Hawthorne Torrance Concrete pours driveways, walks and steps in Palos Verdes Estates, 5 miles from Torrance by Palos Verdes Boulevard. Every estimate is measured and written on site, for free.
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Palos Verdes Estates was planned before it was built. The Olmsted Brothers laid it out in the 1920s with deed restrictions that still hold, so the ground and the rules both decide the work.
The ground is the older of the two. The city sits on marine terraces stepped up the side of the Palos Verdes Hills, flat shelves of old sea floor over the shale of the Monterey Formation, and the soil on them is a clay that swells through a wet winter and shrinks by fall. A drive on a terrace is on the flattest ground on the peninsula, but the lots at the front of each shelf fall to the next one down, and the bluff lots along Paseo del Mar sit on ground the ocean is still cutting.
So the subgrade is dug to firm material and the base drained, the slab is jointed closer than on the plain, and a footing goes 18 inches into undisturbed ground rather than into whatever was graded over it. Then the drawing. Anything that shows from the street is drawn to scale with the finish and color noted, submitted to the Art Jury and only then to the city, and we do the submittal, because a slab poured before that approval breaks the restrictions in the deed of every lot.
Nothing in Palos Verdes Estates is built without being looked at first. The Art Jury of the Palos Verdes Homes Association has passed on the outside of every house since the 1920s, and a drive or a wall that shows from the street goes before it.
Drives in Palos Verdes Estates are seen from the street and reviewed by the Art Jury, so a plain broom is the exception and a colored or exposed finish the rule. On the Valmonte and Lunada Bay ranch lots they are 1950s two-car drives on clay, torn out and poured on drained base.
A patio here is usually behind the house on a terrace lot, out of the Art Jury's sight and on the flattest ground on the peninsula. We dig the clay to firm material, lay 4 inches of drained rock, pour and joint it every 10 feet, and dowel it to the house slab, never butt it.
Stamped concrete in Palos Verdes Estates is asked for as a Spanish tile or a cut-stone pattern to sit with the Malaga Cove houses, and the Art Jury sees the sample first. We cast the pattern into a 4 inch slab in the color approved, seal it at 28 days, and it needs no resanding.
The city keeps the public walks, and on most terrace streets there are none, the lawn running to the curb. The front walk is yours, and on a lot above the street it becomes steps and landings the Art Jury reviews. We pour them 4 inches thick and dowel new into old so none lift.
Garage slabs under the 1950s ranch houses of Lunada Bay and Valmonte were poured thin on clay and have heaved along the door line. We break them out, dig to firm ground, base and drain it, and pour 5 inches troweled flat and tied to the footing so the door meets the slab again.
Exposed aggregate and a seeded pebble finish are what most drives in Palos Verdes Estates end up as, because they read as stone from the street and the Art Jury passes them readily. We seed the stone into a 4 inch slab, wash it the same evening and seal it at 28 days.
Montemalaga and the front lots of every terrace step from one shelf to the next, and the walls that hold the step are in clay that pushes hardest in February. A wall here is footed 18 inches into undisturbed ground, drained behind the stem, and capped to the Art Jury's drawing.
Interior floors in Palos Verdes Estates go into additions and the garages of 1950s houses being made into rooms. We pour over a 10 mil vapor barrier on compacted base, because the clay under a house here holds water, trowel it flat enough for tile and cut joints on the room grid.
Palos Verdes Boulevard leaves Torrance through the Hollywood Riviera and becomes Palos Verdes Drive West at the city line, so a crew from our office on Hawthorne Boulevard is at Malaga Cove in about 15 minutes. The city's Planning and Building Department is at City Hall on Palos Verdes Drive West, and it expects the Art Jury's approval to be in hand when a plan is filed. We submit to the Homes Association first, then to the city, and meet the inspector at the base and at the steel.
