Fontana Concrete Pro replaces driveways, patios and walks across Redlands, east of our Fontana yard on Interstate 10. Every estimate is measured and written on site, free.
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Redlands is named for its soil. The red ground under the older streets is a clay loam that holds water through winter and shrinks through summer, so a slab poured straight on it lifts and drops.
That movement is what a 1920s Redlands driveway or a 1950s patio shows. Clay swells when the winter rain reaches it and shrinks when the summer takes the water out, and a slab on top rides that cycle until it cracks along a line of its own choosing. The oldest streets south of the freeway, around Smiley Park, sit on this ground and on brick and stone footings never meant to carry a new slab. North of Interstate 10 the ground runs sandier toward the wash, and a slab there settles instead.
So we treat the red ground as clay until it proves otherwise. The subgrade is cut to firm material, 4 inches of Class 2 base goes down and is plate-compacted so the clay is held off the slab, and number 3 steel runs on an 18-inch grid so any crack stays hairline and closed. Where a new pour meets an old house footing we leave an expansion strip rather than tying into brick that cannot take a dowel. North of the freeway the base is the same, but the concern is soft ground.
Redlands is old for the Inland Empire, so the work here is a replacement more often than a first slab. A 1920s drive beside a Craftsman south of the freeway, a postwar patio in a tract north of it, both on the red ground the town is named for.
A Redlands driveway is usually a replacement, because the drive beside a Craftsman south of the freeway was poured when the house was and has heaved on the clay since. We break out the old slab, cut the red ground to firm material, and pour 4 inches on compacted base with steel.
Patios in Redlands go on ground that swells every winter, so we set them on 4 inches of Class 2 base rather than on the clay, and joint the slab every 10 feet. Where the patio meets a house on a brick footing we leave an expansion strip, so the slab moves and the house does not.
Stamped concrete in Redlands is asked for in a brick or flagstone pattern to sit beside the Victorian and Craftsman houses on the south side, where a plain gray drive reads as new against a 1900s porch. We cast the pattern into a 4 inch slab and seal it in 2 coats.
Redlands sidewalks on the older streets were laid in the citrus years and lifted by the street trees since, so a new panel is cut around the roots rather than through them. We set it on compacted base, dowel it into the old walk so the joint stays flush, and match the finish.
Garage floors under the postwar tracts north of Interstate 10 were poured on soft ground and have settled at the door, and the detached garages behind the older houses often have no slab at all. We compact 4 inches of base, pour a 4 inch floor with steel, and trowel it flat.
A decorative finish in Redlands is chosen against the house, which is older here than anywhere else we work. Exposed aggregate suits a Craftsman and a light broom finish suits the tracts, and either stays cooler than a dark slab through a summer that runs past 100 degrees.
Retaining walls in Redlands are a south-side job, where the streets climb toward the hills and a lot steps at the fence. A wall on clay is pushed by the ground when it swells, so we set the footing into firm material, drain behind the stem and daylight the drain below it.
Interior floors in Redlands are a garage conversion or a dwelling behind an old house more often than a new build, because the deep lots south of the freeway have room for one. We pour over a 10 mil vapor barrier on compacted base and trowel the slab flat enough for tile.
Our yard is in Fontana, straight west on Interstate 10, so a crew reaches Redlands in under half an hour at the Orange Street or Tennessee Street exit. Plans go to the City of Redlands building department in San Bernardino County. On the streets the city lists as historic we draw a drive or a front walk to match what is there rather than to what is quickest to pour, because a broom-finished apron in front of a Victorian on the south side is the one thing the street would notice.
The town grew in rings. Downtown along Orange Street and State Street, the University of Redlands and the streets south of the freeway are the 1880s to 1920s grove houses, Victorian and Craftsman, on deep lots with a drive that runs beside the house to a garage at the back. North of Interstate 10 the tracts went up after the Second World War on ground the groves had just left, with slab-on-grade houses and short front drives. East, toward Mentone, the housing is 1980s and later.
The mountains set the weather. Redlands sits below the San Bernardino Mountains where the wind comes down through the San Gorgonio Pass, so a fresh slab in autumn dries from the top before it cures underneath unless it is covered, and we cure every pour under a sheet. Winter brings the rain the clay holds and a few nights below freezing, which the groves once ran wind machines against, so we pour once the frost is off. Summer runs past 100 degrees and the pour starts at 6.
Four stages, one crew, one written figure. The old slab, the clay under it and the footing beside it are all looked at on the first visit, so the number on the page is the number at the end.
Andre Whitfield measures the slab, probes the red ground for clay, checks the house footing the new pour will meet and writes the figure there.
The old drive or patio is broken out and hauled, and the clay is cut to firm material and shaped so the fall runs away from the house.
We file with the City of Redlands building department where the work needs it, then lay and plate-compact 4 inches of Class 2 base.
Most Redlands jobs take 2 to 3 days on site. The slab is cured under a sheet, walked on after 24 hours and driven on after 7 days.
Call or send the form and we will call you back within 1 business day to book the visit. Every estimate is measured and written on site, and the visit costs nothing. A crew is in Redlands most weeks.
Reviews
Our own reviews, left on Google and Facebook by homeowners across the towns we cover from Fontana. Redlands is among them, and the driveways and patios behind these reviews are 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 people in Redlands ask before booking, covering what moves the estimate on an old lot, the permit counter, the red clay, how long a slab is out of use and how the work changes across the freeway.
Tear-out first. Most Redlands jobs replace a slab that is already there, and breaking out a 1920s drive beside a Craftsman and hauling it away is work a bare yard in a newer town never needs. Then the ground, because clay is cut deeper and based thicker than sand. Thickness, steel and finish move it after that. Every estimate is measured and written on site, so the figure comes off a tape measure.
No for flatwork at grade in your own yard. Yes for a retaining wall over 4 feet, a footing under a cover or an addition, and anything in the public right-of-way, which includes the parkway strip between the sidewalk and the curb. We file with the City of Redlands building department in San Bernardino County and meet the inspector, and we check whether the street is a listed historic district first.
Because it is sitting on clay. The red soil under the older parts of Redlands takes on water through the winter rain and swells, then gives it back through the summer and shrinks, and a slab poured straight on it rides up and down with the ground. A new slab is set on 4 inches of compacted base that keeps the clay away from the concrete, with steel on an 18-inch grid to hold any crack closed.
Not tied, no. The Victorian and Craftsman houses south of the freeway stand on brick and stone footings of their era, and a dowel drilled into that will crack it rather than hold. The new slab is poured against the footing with an expansion strip between the two, so the drive or the patio moves on its own base and the house is left as it was. Where the footing is a later concrete one, we dowel.
Most jobs run 2 to 3 days on site, and a full driveway with the old one broken out first runs 4. Concrete needs 24 hours before you walk on it and 7 days before a vehicle goes on it, and in autumn, when the wind is down the pass, it is kept under a sheet and wet for the first 3 days. Joints are cut within 12 hours of the pour so the cracks stay on straight lines.
Yes, in the ground and the house. North of the freeway the lots are postwar tracts on ground that runs sandier toward the Santa Ana River wash, so the concern is a soft subgrade and the base is probed and compacted for it. South of the freeway, on the older streets, the ground is the red clay and the house footing is old, so the job is tear-out, base against clay and a joint that does not touch brick.
Redlands borders Loma Linda to the west and Highland to the north across the Santa Ana River, and we cover both from the same Fontana yard, with Grand Terrace and Colton beyond them. If your street sits on a line, the page next door is the one you want.
Open the Fontana Office in Google Maps Send the form and we will call you back within 1 business day to book the measure. The estimate is free. The work has a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built.