Hawthorne Torrance Concrete pours slabs, drives, walls and footings in Lomita, 3 miles south of our office by way of Pacific Coast Highway. The estimate is written on site, in full, at no charge.
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Lomita sits where the South Bay plain runs into the Palos Verdes Hills. West of Narbonne Avenue the lots climb, east of it they flatten toward Harbor City, and one half acre can hold both grounds.
The two grounds move differently, and a slab that crosses from one to the other cracks at the line. The hill toe is clay and weathered rock washed down from the slopes, and it swells in a wet February and shrinks by October, lifting a corner of anything poured on it. The flat east side is sandy and stable, but it lies low toward the old Bixby Slough at Machado Lake, so it drains slowly and holds water under a slab all winter. A 1950s garage floor is heaved on one and damp on the other.
So the first thing done on a Lomita visit is to find out which ground the slab is on, with a probe bar, and often the answer is both. On the clay the base goes deeper, 6 inches of rock rather than 4, the edges are thickened and the joints set closer so the swelling has more places to go. On the low side the base is drained and a vapor barrier goes under any roofed slab. Where one pour crosses both, a joint is cut on the line and each half is built to its own ground.
Lomita was laid out as a farming colony in acre lots, and though most have been split since, its lots are still the largest of any town we cover. The work follows the space. Second houses down a flag drive, walls at the hill toe, garage slabs.
A Lomita driveway is the stem of a flag lot as often as a straight run to a garage, and it is the one slab every car on the property crosses. We pour it 5 inches thick, 6 where a truck or trailer parks, with number 4 steel and a joint on the line where clay gives way to sand.
A patio on a Lomita half acre is large, and on the west side it sits on clay that lifts a corner every winter. We dig to firm ground, put 6 inches of compacted rock under it, thicken the edges, and joint it every 8 feet so the swelling goes into the cuts, then broom it for grip.
Stamped concrete on a Lomita lot usually replaces the mix of brick, pavers and old slab that a big yard collects over 60 years. The pattern is a flagstone or a wood plank texture in a 4 inch slab, colored through so a chip never shows white, and sealed in 2 coats once cured.
A walk on a Lomita lot can be 100 feet from the street to a second house, and it crosses the same two grounds the drive does. We pour it 4 inches thick on compacted rock, joint it every 5 feet, and on the hill side thicken the edge so the clay cannot tip a panel into a trip.
A Lomita garage on the west side has a floor heaved at its uphill corner, because the clay under it swells and a 3 inch slab could not hold it down. We break it out, dig to firm ground, compact 6 inches of rock, and pour 5 inches with thickened edges over a vapor barrier.
Exposed aggregate suits a Lomita entry because the stone hides the dust a big lot with bare ground throws up, and it gives grip on the slope up from the street. The stone is seeded into a 4 inch slab, the paste washed off that afternoon and the slab sealed after the cure.
A retaining wall in Lomita holds the hill toe, and the clay behind it pushes hardest in March when it is wettest. We foot it 24 inches into the weathered rock below the clay, run a drain and gravel the full height to weeps at the base, and double the steel above 4 feet.
A second house on a Lomita lot needs an interior slab on ground that is clay on one side of town and low, damp sand on the other. We build to whichever it is, 6 inches of rock and thickened edges on clay, a drained base on the flat, and a heavy vapor barrier under 4 inches.
Our office is on Hawthorne Boulevard in Torrance, and the run south to Pacific Coast Highway and east puts a crew in Lomita in about 10 minutes. Permits are issued by the City of Lomita Community Development Department at City Hall on Narbonne Avenue, for a wall, a slab under a room, the apron or the public walk. East of Western Avenue the address is Harbor City and the City of Los Angeles, whose Department of Building and Safety takes the permit instead, so we check the line first.
The big lots are why Lomita builds more second units than a tract town, and why a job here is often reached down a flag drive 100 feet long between two neighbors' fences. A truck cannot turn in one, so the concrete is pumped from the street, and the drive itself is usually part of the job, since a flag lot's stem is the one slab every car and every delivery crosses. The Lomita Railroad Museum on 250th Street sits among exactly these lots, on the colony's old grid.
