Fontana Concrete Pro replaces driveways and pours patios and garage slabs in Montclair, west along Interstate 10 from Fontana. Every estimate is measured and written on site, free.
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Montclair sits on the alluvial fan of San Antonio Creek. The ground is sand and cobble washed down from Mount San Antonio, and it drains so freely that a slab here almost never heaves in a wet winter.
What fails a Montclair slab is the base it was poured on, not the water. The tract builders of the 1950s and 1960s poured 3 to 4 inches straight onto the fan as they found it, and loose sand between cobbles does not stay put under a car. Sixty years of wheels in the same 2 tracks have pumped the fines out from under the drive, so it rocks, breaks along the tire lines and drops at the apron. A patio behind a ranch house on Kingsley Street has usually done the same at its outer corner.
So on a Montclair job the old slab comes out and the subgrade is rebuilt before anything is poured. The cobble in the top 6 inches is picked, the sand is wetted and plate-compacted until a probe stops, and 4 inches of Class 2 base goes down over it. The new slab is 4 inches with number 3 steel on an 18-inch grid, 5 inches where a work truck parks, and it is doweled into the garage slab or the city walk so the joint stays a joint rather than a step.
Montclair was built in one push after the city formed in 1956, so most of what we do here is replacement. The original drive, walk and garage floor have done 60 years on a sand and cobble subgrade, and they go one at a time.
A Montclair driveway is a replacement almost every time, because the 1950s original was poured thin on loose sand and has broken along the tire lines. We saw it out, pick the cobble, compact the sand, and pour 4 inches on 4 inches of base, with the apron doweled to the city walk.
Patios in Montclair go behind ranch houses whose builder left a small slab at the back door and lawn beyond it. We set the new pad level with that slab, dowel the two together, pour 4 inches on compacted base, and grade it a quarter inch a foot away from the house.
Stamped work in Montclair is asked for on the front of a house more than the back, because a plain gray drive on a 1950s block is the one thing that looks new. We cast a running bond or a flagstone into a 4 inch slab in a tan integral color, and seal it in 2 coats.
Montclair walks in the parkway are city property, and the street trees planted in the 1960s have lifted many of them. We saw at the joint, take out the lifted panel, handle the root under the city's rule, and dowel the new panel to its neighbors so the joint stays flush.
A Montclair garage floor was poured with the house, and is usually sound but cracked, dusty and an inch below the drive. Where it is sound we grind it and moisture test it for a coating. Where it has broken we take it out, compact the sand, and pour 4 inches on a 10 mil barrier.
Decorative concrete in Montclair suits the front of a ranch house, where a walk and a porch in one warm tone tie the house together. We use a salt finish or a light exposed aggregate of local sand, scored along the porch line, and keep it pale so it is cool underfoot in August.
Montclair is flat, so a retaining wall here is a planter or a raised bed at the front of a house, holding back a foot or two of garden rather than a hillside. We foot it into compacted sand, drain it through weep holes, and it stays well under the 4 feet that needs a permit.
Interior slabs in Montclair are garage conversions and additions on the deep lots south of Holt Boulevard, where a room goes on behind the house. We pour on compacted sand over a 10 mil barrier, because the fan carries moisture up in the wet months, and trowel it flat for tile.
Montclair is 15 miles west of our yard, straight along Interstate 10 to the Central Avenue or Monte Vista Avenue exit, so a crew is on site by 7 in the morning without an early start. Plans go to the City of Montclair Building Division, where a driveway that changes the curb cut or a walk in the parkway needs a permit and an inspection and a patio in your own yard does not. We file, we meet the inspector, and the counter is never yours to visit.
The streets between Holt Boulevard and Mission Boulevard are the oldest, laid out on the vineyard and citrus grid of the Monte Vista district before the city took its present name, and they carry single-story ranch houses on lots of about 7,000 square feet. The drive is a single width to the garage, and the side yard fits a barrow but not a truck. The blocks north of the freeway toward Arrow Highway went up later, so the work there is more often a new patio than a replaced drive.
Just over half of Montclair houses are owner-occupied, and an owner who has been in one since the 1970s is usually replacing every piece of concrete on the lot within a few years. We sequence that so the drive, the walk and the patio are one figure and one set of joints rather than three jobs meeting badly. The fan drains so fast that a winter pour is rarely lost to standing water, and in summer we start at 6 in the morning because the valley floor passes 100 degrees by noon.
Four stages, one crew from Fontana, one written figure. Nearly every Montclair job starts with breaking out a slab, so the estimate includes the tear-out and the haul, and no number changes once the old concrete is gone.
Andre Whitfield measures the slab, checks the drop at the apron and the fall to the house, and probes the sand under the worst crack.
A curb cut, an apron or a parkway walk goes to the City of Montclair Building Division. A patio or a garage floor in your own yard does not.
The old slab is sawn, broken and hauled, the cobble is picked from the top 6 inches, the sand is compacted and 4 inches of base goes down.
Most Montclair drives are 2 days on site. Joints are cut within 12 hours, walk on it after 24, park on it after 7 days, and we hose the street.
Call or send the form and we will call you back within 1 business day to book the visit. The measure and the written figure cost nothing, and we are in Montclair or the next town over most weeks of the year.
Reviews
Our own reviews, left on Google and Facebook by homeowners across the towns we cover. Montclair is one of them, and the drives and patios behind these words are the replacements described above.
“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 Montclair homeowners ask before booking, covering what moves a replacement estimate, the city permit, the drive from Fontana, the sand under the slab, how long a drive is out of use and the towns nearby.
Tear-out first, because almost every Montclair job begins with an old slab that has to be sawn, broken and hauled, and a drive on a 1950s lot has more of it than a patio. Access is next. The side yard on a Holt Boulevard block is barrow width, so a back patio is wheeled in rather than chuted. Thickness and finish move it after that. Every estimate is measured and written on site, so the figure comes off a tape.
Not for a patio, a garage floor or a slab at grade in your own yard. Yes for anything that touches the street, which is a new or widened curb cut, the apron, and the walk in the parkway, and for a retaining wall over 4 feet or a footing that carries a roof. Those go to the City of Montclair Building Division, and we draw, file and meet the inspector for you.
About 15 miles, west on Interstate 10 to the Central Avenue or Monte Vista Avenue exit, which is a short enough run that a Montclair job is booked in half days when it suits you. Call or send the form and we will call you back within 1 business day to set a time for the measure, and the visit and the written figure cost nothing.
Because the sand under it moved. The fan under Montclair is loose sand and cobble, and the builders poured onto it without compacting, so decades of wheels in the same 2 tracks pumped the fines out from under the slab until it rocked and broke. The fix is the base, not a thicker slab. We compact the sand, lay 4 inches of Class 2 base and run steel through the new drive.
About 9 days from the first saw cut. The tear-out and the base take a day, the pour takes a second, and the new slab needs 24 hours before you walk on it and 7 days before you park on it. A patio or a garage floor keeps you off it for the same 7 days but never blocks the car, so we schedule a drive for a week you can park on the street.
Yes, all three. Upland is across the northern line on the same fan, Claremont is over the county line to the west, and Chino is south down Central Avenue, and they are all served from Fontana with the same crew. A house on the Montclair side of the Claremont line is permitted in Montclair and poured the same way, since the ground does not change at the county line.
Montclair shares its lines with Upland to the north, Claremont to the west across the county line, and Chino to the south, and we cover all three from Fontana. If your street sits on one of those lines, the page next door is the one you want.
Open the Fontana Office in Google Maps We call back within 1 business day, the estimate is free and written on site, and the work carries a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built.