Hawthorne Torrance Concrete pours footings and stem walls for additions, second stories and new homes, laid out around the state's well record first. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
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Footings and stem walls
A foundation on a lot in the south or west of Torrance is drawn around a hole in the ground before it is drawn around the house. The Torrance Oil Field was found in 1922 and drilled across what became Walteria, the Riviera and the tracts either side of Hawthorne Boulevard, and the wells were plugged and built over as fields became streets. The state keeps a record of every one, and a footing over a plugged well is moved, or the well re-abandoned and vented, before the plans pass.
Hawthorne Torrance Concrete was founded in 2017 by Kenji Okamoto, after 19 years on South Bay crews, the early ones digging footings, and he lays out every foundation from the engineer's drawing himself. The crew has poured stem walls to meet the raised floors of Old Torrance bungalows, footings for second stories over 1950s tract houses, and full perimeters for new homes on cleared lots near the beach. Each is set out with a transit off the property pins.
Foundations are built under our CSLB C-8 license with the California Contractors State License Board, with liability insurance on every job, to plans the City's Community Development Department passed. The inspector sees the trench and steel before the pour and the bolts after it, because the hardware is what holds the frame down in a shake. The depths are on the estimate, and the work carries a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built.
Before the drawings
The footing under a 1950s tract house was poured for one floor, and most are 12 inches wide with a single bar in them, if any. A second story doubles what it carries. The engineer will ask for it to be widened or replaced along the bearing lines, before a framer arrives.
A steel plate in the yard, a capped pipe by the fence, or a dot on the state's well map at your address means a plugged well on the lot. Any new footing has to be set clear of it or the well dealt with first, and finding it at the visit rather than at plan check saves a month.
A bungalow in Old Torrance stands 18 to 30 inches off the ground on a stem wall. A room added to it needs the same, a footing and a wall that bring the new floor level with the old, or a slab that steps up to it. Either is a foundation, and the choice sets the whole job.
An unreinforced stem wall with a diagonal crack through it, or a crawl space where the studs under the floor are not braced, is a foundation that will move in a shake. That is the urgent one. It is replaced in sections with the house on beams, and the new wall bolted to the frame.
In every foundation
Eight things are in every foundation we pour, whether it holds a new home, a second story or one added room, and none is a separate line. Each answers something the ground or the code asks of a footing on a lot here.
The state's well map is read for the parcel and the footing plan compared with it before anything is set out or dug.
Corners set with a transit off the property pins, the setbacks measured, and the lines strung before the trench is opened.
Footings dug to plan depth into firm ground, the bottom cleaned of loose soil, and the sides cut straight to form the concrete.
Rebar cages tied in the footing and dowels set for the wall, held up on chairs so the bars sit in the concrete, not on the dirt.
Anchor bolts and holdown hardware placed to the plan while the concrete is wet, the part of the job the inspector checks twice.
Walls formed to the height the floor needs, poured in one lift, vented and given a crawl space access where the plans show one.
A drain at the footing where the ground falls toward the wall, then backfill placed in layers and compacted, not pushed in with a machine.
Wall heights checked with you against the plans, the inspection card handed over, and the written guarantee with it.
Four ways to build it
Four foundations for four kinds of building on a lot here, set against the floor they carry, how deep they go and what they meet. The steel, the hardware and the inspection are the same in all four, so the table is about the shape of the concrete.
| Option | Carries | Goes down | Floor above | Framers on it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stem wall on a footing | A new home or a raised-floor addition | 18 inches or more below grade | Wood floor over a crawl space | 7 days after the pour |
| Widened footing | A second story on a 1950s house | Matched to the existing footing | The floor that is already there | 7 days, house never moved |
| Turned-down slab | One added room off the back | 12 inches or more at the edge | The slab is the floor | 7 days after the pour |
| Stepped footing | A house or a room on the Riviera slope | Stepped down into the clay | Wood or slab, set to the fall | 7 days, 28 for a load |
A slab is the least concrete and the least labor of the four and a full stem wall on a slope the most, with a footing widened under a standing house between them.
Wells and raised floors
The oil field under the south and west of the city fixes where a footing can go, and the raised floors of Old Torrance fix how high it has to come. The size of the building comes third.
The Torrance Oil Field was struck in 1922, when the city was a year old, and for thirty years it was drilled from Walteria across to the Riviera and north through land the postwar tracts were laid over. The wells were plugged to the standard of their day, often a few sacks of cement and a cap, and houses went up over them. The state's well finder shows where each one is to within a few feet. When a footing lands on one, CalGEM asks for the footing to move or the well to be redone.
The house is the other. The streets Olmsted laid out around El Prado were built up with bungalows on stem walls, 18 to 30 inches off the ground, and an addition to one has to bring its floor to the same height, which means a wall as tall on a footing of its own, doweled to the old one. Many postwar tracts sit on slabs, and a second story on one means the footing is widened in sections with the house up. A house lifted to have its wall replaced is foundation raising, another job.
From drawings to framers
Five stages, the same crew at each, and Kenji Okamoto runs the transit at the layout and stands on the trench at the pour. The well record is read at the first visit, and the permit is in hand before the trench is opened.
Kenji Okamoto walks the lot with the drawings, finds the property pins, reads the state's well map for the parcel and writes the figure there.
The plans go to the City's Community Development Department, any well question is settled with CalGEM, and the pour is booked for after the permit.
