Riverside Concrete Pro pours driveways, patios and pool decks in Highland, 20 miles from our Riverside yard up the 215 and out the 210. Every estimate is measured and written on site, free.
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Highland is built on the fans of City Creek and Plunge Creek, where they leave the San Bernardino Mountains. The ground is coarse sand and rounded cobble that drains in minutes and holds no water.
That ground is good news and bad news at once. It drains, so a slab here almost never heaves from water sitting under it, and it carries load well once it is compacted. But loose fan sand runs out from under an edge the moment a trench is opened beside it, and a cobble the size of a football sitting 3 inches down leaves a slab bearing on one point. The older lots west of Boulder Avenue were graded lightly in the 1950s, and the ground under them was never compacted at all.
So the subgrade is dug to firm material and every cobble in the top 6 inches comes out before the base goes in. We lay 4 inches of Class 2 base and plate-compact it in 2 lifts, because loose fan sand compacts further than most ground and one pass leaves it short. Number 3 steel runs on an 18-inch grid, and on the mountain side of town every slab gets a swale beside it, because a storm off City Creek arrives fast and carries sand with it.
Highland is two towns in one. West of Boulder Avenue the tracts date from the 1950s and 1960s and the work is replacement. East of it the ranch subdivisions date from the 1980s onward and the work is whatever the builder left out of the yard.
Driveways on the older streets west of Boulder Avenue are 60 years old, unreinforced and cracked where the fan sand ran out from under an edge. We break the old slab out, dig the subgrade to firm material, and pour 4 inches on compacted base with steel on an 18-inch grid.
A patio in East Highlands Ranch usually replaces the 10 foot builder's slab at the back door, on a lot that steps down toward Greenspot Road. We pour 4 inches on compacted base, joint it every 10 feet, and tie it into the existing slab with dowels so the two move together.
Stamped work in Highland is asked for at the front, where the association has already approved a paver look on the street. We cast ashlar or flagstone into a 4 inch slab, seal it in 2 coats, and color it in the tans of the decomposed granite the town is built on.
A walk in Highland runs from the drive to the porch across sand that shifts in a wet winter, which is why so many older ones have a lifted panel at the step. We cut out the failed panel, dowel the new one into its neighbors, and pour it 4 inches thick so it stays flush for good.
Garage floors on the citrus-era lots around Palm Avenue were poured thin on loose sand, and many have dropped an inch at the door. We replace them over 4 inches of compacted base with a vapor barrier under the slab, troweled flat enough to take an epoxy coat later on.
A dark slab in a Highland yard is too hot to stand on by early afternoon from June through September. We pour a light integral color with a salt or broom finish, which stays cooler underfoot, or an exposed aggregate that shows the same rounded cobble that came out of the hole.
Lots on the mountain side of Highland step down the fan, so a yard that reads flat on the plan drops 3 or 4 feet at the fence. A wall here is drained behind the stem, because fan sand moves water fast, and footed 18 inches into firm ground rather than the loose material on top.
State law lets a detached unit go on most single-family lots in Highland, and it needs a floor someone will live on. We pour it over a 10 mil vapor barrier on compacted base, level it to a tolerance tile will lay on, and set the joints under the walls so no crack shows in a room.
Our yard is on Chicago Avenue in Riverside, and a crew reaches Highland in about 35 minutes by the 215 north and the 210 east, coming off at Base Line or Fifth Street. Plans go to the City of Highland Building and Safety Division, which sees little of our flatwork because most of it needs no permit at all. Where a wall or a footing does need one, we file it and meet the inspector, so you never stand at the counter.
East Highlands Ranch went up in phases from the 1980s, on pads cut into the fan above Greenspot Road, so a back yard there often steps down a slope at the fence line. It also sits under a homeowners association, which signs off on anything visible from the street before the city does. The older streets around Palm Avenue and Base Line are flat citrus-era lots on deep sand, with a driveway poured 60 years ago and no steel in it.
