Ontario Concrete Pro pours driveways, patios and slabs in Colton, 16 miles east on Interstate 10, on the sand of the Santa Ana River. Every estimate is measured and written on site, free.
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Colton is built on the bed of the Santa Ana River. The city sits where the river leaves the San Bernardino Valley, on sand and gravel it dropped over thousands of years, and that ground drains fast and holds nothing tight.
Sand is the easier ground to pour on and the easier ground to lose a slab to. It does not heave, because it does not hold water the way clay does, but it washes out from under an edge wherever a downspout or a hose bib discharges beside a slab, and once a corner is undermined the slab cracks across it. Most of the failed driveways we take out in Colton broke that way, at the corner nearest the house, where the roof drained onto the ground for 50 years.
So every slab in Colton is poured on 4 inches of Class 2 base, plate-compacted, because sand alone moves under a vibrating plate and base locks it in place. Number 3 steel runs on an 18-inch grid through the slab, the roof drainage is piped past the edge of the pour rather than onto it, and the slab is graded a quarter inch to the foot away from the house so water leaves the way we want it to. The San Jacinto fault runs through the city as well, and a slab with steel in it stays in one piece through a shake that would open a plain one.
Colton is a railroad town, older than its neighbors, so the work here is mostly replacement. Slabs poured in the 1950s over river sand have cracked and dropped, and the job is to take them out and pour on a base that was never there.
A Colton driveway is usually a replacement, since the slabs on the streets around Valley Boulevard went in when the houses did. We break out the old, dig the washed sand at the corner nearest the house, compact 4 inches of base and pour 4 inches with steel on an 18-inch grid.
Cooley Ranch patios are mostly additions to the builder's slab at the back door, poured on flat lots a mixer reaches. We compact base over the sand, pour 4 inches, joint it every 10 feet and dowel it to the existing slab so the two move as one piece in a shake.
Stamped work in Colton is asked for at the front, where a prewar bungalow has a plain gray walk and the owner wants brick without the upkeep. We cast a running bond into a 4 inch slab, color it integrally and seal it in 2 coats, and it never needs resanding.
Colton's oldest walks are city property between the curb and your line, and a lifted panel on Mount Vernon Avenue or Rancho Avenue is an encroachment permit before it is a pour. We file it, saw the panel out square and dowel the new one into its neighbors so it stays flush.
Garage floors in Colton's 1950s houses were poured thin on bare sand and have often dropped an inch at the door. We cut out the failed section or the whole floor, compact base and pour 4 inches, troweled flat and moisture tested before any coating goes on.
A dark slab in Colton is too hot to stand on by early afternoon from June to September, when the valley passes 100 degrees. We pour a light integral color with a broom or a salt finish, which reads cooler underfoot and hides the dust that blows off the river bed.
Reche Canyon lots step up the hillside on decomposed granite, and a cut slope there needs a wall drained behind the stem and footed into firm material below the loose surface. Over 4 feet it is engineered and permitted, and we file that before we dig.
Converted garages and backyard units are where Colton's older lots are gaining rooms, and each needs an interior slab. We pour over a 10 mil vapor barrier, since sand wicks water up into a floor, trowel it flat enough for tile and cut the joints on the room's grid.
Our yard is on Holt Boulevard in Ontario, and the drive to Colton is 16 miles east on Interstate 10 to the Mount Vernon Avenue exit, so a crew is on site in half an hour outside the morning rush. Plans go to the City of Colton Building Division in San Bernardino County. Colton also runs its own electric utility, so the meter and the service drop on a lot belong to the city and not to Edison, and a wall or a footing near them is planned with the city before we dig.
The oldest streets sit around the Union Pacific and BNSF crossing that gave Colton its Hub City name, between Valley Boulevard and the tracks, and the houses there are prewar bungalows on raised foundations with a narrow walk down one side. South of Interstate 10, Cooley Ranch went up in the 1980s on flat graded lots with wide side yards, and a mixer backs straight in. Reche Canyon runs south into the hills on decomposed granite rather than river sand, and the part of it outside the city line is permitted by San Bernardino County.