Pacific Coast Highway crosses the city as its main road and the aprons on it are the ones we plan hardest, because the encroachment permit comes with the highway's own hours for closing a lane. Lomita Boulevard and Narbonne Avenue are the other two, and the streets between them are quiet enough to park a pump on for a morning. The marine layer reaches Lomita late and burns off early, so pours run cooler on the hill than the flat, and the calendar is set by winter rain.
Four stages, the first of them deciding which ground the slab is on, because everything after it follows from that. Each has its own line on the estimate, agreed before any of them begins.
Kenji Okamoto probes the lot on the hill side and the flat, measures the job and the drive to it, and writes the estimate at the property.
Any permit goes to City Hall on Narbonne Avenue, or to Los Angeles Building and Safety east of Western Avenue, and the pump is booked.
Clay is dug to firm ground and 6 inches of rock compacted over it, the flat side gets a drained base, and the steel is inspected.
One morning to pour, joints cut that afternoon on the line where the ground changes, and the slab kept wet for 7 days before a car.
Call or send the form and a day is fixed within 1 business day. Kenji Okamoto probes the ground on both sides of the lot, measures the job and the flag drive to it, and writes the figure at the property.
Reviews
Reviews on Google, Facebook and the BBB from homeowners across the South Bay, Lomita among them. Every one is about a different job, and the jobs are the kind 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 we hear on a Lomita visit, on cost, permits from City Hall and the Los Angeles line, the clay at the hill toe, the low ground on the east side, reaching a flag lot, and how long the work takes.
Which ground the slab is on, then how far it is from the street. Clay at the hill toe means a deeper base and thickened edges, and a flag lot means a pump, and each is its own line on the estimate. Area comes after both. The lot is probed and measured on a free visit and the figure written there, since two Lomita lots of the same size are seldom on the same ground.
The City of Lomita Community Development Department at City Hall on Narbonne Avenue, for a wall over 4 feet, a slab under a second unit and any work at the apron or the public walk. Flatwork inside the lot line needs no permit. East of Western Avenue the address is Harbor City in the City of Los Angeles, and the permit comes from its Department of Building and Safety, so we confirm the parcel before we file.
Because the corner is on clay and the rest is not. West of Narbonne Avenue the hill toe runs under the lots, and clay swells when the winter rain reaches it and shrinks by fall, so a thin slab with no base rides up and down at that corner and cracks across the middle. A new slab on 6 inches of compacted rock with thickened edges and joints every 8 feet stays flat because the movement has somewhere to go.
Yes. A concrete truck cannot turn into a flag drive between two fences, so it parks on the street and a line pump carries the concrete 100 feet or more to the back of the lot. The pump is a line on the estimate and the drive is protected while it is used. Where the flag stem itself is being replaced, it is poured last, so the pump and the crew have finished using it.
Two or three working days on site for a drive or a garage slab, 4 or 5 for a long wall at the hill toe, and 7 days of cure before a car goes on new concrete. Digging out clay to firm ground is the day that varies, since the depth is not known until the probe goes in, and the estimate allows for it. A wall or a second unit slab waits on the City's permit before the start.
Only if the water under it is ignored. The flat ground east of Narbonne Avenue slopes toward Machado Lake and drains slowly, so a slab there sits on damp sand through the winter. That does not lift it the way clay does, but it keeps a garage floor sweating and a patio green. A drained rock base and a vapor barrier under any covered slab keep the damp below the concrete, where it does no harm.
Lomita borders Torrance to the north and west, Rolling Hills Estates on the hill to the southwest, and the Los Angeles districts of Harbor City and Wilmington to the east, and Rancho Palos Verdes and Carson near. Every city named is served from one office.
Open the Torrance Office in Google Maps Send the form and we ring back within 1 business day to set the visit. The estimate is written on the lot and costs nothing, and the finished work carries a written guarantee.