Malaga Cove is the oldest part of the city, Spanish Colonial Revival houses from the 1920s and 1930s on the terrace above the plaza, with drives of brick, tile and concrete that the Art Jury asks to see matched, not replaced with something plainer. Valmonte, on the north slope facing Torrance, and Lunada Bay to the south went up as ranch houses in the 1950s and 1960s on wider lots, and these are the two-car drives and the back patios now being torn out and poured again.
Montemalaga, the highest of the four, came last and sits on the steepest ground, so its drives climb and its yards are cut into the slope, which is where most of our retaining walls in the city go. The whole city is a mile or two from the water, and the marine layer holds the morning near 60 degrees into June, so a pour here sets slowly and is finished late, and a sealer goes on every bluff-side slab at 28 days because the salt reaches it every morning.
Four stages, and the second one is a drawing. A job here is measured and written at the property first, then drawn for the Art Jury, and nothing is formed until both the Homes Association and the city have signed.
Kenji Okamoto measures the work, probes the clay, notes what shows from the street and writes the estimate before leaving the property.
We draw the slab to scale with finish and color noted, submit it to the Art Jury, then file the plan with the city and wait for both signatures.
The old slab comes out, the clay is dug to firm ground, and a drained base of 4 inches of crushed rock goes in and is plate-compacted.
Two or three days on site. Joints are cut the same afternoon, walk on it after 24 hours, park after 7 days, and we leave the street swept.
Call or send the form and we reply within 1 business day with a day for the visit. We measure, probe the ground, say what will need the Art Jury's approval and write the figure at the property, at no charge and with no obligation.
Reviews
Reviews left on Google, Facebook and the BBB by homeowners across the South Bay, quoted as they were written. Palos Verdes Estates is among the towns, and the work behind them is the work above.
“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, the Art Jury, the clay, the drive to reach you and how long the drive is out of use, answered as we answer them at the door in Palos Verdes Estates. The visit is free and the figure is written on site.
The finish, then the ground. A drive that shows from the street is likely to be asked for in a color or an exposed finish to match the house, and that is a different pour from a plain broom. Under it, a lot on clay needs a deeper dig and a drained base, and a lot that falls to the street needs a thickened edge. Every estimate is measured and written on site, with each of those on its own line.
Yes if it shows from the street, and nearly every drive does. The Palos Verdes Homes Association reviews the outside of every property under the deed restrictions the Olmsteds wrote in the 1920s, and a drive, a front walk or a wall goes to it as a drawing with the finish and color noted. A patio behind the house that no neighbor sees usually does not. We prepare and submit the drawing as part of the job.
The city's Planning and Building Department, at City Hall on Palos Verdes Drive West in Malaga Cove. Flatwork inside the lot line at grade is exempt under the California Residential Code, but a retaining wall over 4 feet, a footing that carries a structure, or any work at the curb or the public walk needs a permit, and the city expects the Art Jury's approval in hand when the plan is filed. We file it.
On the terraces, yes, with a base that drains. The city sits on old marine terraces over shale, and the soil on them is a clay that swells wet and shrinks dry, which cracks a slab poured straight onto it but not one on 4 inches of drained rock with joints cut close. The bluff edge along Paseo del Mar is the exception, and there we keep a footing well back from the face and say so on the estimate.
Longer to start than to build. The Art Jury meets on a schedule and the city reviews after it, so allow a few weeks from the signed estimate to the first day on site, and we tell you the dates as they come. The work itself is 2 or 3 days, then 24 hours before you walk on it and 7 days before a car. Joints are cut the afternoon of the pour.
About 5 miles by Palos Verdes Boulevard, which leaves Torrance through the Hollywood Riviera and becomes Palos Verdes Drive West at the city line, and the crew is at Malaga Cove in about 15 minutes with a loaded truck. Lunada Bay and Montemalaga are a few minutes further along the drive. We are in the city most weeks, so a second visit to check a drying slab is not a long one.
Palos Verdes Estates borders Torrance, Rolling Hills Estates and Rancho Palos Verdes, and we cover all three from the same office on Hawthorne Boulevard. The ground changes at each line, from the terraces here to the moving hill south, as each page says.
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.