Hawthorne Torrance Concrete pours shared drives, aprons and patios in Redondo Beach, one city over, on sand that holds a slab only once confined. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
5.0 Stars Rated by our customers · Google, Facebook and the BBB
Redondo Beach sits on the old dune line. From the Esplanade back to Artesia Boulevard the ground is beach sand a foot or two down, and sand carries a slab well only while something holds it in place.
Loose sand has no strength of its own. Confined and compacted it is one of the better subgrades we work on, because water runs straight through it and nothing under the slab swells or shrinks with the season. Left loose at the edge of a form it runs out from under the slab the first time a downspout floods it, and the corner drops. That is the failure on most older cottage drives in South Redondo, where an apron poured onto raked sand sixty years ago has lost its edge to the gutter.
So the sand is treated as a base to be built, not a base to be found. We wet it, compact it in two lifts, lay 4 inches of crushed rock over it and compact that, and set the forms on the rock rather than in the sand so the slab edge is carried. The steel is number 4 on an 18-inch grid, the edge is thickened where a drive meets the street, and the surface is sealed at 28 days, because salt off the marine layer reaches the bar through an open surface within a few winters here.
Redondo Beach rebuilt itself a lot at a time. A 1940s cottage comes down, two or three homes go up on the same 50 foot lot, and the concrete between them is a shared drive, a common walk and a strip of patio each, all poured on sand.
Drives in Redondo Beach are as often shared as owned, since a townhome lot puts three garages on one strip of concrete. We pour it as one slab at 5 inches on rock over compacted sand, joint it at each garage door, and thicken the edge at the street where the sand is loosest.
A patio in Redondo Beach is a small one, because a townhome yard runs 10 or 12 feet deep and a cottage yard is not much more. We pour it at 4 inches, pitch it a quarter inch a foot away from the house, and broom it lightly so it does not hold the marine layer's damp underfoot.
Stamped concrete goes in as a front entry or a short drive in South Redondo, where the lot is small enough that all of it shows from the street. We cast a slate or ashlar pattern into a 4 inch slab and seal it at 28 days, which the salt air makes a rule rather than a choice.
The public walk in Redondo Beach is the city's and the walk to your door is yours, and a sand base has usually dropped one or both a step at the join. We replace the private panel on compacted rock, dowel it to the public panel, and file any right-of-way work with the city.
Garages under the house in South Redondo and detached ones in North Redondo sit on the same sand, and an old 3 inch floor on it has cracked into plates. We break it out, compact the sand and 4 inches of rock over it, and pour 4 inches with steel, troweled flat enough to coat.
Exposed aggregate suits Redondo Beach, since a washed river stone surface hides the salt haze and the blown sand that a plain gray slab shows within a season this close to the water. We pour it at 4 inches with a smooth banded border and seal it once the cure is done.
Walls in Redondo Beach hold the short banks where the Riviera and the streets above the Esplanade drop to the flat, and they hold sand, which pushes harder than it looks once wet. We drain behind the stem, foot the wall below the loose sand, and run steel through every one.
An interior floor in Redondo Beach is a converted garage, a rear unit or a ground-floor room being finished, and on sand a moisture barrier under it is not optional. We pour over a 10 mil barrier on compacted rock, trowel it flat for tile, and cut the joints on the room's grid.
Our office on Hawthorne Boulevard is minutes from both halves of the city, north past the South Bay Galleria to the streets off Artesia Boulevard and west along Torrance Boulevard to the beach. The two halves are different work. North Redondo is flat 1950s tract land, rebuilt since the 1980s with townhomes three to a lot, and its concrete is shared drives and common walks. South Redondo is the older beach town, from the pier and King Harbor down to the Torrance line.
Permits for a drive approach, a curb cut or a wall over 4 feet go to the city's Community Development Department at City Hall on Diamond Street, and the apron across the public walk is checked by Public Works as well. On a three-unit lot the shared drive is common property under the association's rules, so a replacement is agreed by every owner before we draw it, and we write one estimate for the lot rather than three. Flatwork inside the lot line needs no permit.
