Fontana Concrete Pro pours driveways, patios, walks and pool decks in Claremont, 18 miles west of our Fontana yard on Foothill Boulevard. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
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Claremont calls itself the City of Trees, and the city owns and protects every one along its streets. A drive, a walk or an apron here is designed around the roots before it is designed for the car.
A root under a slab lifts it slowly and then all at once. The tree pushes a panel up a little each year until the joint is a step, and in most towns the answer is to cut the root and pour again. In Claremont the parkway trees are city property under its tree ordinance, so a root cannot be cut without the city's say, and a drive poured hard against a trunk is one the city may ask to see moved. The ground under the trees is the same San Antonio fan as Upland, gravel that drains in hours.
So a slab in Claremont is bridged rather than butted. Where a root runs under a walk or a drive we thicken the slab to 6 inches over it, run steel through the span, and leave base rather than concrete against the root itself, so the tree keeps growing and the slab stays flat. Where the city allows a root to be pruned, it is cut clean by hand and shown to the inspector. The base is 4 inches of Class 2 on the fan gravel, which compacts flat and drains, and a joint is cut over every root.
Claremont houses run from the Village bungalows of the 1910s to the hillside tracts of the 1980s, and most stand behind a street tree the city owns. So the work here is replacing what roots have lifted without cutting the root that lifted it.
Claremont's ribbon drives, 2 strips of concrete with grass between, are the ones we are asked to widen and replace most, on the bungalow lots around the Village. We pour the full width at 4 inches on compacted base, bridge any parkway root at 6 inches, and match the city's curb.
A patio behind a 1950s ranch house south of Foothill in Claremont usually replaces a slab that was poured thin and cracked at the corners. We pour 4 inches on Class 2 base, run steel through it, and set the joints every 10 feet, with the fall taken away from the house.
Stamped concrete in Claremont is asked for to sit beside the Craftsman brick and river stone of the Village houses, so the patterns we cast are ashlar and flagstone, colored in the mix and sealed in 2 coats. Cast into a 4 inch slab, the pattern carries a car with no resanding.
Claremont walks lift at the roots of the city's own trees, and the city inspects a lifted one. We cut the failed panel, map the root, and either bridge it at 6 inches or, where the city allows, prune it clean, then dowel the new panel to the old so the joint stays level.
The garages in the Village and the 1950s tracts were poured thin, and 70 years of a car on them has left them cracked and dusting. We break out and repour at 4 inches over a vapor barrier, or grind and coat a sound slab after a moisture test, since the slab is old even if dry.
A north Claremont yard in Claraboya or Padua Hills looks over the valley, and the finish is asked to match the view. We do exposed aggregate in the same cobble the fan is made of, light salt and broom finishes that stay cooler in August, and borders cut to the era of the house.
The hillside streets north of Base Line Road step down lot by lot, and each step is a wall holding the fill of the yard above. We footing a wall 18 inches into firm gravel, drain it behind the stem, and take any wall over 4 feet through the Claremont Building Division.
Accessory units are going in behind the Village bungalows and on the deeper lots south of Foothill, and each needs a floor someone will live on. We pour the slab over a 10 mil barrier on compacted base, trowel it flat enough to tile with no leveling coat, and joint it by room.
Our yard is on Sierra Avenue in Fontana, and Foothill Boulevard, which crosses Sierra a few blocks from us, runs straight into Claremont, about 18 miles and 30 to 40 minutes west, or we take the 210 to the Towne Avenue exit when Foothill is slow. Plans go to the City of Claremont Building Division within its Community Development Department, at City Hall in the Village. Claremont is the one town we cover in Los Angeles County, and the county line is its east edge.
The Village around Indian Hill Boulevard and the Metrolink station is the oldest ground, 1900s to 1920s bungalows and Craftsman houses on narrow lots with drives laid as 2 ribbons of concrete and grass between. South of Foothill toward Arrow Highway the streets are 1950s ranch tracts, and north of Base Line Road the houses climb into Claraboya and Padua Hills, 1960s to 1990s, on lots that step with the slope. Each era fails differently, and the ribbon drives are the ones we widen most.