Corners set from the pins with a transit, lines strung, trenches dug to plan depth and cleaned, and the house posted on beams where needed.
Cages tied and chaired, dowels set, forms stood for the wall, the inspector signs the card, and footing and wall poured with bolts set in the wet.
Forms off after two days, the drain laid and the trench backfilled in layers, wall heights checked with you and the card and guarantee handed over.
Behind the figure
The drawings start the figure and the lot finishes it. Two foundations of the same footprint can be days apart in work once the well record and the pins are found, so none is quoted from a plan alone. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
One run of footing and wall doweled to the house is the plainest job, and the height of the floor it has to meet sets most of it.
The footing is widened in short sections with the house held on beams, and the number of sections along the bearing lines is what counts.
A well under the footprint means CalGEM's review, and if it needs re-abandoning that is a drilling contractor's job, priced before ours.
A stepped footing on the Riviera goes deeper into clay and takes a drain, and a whole new home is a perimeter and every interior bearing line.
The visit and the written figure cost nothing, and the call that books a day for it comes within 1 business day. Bring the plans and any soils report. (424) 484-9860 or send us a message.
Call or send the form and you hear back within 1 business day with a day for the visit. Kenji Okamoto brings the well map and a transit, walks the drawings across the lot, and the figure is written before he leaves, wall by wall.
Foundations we poured
Three reviews left on Google, Facebook and the BBB, each about a foundation rather than flatwork, and each naming the wall, the footing or the well that the job turned on.
“Our lot in Southeast Torrance had a plugged well from the twenties under where the new room was going. They found it on the state map at the first visit, moved the footing line 10 feet and had the plans redrawn before anything went to the City. The wall went in the week the permit came.”
“Second story on our 1958 house in West Torrance. The engineer wanted the footing widened along both long walls, and they did it in 4-foot sections with the house on beams, the inspector out three times, and never a crack in the plaster upstairs or down. Framing started nine days on.”
“New build on the Riviera after we took down the old house. The footing steps six times down the slope, poured into clay with a drain behind the uphill wall, and the whole perimeter was done in two mornings. Kenji Okamoto ran the transit himself and the framers said every corner was square.”
Before you book
What moves the figure on a foundation, how long the trench is open, what the City and the state each check, and what is guaranteed once the frame is up, answered for a lot here.
How the concrete gets under the building, before how much of it there is. A footing on an open lot is dug and poured in days, while one widened under a standing house is done in short sections with the frame on beams, each its own dig and pour. After that it is the wall height the old floor sets, the depth a slope asks for, and whether a well under the footprint has to be dealt with first. It is all written down.
Two to five days between digging and pouring, and no longer, because an open trench in the sandy loam of the plain slumps at the sides after a rain and has to be cleaned again. Digging is a day or two, the steel and forms a day, then the inspection, and the pour is a morning. Forms come off after two days, the drain and backfill take another, and the wall carries framing seven days after the pour.
No, and it says so. The structural drawings come from your engineer and the soils report, where the City asks for one, from a geotechnical firm, and both are yours before we price anything from them. What the estimate does cover is everything from the layout to the backfill, the inspection visits and the hardware named on the plans. A well review by the state costs nothing and is named separately if it applies.
A building permit from the City's Community Development Department, for every foundation, since a footing is structural whatever it carries. The plans are checked against the California Residential Code, and the inspector visits at the trench and again after the pour. Where the state's well map shows a plugged well on the parcel, CalGEM's construction site well review is done before the City signs off.
Rarely. A foundation that has settled, cracked or crumbled over decades is treated as wear, and a new one for an addition or a second story is an improvement you have chosen, so neither is a claim. The exceptions are sudden damage, a burst main washing the footing out or a vehicle striking the wall, and shaking under a separate earthquake policy. Photograph it before anything is dug and ask your carrier first.
How it was built. The footing depth and width, the steel, the wall height, the bolt and holdown layout and the drain, with those terms printed on the estimate before you sign. It is a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built. Ground movement beyond what the engineer designed for, a shake, and other trades' work on the wall sit outside it. Where the fault is ours we put it right.
What the engineer draws, which for a house here is most often a 2,500 to 3,000 psi mix, number 4 rebar in the footing and the wall, dowels at the spacing on the plan and galvanized anchor bolts and holdowns from the maker the plans name. The mix and the bar sizes are printed on the estimate so what arrives can be checked against the drawings, and the inspector checks the same sheet.
Only for the layout at the start and the walk-through at the end. Between them the crew needs power, water, the gate open and the cars off the drive on pour day, when a pump truck stands at the curb for a morning. If the footing is being widened under the house you stay living in it throughout, and the noisiest days are the two when the old footing is broken out in sections.
Towns we pour in
Eight towns, nearest first, each with its distance from the office on Hawthorne Boulevard. The well map is read for a parcel in any of them, since the same field runs on under Lomita, and the figure is written at the lot.
Four jobs booked with a foundation or straight after it, on the same layout, by the same crew, and itemized on the one written estimate you sign.
The slab a detached unit or a converted garage stands on, footing and floor in one pour.
The house lifted onto beams so a failed wall can be replaced beneath it.
The wall that holds the slope back from a footing cut into the Riviera.
A footing on its own, for a porch, a deck or a wall that carries no floor.
Call or send the form and you hear back within 1 business day. Say what the foundation will carry, an added room, a second story or a new house, and whether there is a well marker on the lot, and the visit is booked inside the week.