city, Holly Glen west of the 405 is 1950s single family tract and the streets around Moneta Gardens in the southeast are duplexes and courts, and the two ask for different jobs on the same sandy ground.
The 105 was cut along the north edge of the city in the 1990s and took whole streets with it, the Beach Boys' childhood house on West 119th Street among them, so the blocks nearest it are the newest in town and the ones with the soundest slabs. South of Rosecrans Avenue the housing is older and the concrete with it. The airport and the SpaceX plant on Crenshaw Boulevard bring us the shop forecourts and the loading aprons, poured at 6 inches for the trucks.
Four stages, and the order matters more here than anywhere, because a court full of tenants has to keep parking through the job. Each stage is priced on its own line before the first one starts, and the written figure is the figure.
Kenji Okamoto counts the cars, measures the slab, probes the sand under it and writes the estimate at the property, line by line.
Any permit is filed with the City on West 126th Street, or the County for a pocket, and the halves and the days are agreed with the tenants.
The old plates come out one half at a time, 4 inches of rock is compacted in layers, and the base and the steel are inspected.
One morning to pour and finish, the joints sawn that afternoon, and the cars move onto the new half after 7 days while the other half is done.
Call or use the form and you hear back within 1 business day with a date. For a rental we meet you or your manager at the property, measure, and write the figure there, itemized so it can go straight into the books.
Reviews
Reviews from Google, Facebook and the BBB, left by customers across the South Bay, Hawthorne among them. Each names a different job, and the jobs are the ones 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 owners and landlords in Hawthorne ask before they book, on cost, permits from City Hall, keeping tenants parked through the job, the sand under the city, timing and the county pockets.
The number of cars the slab has to carry, then how many can stay parked while it is poured. A court that needs pouring in halves takes an extra day on site, and a slab for trucks goes to 6 inches from 5, and both are on the estimate as their own lines. Area moves it least. We measure at the property on a free visit and the figure is written before we go.
None for flatwork inside the lot line. The apron and the sidewalk out front are the City's, and take an encroachment permit, while a wall past 4 feet high or a slab under an ADU takes a building permit, both issued by the City of Hawthorne Building Division at City Hall on West 126th Street. If the parcel is in Del Aire, Wiseburn or Lennox, the permit is the County's instead, and we check that first.
Yes, and it is how most Hawthorne courts are done. The slab is poured in halves, so half the stalls stay open while the other half is broken out, based and poured, and the sides swap after 7 days when the first half will take a car. It adds a day or two on site and it is written on the estimate, but nobody parks on the street for a week.
Sand, for most of the city, and it is good ground for a slab. It drains, it compacts, and it does not swell in a wet winter the way clay does on the hills to the south. The old slabs here failed from thin pours and heavy traffic, not from the ground. We still compact the subgrade and lay 4 inches of rock, since sand that has been dug and backfilled around a building is loose until it is compacted again.
Two to three working days on site for a driveway or a garage slab, four for a parking court poured in halves, then 7 days before a car goes on the new concrete. Feet are fine after 24 hours. A wall or an ADU slab waits on the City's permit review before the start date, and the marine layer here does not delay a pour, only rain does.
Yes. They have Hawthorne addresses and Hawthorne is the nearest city hall, but they are unincorporated and the County issues their permits, so the paperwork goes to a different counter and the inspection is booked with the County. The ground, the crew and the specification are the same as inside the city, and so is the drive from our office in Torrance.
Hawthorne touches Lawndale, Gardena, El Segundo and Manhattan Beach, and the county areas of Del Aire, Wiseburn and Lennox. All four cities are covered from the office in Torrance, and a property on a city line is on the page next door.
Open the Torrance Office in Google Maps Send the form and we call back within 1 business day to set the visit. The estimate is written at the property at no charge, and the finished slab carries a written guarantee.