The marine layer decides the calendar more than the rain does. Mornings from May to August are gray and damp near the beach, good for a cure and bad for a broom finish, because the surface stays wet longer and a broom dragged too early tears it. We finish later in the morning on the coast side than in Torrance, and keep the slab damp a full week. Winter pours wait for a dry day and a dry night, and the sand drains fast enough that a wet Tuesday rarely costs a Thursday.
Four steps, one crew and one written figure, measured at the lot. On a shared drive every owner sees the same estimate, and nothing is booked until each of them has said yes to it.
Kenji Okamoto measures the slab, probes the sand at the edges, checks where the downspouts land and writes the estimate at the lot.
The old slab is broken out and hauled, the sand is wetted and compacted in two lifts, and 4 inches of rock goes over it, compacted again.
An approach or a curb cut is filed with the city and the association is sent the drawing. A patio inside the lot line needs neither.
Poured before the marine layer lifts, broomed once the surface will take it, joints cut that afternoon, and kept damp for 7 days.
Call or send the form and we reply within 1 business day with a day for the visit. The office is one city over, so the visit is usually inside the same week, and the figure is written in your drive before we leave.
Reviews
Our own reviews, left on Google, Facebook and the BBB by homeowners across the South Bay. Redondo Beach is next door to the office, so a fair share of them are from here.
“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 people in Redondo Beach ask us at the curb, on cost, permits, sand, salt, how long a shared drive is out of use and whether the beach side of town is a different job from the inland side.
How much of the old slab has to come out, and whether the drive is shared. A townhome drive is one pour for three owners, so the base and the haul-away are spread across the lot and the figure is written once for all of it. On a single cottage lot the cost sits in the tear-out and the sand base under the new slab. Thickness and finish move it after that, and every figure is measured at the lot.
Not for a patio, a walk or a drive inside your own lot line. The approach across the public sidewalk, a new curb cut and any retaining wall over 4 feet are permitted by the city's Community Development Department at City Hall on Diamond Street, and Public Works signs off the apron. On a shared lot the association is sent the drawing as well. We file all of it and meet the inspector.
Not if the sand is confined. Loose beach sand runs out from under a slab edge the first time water gets to it, which is why so many old cottage aprons have dropped at the gutter. Compacted in lifts, capped with 4 inches of rock and held by a thickened edge, it drains better than any clay and never swells. The edge is the whole job on sand, so we form on the rock and not in the sand.
Yes, through the surface. Concrete is porous, and the marine layer carries salt that soaks into an unsealed slab and reaches the steel, which rusts, swells and cracks the concrete over it. Within a mile of the water we seal every slab at 28 days with a penetrating sealer and advise a reseal every 2 to 3 years, and the steel sits in the middle of the slab on chairs, never on the ground.
Two to three days on site, then 7 days before a car goes on it. Tear-out and base take the first day or two, the pour is one morning, and the joints are cut that afternoon. Each owner parks on the street for the week, so on a three-unit lot we agree the dates with everyone before the demolition starts, and we pour the drive in one piece so nobody's half is done first.
In the ground, no, since both sit on sand. In the lot, yes. South Redondo streets between Pacific Coast Highway and the Esplanade are narrow, the cottages are close and the drives are short and steep to a garage under the house, so concrete is often pumped from the street. North Redondo lots off Artesia Boulevard and Inglewood Avenue are flat, and the shared drives run straight in from the curb.
Redondo Beach borders Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach up the coast, Lawndale and Hawthorne inland, and Torrance and Palos Verdes Estates to the south, and we work in all of them. If your street runs along a city line, the next town's page is next.
Open the Torrance Office in Google Maps Send the form and we call you back within 1 business day to book the measure. The estimate is written at the lot and costs nothing, and the finished work carries a written guarantee.