Ontario Concrete Pro pours driveways, patios and garage floors in Brea, 22 miles from Ontario by the 60 and the 57, on clay and on hill fill. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
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Brea is two grounds. The flats along Brea Creek are alluvial clay that swells when the winter rain reaches it, and the hill tracts above Lambert Road sit on pads a grader cut and filled.
Clay is the easier of the two to build on, because it behaves the same way every year. It takes on water from December to March, lifts the edge of any slab that lets water under it, and drops again by June. A driveway on the flat blocks south of Imperial Highway is kept out of that cycle by grading the lot so water runs off the slab rather than into the base beside it, and by a base thick enough that the clay never touches the concrete.
The hill pads are a different problem, because fill is only as good as the day it was compacted. Blackstone and La Floresta were graded in one push over ground the oil companies gave up, and the softest edge of every pad is at the back fence, where a patio wants to go. So on a hill lot we probe the subgrade before we write the figure, dig any soft fill out, lay 4 inches of compacted base, and run number 3 steel on an 18-inch grid so the slab carries itself over whatever settles.
Brea has three kinds of lot and the job changes with each. The oil town blocks around Birch Street from the 1920s, the postwar tracts either side of Imperial Highway, and the graded pads of Blackstone and La Floresta on former oil field.
Driveways on the 1920s blocks off Brea Boulevard were poured for one car and widened once since, so they break along the old seam. We take the whole run out, grade the clay away from the house, and repour it as one 4 inch slab on compacted base.
A patio on a Blackstone or La Floresta pad goes at the back fence, which is the softest fill on the lot. We probe it, dig out what is loose, and pour 4 inches on base with steel through it, doweled into the builder's slab so the two move together.
Stamped work in Brea is asked for to match the paver aprons the hill tracts were built with. We cast an ashlar or running bond pattern into a 4 inch slab, color it to the front walk, and seal it in 2 coats so the summer sun takes the sealer before the color.
The walks along the postwar streets south of Imperial Highway were lifted by the parkway trees planted with the houses. We cut the root, deepen the base and repour the panels either side, doweled to the old so the joint stays flush rather than opening into a step.
Garage floors on the oil town blocks were poured thin on native clay with no steel in them, so they have broken at the door line. We replace them on a base that keeps the clay off the slab, with mesh through it, and flat enough to take a coating afterward.
Front entries on the older Brea streets are on view from Birch Street and Brea Boulevard, and a plain gray panel at the door reads as a repair. Exposed aggregate and a scored border give a 1920s house an entry that carries its age instead of hiding it.
Hill lots off Lambert Road and in Olinda Village step several feet at the fence, and the fill above the cut is the softest ground on the lot. A wall here is footed into firm material below the fill and drained behind the stem, so the slope stops moving it.
Garage conversions and back houses are the growth on Brea's older blocks, and both need an interior slab someone will live on. We pour over a 10 mil barrier, trowel it flat enough for tile, and cut the joints on the room's grid rather than the crew's.
The name is Spanish for tar, and the oil under the Puente Hills is why the town exists. The pumps still run above the 57 north of Lambert Road, and the Blackstone and La Floresta tracts were built on land the oil companies handed back. That matters for a slab, because remediated oil field ground is engineered fill with a grading plan on file. Permits go to the City of Brea building division at the Civic Center on Civic Center Circle, and we pull them under our CSLB C-8 license.
We come in on the 60 and the 57 from Ontario, 22 miles, and leave the freeway at Lambert Road or Imperial Highway depending on the job. We never bring a loaded truck through Carbon Canyon Road, because it is two lanes and winding, so a mixer for a Brea job is batched on the Orange County side and arrives inside its working window. The old blocks off Brea Boulevard and Birch Street have driveways poured for one car, and widening them is the job we are asked for most downtown.
The weather is milder here than in our own valley. Brea sits far enough toward the coast that a July afternoon runs several degrees under Ontario, so we can pour into the middle of the day for more of the year than we can at home, and the winter rain that swells the creek clay drains off Brea Creek and out of Carbon Canyon fast. On the hillside streets we slope every slab so that water goes with the hill and never toward a footing that was cut into it.
