Hawthorne Torrance Concrete pours driveways, garage slabs and side yards in Lynwood, 10 miles from Torrance by the 405 and the 105. Every estimate is measured and written on site, no fee.
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Lynwood sits on river silt. Before the Los Angeles River was put in its concrete channel the water spread across this plain every wet winter, and it left fine sand and silt that hold water and soften.
Silt is the awkward ground between sand and clay. It drains slowly, so after a wet week in January the top foot under a Lynwood yard is saturated, and a slab poured straight onto it settles wherever the silt was softest and cracks over the line between wet and dry. It does not swell the way the clay of the Palos Verdes Hills does, so the failure here is a slab that sinks at one corner rather than one that lifts, and a garage floor down an inch at the door is the usual call.
So the subgrade is probed with a rod on the first visit and again after the tear-out, and any soft silt is dug out and replaced. The base is 4 inches of crushed rock over a geotextile, because rock laid straight onto wet silt is pumped down into it under the first truck, and it is compacted in two lifts. Steel is number 4 rebar at 18 inches, the slab is 4 inches under a car and 5 where a work truck parks, and it is graded to send water to the street, because on a flat lot it stays.
Lynwood is on the flood plain of the Los Angeles River, ground the river spread as silt and fine sand for centuries before its channel was lined in concrete. Every slab here goes onto that silt, and what we pour is chosen and built for it.
Lynwood drives are long and narrow, a single lane from the apron to the garage at the back of a 40 foot lot. We pour them 5 inches thick on compacted rock over geotextile, because the silt under them softens every January, and grade them so water leaves for the street.
A patio in Lynwood is the back yard made usable, usually against a garage or a second unit, on ground that stays wet after rain. We dig out any soft silt, lay geotextile and 4 inches of rock, pour 4 inches with steel at 18 inches, and joint it every 10 feet, sloped off the walls.
Stamped concrete in Lynwood goes in at the front, a tile or brick pattern across the drive and the walk to the door where the street sees it. We cast the pattern on the same rock base a plain drive gets, 5 inches where a truck parks, and seal it in 2 coats at 28 days.
The public walk along a Lynwood street is the city's and needs a Public Works permit, and a lifted panel there is often the reason a whole front is redone. The walk from the gate to the door is yours. We dowel each new panel into the old so the joint stays flush and closed.
Garage floors in Lynwood date from the 1920s to the 1950s, poured thin on bare silt, and most have dropped at the door. We break them out, replace the soft ground, base and pour 5 inches troweled flat, the floor a garage needs before it becomes a unit under the state's ADU law.
Integral color and exposed aggregate are asked for on Lynwood drives because a plain gray slab across a whole front yard reads as a parking lot. We color the mix or seed the stone, broom or wash it the same evening once the inland sun has set it, and seal it at 28 days.
Lynwood is flat, so a wall here holds a raised bed or the step between a lot and the freeway embankment, not a hillside. What it needs is a footing wide enough for silt, which spreads a load poorly when wet, and a drain behind the stem, because water held against it stays.
Interior floors in Lynwood are for garages converted to units and for additions. The slab is poured over a 10 mil barrier so ground water in the silt cannot rise through it, troweled flat enough to tile, and cut on a joint grid set by the room, thickened under any wall.
From our office on Hawthorne Boulevard the 405 north and the 105 east put a crew at the Long Beach Boulevard exit in the middle of Lynwood in about 25 minutes outside the rush, and the Century Freeway is why the trip is that short, cut across the city in the 1980s and opened in 1993. Plans go to the Building and Safety Division at City Hall on Bullis Road, and the apron, the parkway and the public walk are the city's, so those need a Public Works permit as well, which we file too.
The freeway also made the lots. The houses along its edge back onto a sound wall on land that was regraded when the corridor was cleared, and a yard there is a different dig from one on the streets between Imperial Highway and the Compton line, where 1920s and 1940s houses sit on ground that has settled undisturbed for a century. Long Beach Boulevard and Atlantic Avenue are the shopping streets, and the side streets off them are the narrow lots, 40 or 50 feet wide, one drive each.