The Santa Ana River wash is the south edge of the city and Seven Oaks Dam sits at the top of it, so the river no longer decides anything for a yard here. What does is the mountain front. Winter storms off the San Bernardinos are short and hard, so we pour on a covered pad from December to March, and the Santa Ana winds that come down City Creek Canyon in the fall dry a fresh slab too fast, so on those days we mist it and cover it through the first night.
Four stages, one crew, one written figure. The measure happens on your lot before anything is agreed, and the figure that comes off the tape is the one you pay, because nothing here is estimated from a photo.
Marco Delgado walks the yard, checks the fall toward the street, probes the sand for cobble and writes the figure there and then.
The old slab and loose sand come out to firm ground, 4 inches of Class 2 base goes in and is compacted in 2 lifts, then the steel is laid.
We file with the City of Highland Building and Safety Division where a wall or a footing needs it, and with your association where it shows.
Two to three days on site for most Highland jobs. Foot traffic after 24 hours, a car after 7 days, and the side gate is left as we found it.
Call or send the form and we will call you back within 1 business day to set a time. Marco Delgado comes to the lot, walks it with you, and leaves the written figure the same day. It costs nothing, and we are in Highland most weeks.
Reviews
Reviews left on Google and Facebook by homeowners across the towns we cover, Highland among them. The jobs behind them were poured the way this page describes.
“Our 1920s place in the Wood Streets had a driveway that was more crack than concrete. They took out 480 square feet, dug the old fill out to firm ground and poured 5 inches. Marco was there for the pour and the joints were cut the same afternoon.”
“The city tagged the sidewalk panel outside our house on Magnolia. Riverside Concrete Pro pulled the encroachment permit, met the inspector and poured the 5-foot section to the cross slope the city wanted. I never had to go to the counter myself.”
“We wanted a patio behind the house in Canyon Crest that would take the afternoon sun. They poured 380 square feet in a broom finish, cut the joints on a 10-foot grid and sealed it at 28 days. Two summers on it has not moved a millimeter.”
What people in Highland ask before they book, covering cost, permits and the association, how far we drive, the fan sand under the yard, how long a slab is out of use, and the towns nearby.
What is under the slab, before the slab. On the fan sand west of Boulder Avenue the old subgrade is dug out and rebuilt, and that earthwork moves an estimate more than the finish does. Access matters next, because a truck that can chute from the street saves a day of barrowing. Every estimate is measured and written on site, so the figure comes off the tape measure, not a photo.
Not for a patio, a walk or a driveway at grade on your own lot. You do for a retaining wall over 4 feet, a footing that carries a roof, and any work in the public right-of-way. Those go to the City of Highland Building and Safety Division, and in East Highlands Ranch the association reviews anything that shows from the street as well. We file both.
Our yard is on Chicago Avenue in Riverside, about 20 miles by the 215 and the 210, and a crew is in Highland in around 35 minutes outside the morning rush. We call back within 1 business day to set the visit, and Marco Delgado measures on the lot himself. Highland is on the schedule most weeks, so the wait is for the visit, not for us to reach the town.
Because they were poured on loose fan sand with no base and no steel. The tracts west of Boulder Avenue and the lots around Palm Avenue were graded in the 1950s and 1960s, and sand that was never compacted settles a little every wet winter. A 60-year-old slab with no reinforcement follows it down and breaks where the ground left it. New work gets 4 inches of compacted base and steel on an 18-inch grid.
Two to three days on site for a patio or a driveway, and four for a full pool deck or a wall with a footing. After the pour the slab takes foot traffic at 24 hours and a car at 7 days. In the hot months we pour at first light, because concrete set in the afternoon heat off the mountain front dries at the surface before it cures underneath.
Redlands, across the Santa Ana wash to the south, and Loma Linda, Colton and Grand Terrace beyond it, along with Yucaipa and Calimesa out the 10. Each has its own page on this site. Mentone and the mountain communities beyond Greenspot Road are outside the towns we list, so if your street sits past the city line, call and we will say whether we come.
Highland borders San Bernardino to the west and Redlands across the river wash to the south, with Mentone and the mountain communities beyond Greenspot Road. We cover Redlands, Loma Linda, Colton and Grand Terrace from the same yard.
Open the Riverside 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 and written on your lot, and the crew that measures is the crew that pours.