Four steps, one crew, and one figure that does not change after the visit. Every estimate is measured and written on site, because a Brea lot on clay and a Brea lot on fill are two different specifications for the same patio.
Victor Salgado walks the lot, probes the subgrade, checks the fall to the street and photographs the access, then writes the figure there.
We file with the City of Brea building division, and in Blackstone and La Floresta we submit the drawing to the association as well.
Soft clay or loose fill comes out to firm ground, then 4 inches of Class 2 base goes down and is plate-compacted before the forms.
The pour is a single morning. Walk on it after 24 hours, park on it after 7 days, and we close the permit with the inspector.
Send the address and what you want poured. We call back within 1 business day and come out to measure, and the written figure costs nothing. On a Brea job we also tell you which of the two grounds you are standing on before you decide anything.
Reviews
Our own reviews, left by homeowners across the towns we cover. Brea is one of them, and the driveways and patios behind these reviews were poured the way this page describes.
“Our place off Euclid is from the 1920s and the drive still ran back to the alley. They replaced 400 square feet at 5 inches, matched the fall to the alley apron and cut the joints the same day. Victor was there from start to finish.”
“We built an ADU in the back garden and needed the slab done properly. They over-excavated the old dairy ground, brought in engineered fill and poured to the soil report. It passed inspection first time, which is not what I expected.”
“The warehouse yard on Jurupa Street was breaking up under the forklifts and we could not shut down to fix it. Ontario Concrete Pro poured 2,800 square feet at 6 inches over two weekends so we never stopped shipping. A year on the joints are still tight.”
What people in Brea ask before they book, covering cost, the permit counter, how far we travel, the clay and the fill, how long a slab is out of use, and which towns next door we cover from the same yard.
What is under it, then access. A slab on the clay flats needs the lot graded and a full base, and a slab on a Blackstone pad may need soft fill dug out first, which is dirt we cannot see from the street. After that it is area, thickness, steel and finish. Every estimate is measured and written on site, so the figure comes off a tape and a probe rather than a rate.
The City of Brea building division at the Civic Center on Civic Center Circle. Flatwork in your own yard at grade usually needs no permit, a driveway approach that meets the street needs an encroachment permit from Public Works, and a retaining wall over 4 feet needs a plan. We file all of it under our CSLB C-8 license and meet the inspector ourselves.
Our yard is 22 miles away on Holt Boulevard in Ontario, by the 60 and the 57. We reply within 1 business day and can usually walk a Brea lot within the week. Because it is a longer run than our San Bernardino County towns, we group Brea, Placentia and Yorba Linda visits on the same days, which is why a site visit here is a full visit and never a drive-by.
Yes, on the flats, and it is water that moves it. Brea Creek alluvium swells with the winter rain and shrinks by summer, and a slab that lets water get under its edge lifts and drops with it. The fix is grading that sends water off the slab, a base that keeps the clay away from the concrete, and steel through the slab so that any movement is carried rather than cracked.
Two to three working days on site, then the cure. Breaking out the old drive is a day, base and forms a day, and the pour is one morning. Walk on it after 24 hours, park on it after 7 days, and treat 28 days as full strength. If the approach meets the street, the Public Works inspection is booked before the pour so nothing waits on it afterward.
Placentia, Yorba Linda and Diamond Bar, all from the same Ontario yard, and Chino Hills on the far side of Carbon Canyon. Brea's other neighbors toward the coast are outside the towns we list. If your street sits on the Placentia or Yorba Linda line, either page describes the same crew and the same written estimate.
Brea touches Placentia and Yorba Linda on the Orange County side and Diamond Bar and Chino Hills over the hills, and we cover all four from the Ontario yard. If your street runs along one of those lines, the page next door describes the same crew.
Open the Ontario Office in Google Maps Send the form and we call back within 1 business day to book the visit. The estimate is free, and the work carries a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built.