The Santa Ana River runs along the south and west of the city, and Colton's own drainage falls toward it, so a slab graded to the street sends water the same way the ground already does. The calendar is the Inland Empire's. From June to September the valley passes 100 degrees, so we pour at first light and keep the surface wet for the first day, and from December to March we watch the forecast for rain, since sand that is soaked and then loaded settles under the base before it has been compacted.
Four stages, one crew, one written figure. The visit comes first because the estimate is measured on site, and on Colton's older lots what is under the existing slab is the part that decides the scope of the tear-out.
Victor Salgado measures the slab, probes the sand at the corners for washout, checks where the roof drains and photographs the access.
The old concrete is broken out and hauled, washed or soft sand is dug and replaced, and 4 inches of Class 2 base is plate-compacted.
We file with the City of Colton Building Division where the work needs it, and meet the inspector at the footing before it is poured.
Most Colton jobs are 2 to 3 days on site. Joints are cut within 12 hours, you walk on it after 24 and park on it after 7 days.
Call or send the form and we will call you back within 1 business day to set the visit. The measure and the written figure cost nothing, and Colton is a straight run down Interstate 10 from our yard, so we are there most weeks.
Reviews
Our own reviews, left on Google and Facebook by homeowners across the towns we cover from Ontario. Colton is one of them, and the slabs behind these reviews were built 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 Colton ask before booking, covering cost, permits, the fault and the sand under the city, how long a slab is out of use, and whether Grand Terrace and Reche Canyon are covered from the same yard.
Tear-out first, then area. Most Colton jobs replace a slab poured in the 1950s or 1960s, and breaking it out, hauling it and replacing the washed sand under it is the part that moves the figure most. Access is next, since a prewar lot near Valley Boulevard has a walk down one side that a mixer cannot use. Every estimate is measured and written on site, so the figure comes off a tape measure and a probe.
Not for a driveway, patio or walk at grade on your own lot. Yes for a retaining wall over 4 feet, a footing that carries a roof, and any work in the public right of way, including a new driveway apron at the curb. We file those with the City of Colton Building Division and meet the inspector, and where a lot sits outside the city line in Reche Canyon the permit comes from San Bernardino County instead.
It changes what goes in it. The fault runs through the city, and the whole county sits in a seismic design category that assumes strong shaking, so a slab here carries number 3 steel on an 18-inch grid and a footing is tied to the slab it supports rather than sitting beside it. Steel does not stop a crack in a shake. It holds the two sides together so the slab stays one piece you can still drive on.
Because the roof drained onto sand for decades. A downspout that discharges beside a slab washes the sand out from under its edge a little every winter, and once the corner is hollow the slab breaks across it under the weight of a car. We pipe the roof drainage past the new pour, grade the slab away from the house and set it on compacted base, which is what sand alone does not give you.
Most replacements run 2 to 3 days on site, a day of it tear-out, and a full week before you park on it. Concrete takes 24 hours before foot traffic and 7 days before vehicle weight, and in a Colton July we pour at first light and wet the surface for the first day, because a slab that dries too fast at 100 degrees loses strength it never gets back. The control joints are cut within 12 hours of the pour.
Yes, from the same yard on the same drive. Grand Terrace is its own city on the far side of Interstate 215, with its own building department, and its 1970s and 1980s tracts sit on the same river ground as Cooley Ranch, so it has its own page below. Reche Canyon is decomposed granite on a slope, and the part of it outside the Colton city line is permitted by San Bernardino County rather than the city.
Colton borders Grand Terrace across Interstate 215, and we cover it from the same yard on the same drive. Every town on the list below sits within 25 miles of Ontario, so if your street runs along a city line, the page next door is the one you want.
Open the Ontario Office in Google Maps Send the form and we will call you back within 1 business day to book the free measure. The work carries a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built.