Water decides the calendar. Lynwood is far enough inland that the marine layer burns off by mid-morning most days from May to July, so a pour here sets faster than one on the coast and finishing starts sooner, and from November to March a wet week leaves the silt too soft to compact, so we wait for it to drain rather than pour on it. The lots are flat, so a slab is given its fall to the street on purpose, and where a drive runs back to a second unit a drain takes the water.
Four stages, one crew, and the silt is probed twice. Nothing is agreed until the estimate has been written at the property, and nothing is formed until the subgrade has been checked again after the tear-out.
Kenji Okamoto measures the slab, rods the ground for soft silt, walks the drive to the back of the lot and writes the estimate on the spot.
The old slab comes out, soft silt is dug and replaced, geotextile goes down and 4 inches of crushed rock is compacted in two lifts.
We file with Building and Safety at City Hall on Bullis Road and with Public Works for the apron, and we meet the inspector at the base.
Two days on site for most Lynwood jobs. Joints are cut the same afternoon, feet after 24 hours, cars after 7 days and trucks after 28.
Call or send the form and we reply within 1 business day with a day for the visit. We come out on the 105, measure, probe the silt and write the figure at the property, and there is no charge and no obligation.
Reviews
Reviews left on Google, Facebook and the BBB by homeowners across the towns we cover, quoted as they were written and each about a different job. Lynwood is one of those towns.
“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.”
Cost, permits, the silt, the freeway trip, how long a drive is out of use and where else we work, answered as we answer them on a Lynwood doorstep. The visit is free and the estimate is written before we leave.
How much of the old slab has to come out, then what is under it. A Lynwood drive runs the length of the lot, so a tear-out is long and narrow and is carried out through the same drive, and soft silt found under it is dug and replaced before the base goes in. Thickness is next, 5 inches where a work truck parks. Every estimate is measured and written on site, with the tear-out, the base and the pour itemized.
Not for the part inside your lot line, which the California Residential Code exempts as flatwork at grade. The apron, the parkway and the public walk are the city's, and take a Public Works permit, and a slab under a new unit or a wall over 4 feet takes a building permit from the Building and Safety Division at City Hall on Bullis Road. We file whichever the job needs and are there for the inspection.
Because the silt under it was soft and the slab had no base. Garages in Lynwood were poured from the 1920s to the 1950s at 3 inches or less on bare ground, and river silt under a heavy corner settles a little every wet winter until the door catches. We break the slab out, dig the soft ground, lay geotextile and compacted rock, and pour 5 inches with the steel held up in the middle, so the load is spread out.
Nine days from the first morning, for most. Tear-out and base are the first day, the pour is the second morning and the joints are cut that afternoon, then 24 hours before you walk on it and 7 days before a car. Where the drive is the only way to units at the back, we pour it in two halves a day apart so a car can always get past, and we say which half comes first.
Ten miles and about 25 minutes. The 405 north from Torrance meets the 105 near the airport, and the 105 east runs across Lynwood to an exit at Long Beach Boulevard, so the crew is in the middle of the city without leaving a freeway. We reply to a call or the form within 1 business day with a day for the visit, and we group Lynwood jobs into the same week so a small one is worth the trip.
South Gate to the north and east, Compton to the south, and Florence-Graham to the northwest, all from the same office. The ground is the same river silt across every one of them, so the base we build is the same, and what changes is the size of the lot and which counter issues the permit, since Florence-Graham is unincorporated and its permits come from Los Angeles County.
Lynwood borders South Gate, Compton and the unincorporated streets of Florence-Graham, and we cover all of them from the same office in Torrance. The silt runs under every one, so the base is the same, and each town's page says what changes at the line.
Open the Torrance Office in Google Maps Send the form and we call back within 1 business day to book the visit. The estimate is free and written at the property, and the work carries a written guarantee.