The Colleges shape the calendar. Claremont's streets are quiet from late May to late August when the campuses are out, and that is when a drive or a walk near them is easiest to do, because a mixer parked at a campus edge in October blocks something. Thompson Creek and San Antonio Creek take the drainage off the hills at the city's two edges, and a yard in the north falls toward one or the other, so a hillside patio is graded to the creek side and the house stays dry.
Four stages, one crew, one figure written on the visit. The stage that Claremont adds is the tree check, because a root the city protects decides the shape of the slab before the tape does.
Andre Whitfield measures the area, sets the fall, and maps every parkway root inside the pour, since the city's trees cannot be cut freely.
Flatwork on your lot needs no permit. An apron, a walk in the parkway or a wall goes to the Building Division, and root work is cleared first.
Old slab out, 4 inches of Class 2 base compacted on the fan gravel, steel set on chairs, and the slab thickened to 6 inches over any root.
Poured in one morning, joints cut within 12 hours with one over each root. Walk on it after 24 hours and park on it after 7 days.
Call or send the form and we call you back within 1 business day to fix a time. Every estimate is measured and written on site, and the visit is free. Claremont is a straight run down Foothill Boulevard from our yard, so we are there most weeks.
Reviews
Reviews left on Google and Facebook by homeowners in the towns we cover from Fontana, Claremont among them. The work they describe is the work on this page, poured by the same crew.
“Our house south of Valley is one of the old steel-town builds and the driveway had never been replaced. They broke out 520 square feet, screened the cobble out of the base and poured 5 inches. Andre cut the joints himself before he left.”
“We are in one of the newer tracts up north and the builder patio was cracked across the middle in three years. Fontana Concrete Pro dug it out, put a proper base under it and poured 320 square feet with joints on a 10-foot grid. No cracks after two summers.”
“The slope at the back of our lot in Jurupa Hills was moving every winter and taking the fence with it. They poured a 40-foot wall on footings to 24 inches with drainage behind it. Two wet seasons on and there is not a crack in it anywhere.”
What Claremont homeowners ask before they book, covering what moves the estimate here, the tree ordinance, the permit office in the Village, the drive from Fontana, timescales and the towns either side.
Area first, then the trees. A drive or a walk that crosses a parkway root in Claremont is thickened and bridged rather than poured flat, and the root work is cleared with the city before we start, both of which add hours to the same area. Thickness, steel and finish move it after that. Every estimate is measured and written on site, so the figure comes off a tape, never a rate.
Not for a patio, a walk or a drive at grade on your own lot. Yes for a retaining wall over 4 feet, a footing carrying a roof, and anything in the parkway or at the curb, which also touches the city's street trees. Those go to the City of Claremont Building Division in the Community Development Department, and we file and meet the inspector, so you never go to the counter.
Not without the city. Claremont's parkway trees are city property, and its tree ordinance covers the roots as well as the trunk, so the root is mapped, the city is asked, and where pruning is allowed the cut is made clean by hand. Where it is not, the slab is thickened to 6 inches and bridged over the root on steel, which keeps it flat while the tree keeps growing.
About 18 miles, straight down Foothill Boulevard or by the 210 to Towne Avenue, which is 30 to 40 minutes depending on the hour. We call back within 1 business day to set the visit, and because the run is one road we bring the whole job in one trip, so a Claremont site is measured, based and poured by the same crew without a day lost between.
A drive, a walk or a patio takes 2 to 3 days on site, and a job with root work takes a day longer while the city's approval comes through. Then 24 hours before you walk on it and 7 days before a car goes on it. A drive near the Colleges is easiest to schedule from late May to late August, when the streets around the campuses are empty.
Upland across the county line to the east, La Verne to the west and Montclair to the south east, all from the same Fontana yard. Claremont is the one Los Angeles County town in our list, so a job in Upland or Montclair goes to a different permit office. The page for each town names its own, and its own ground.
Claremont touches Upland, Pomona, La Verne and Montclair, and Upland, La Verne and Montclair are on the same run from our Fontana yard, though only Claremont is in Los Angeles County. If your street is on one of those lines, the page next door applies.
Open the Fontana Office in Google Maps Send the form and we call back within 1 business day. The estimate is written on site for free, and the work carries a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built.