Riverside Concrete Pro pours the long drives, barn floors and walls of Lake Mathews, acre lots on granite 12 miles south of our yard. Every estimate is measured and written on site, free.
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Lake Mathews is granite that has not finished weathering. The hills south of the reservoir are the Gavilan Hills, boulder outcrops standing out of decomposed granite, and most lots have rock at the surface somewhere on them.
That gives two problems and one gift. The gift is the subgrade, because firm decomposed granite compacts hard and drains, and a slab on it does not heave. The first problem is that the depth to firm material changes every few feet, so a pad is loose sand at one end and solid rock at the other, and a slab poured to one thickness across both cracks at the change. The second is slope. A hillside lot sheds water fast in a January storm, and a drive laid across the fall becomes the channel.
So we grade for water first and pour for the rock second. Every slab is set to shed downhill and away from the house, with a swale cut where a drive crosses the fall. We dig to firm granite and bring the base up in compacted lifts of Class 2, so the slab bears on one material rather than two. A boulder that will not lift is cut below the base and poured over. Steel runs on a 24-inch grid, and the joints are cut where the ground changes and not only at even spacing.
Lake Mathews is not a suburb. The lots along Cajalco Road and up into the Gavilan Hills run to acres, with a barn or an arena behind the house, and the concrete they ask for is long, thick and poured where a truck barely stands.
A Lake Mathews drive is often the longest run of concrete on the property, from a gate on Cajalco Road up a grade to the house. We pour it 5 inches thick for the trailers and trucks that use it, crown it to shed both ways, and cut joints at every change in the fall.
Patios here look out over the reservoir or the hills, and they sit on a pad that is rock at one edge and fill at the other. We cut to firm granite across the whole footprint, bring the base up level in compacted lifts and pour 4 inches on a 24-inch steel grid as one piece.
Stamped concrete on a Lake Mathews lot is chosen to match the ground, so a flagstone or a random stone pattern in a tan tone beside the boulders already in the yard. We stamp it into a 4 inch slab, color it through rather than on top, and seal it in 2 coats against the sun.
There is no public sidewalk in Lake Mathews, so a walk here runs from the drive to the door, the well house or the barn, across ground that slopes. We pour it 4 inches thick with a broom finish for grip, and cast steps in where the fall is too steep to walk a smooth slab.
A garage floor in Lake Mathews carries a tractor as often as a car, and a shop floor takes a lift. We pour 5 to 6 inches on compacted base with steel through it, slope the slab to the door so a hose-down drains itself, and cut the joints on a grid the wheels do not chase.
Decorative work in Lake Mathews is asked to look like it was already there. An exposed aggregate finish shows the granite the lot is made of, a sand-toned integral color matches the ground, and both stay cooler than a gray slab through a summer that passes 100 degrees.
A wall in the Gavilan Hills holds a cut in decomposed granite that stands dry and runs when it is wet. We foot it 18 inches into firm rock, drain behind the stem with perforated pipe in gravel, and take anything over 4 feet to Riverside County Building and Safety for a permit.
The interior slabs we pour in Lake Mathews are barns, tack rooms, workshops and the occasional casita, on ground that is rock at grade. We cut a level plane, pour over 4 inches of base and a 10 mil barrier where the room is lived in, and trowel it flat enough to coat.
The lake is the Metropolitan Water District's reservoir, the last stop of the Colorado River Aqueduct, and the community takes its name from it while the district keeps the shoreline closed. Everything around it is unincorporated Riverside County, so a permit is a county permit, filed with Riverside County Building and Safety on Lemon Street in downtown Riverside, and the inspector who comes out is the county's.
We reach it two ways. From our yard on Chicago Avenue the direct road is Van Buren Boulevard to Wood Road and south to Cajalco Road, about 12 miles, which serves the lots on the north and east sides of the water. For the Gavilan Hills and the ranches out toward Mead Valley we come down Interstate 215 to the Cajalco Road exit, because a loaded mixer prefers a freeway to a two-lane road with no shoulder.
The roads decide the day as much as the ground does. Many drives off Cajalco Road are graded dirt, and a mixer that ruts one in January is a truck that does not get out, so from December to March we walk the access before we book the pour and pump from the pavement where we have to. In summer the hills run past 100 degrees by noon, so we batch at first light and finish the surface before the slab flashes.
Four stages, and the first one is longer here than anywhere else we work. The measure walks the access road as well as the lot, because on a Lake Mathews property where the truck stands is half the plan.
Marco Delgado drives the access, measures every run, probes for rock and fill, and writes the one figure before leaving.
Loose granite and fill come out to firm material, and Class 2 base goes in by compacted lifts until the pad is one level plane.
A wall, a footing or a lived-in slab is filed with Riverside County Building and Safety. We file it and meet the inspector.
Poured at first light and jointed the same day. Walk on it at 24 hours, drive on it at 7 days, and we grade the road back behind us.
Call or send the form and we will call back within 1 business day to set a time. Marco Delgado drives out, walks the road and the lot, probes for rock and writes the figure at the tailgate, and it costs nothing.
Reviews
Google reviews from homeowners across the towns we cover, Lake Mathews among them, written about the long drives, walls and barn floors 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.”
The questions a Lake Mathews owner asks before booking, on the county's permit counter, the rock under the lot, the road the truck has to use and how long a long drive is out of service.
Length, then access. A drive out here is measured in hundreds of feet rather than tens, so area is the first thing on the figure, and after that it is whether the mixer can stand at the pour or the concrete is pumped from Cajalco Road. Depth to firm granite, thickness and steel come next. Every estimate is measured and written on site, so nothing is guessed from a map.
From Riverside County, and only for some of it. Lake Mathews is unincorporated, so there is no city hall to go to. Flatwork at grade needs no permit. A retaining wall over 4 feet from the bottom of its footing, a footing under a barn or a patio cover, and a slab for a room someone will occupy are filed with Riverside County Building and Safety, and we handle the application and the inspection.
Almost certainly, and the question is how deep. The Gavilan Hills are granite, and on most lots it grades from decomposed sand at the surface to solid rock within a few feet, with boulders standing through it. We probe the whole footprint before quoting. A boulder that can be lifted comes out, and one that cannot is cut below the base and poured over, because it is firmer than anything we can truck in.
That is the first thing we check. A loaded mixer ruts a dirt drive after rain and cannot turn on a narrow grade, so the estimate visit walks the road from the pavement to the pour. Where the truck cannot come to the slab, a line pump from Cajalco Road or the nearest paved shoulder does the carrying, and that is decided before the figure is written, not on the morning.
Seven days for a car and 28 for a loaded trailer. The concrete takes foot traffic after 24 hours and a vehicle after 7 days, and reaches its design strength at 28, which is when a horse rig or a tractor goes on it. Where a house has only one way in we pour the drive in two halves a week apart so you are never cut off from the road.
At the boundary, yes. The land around the reservoir is the district's and the hills beyond it are habitat under the county's conservation plan, so a lot backing onto either has an edge no cut or fill may cross, and a grading permit there can ask for a habitat check. Inside your fence a slab needs none of that. We read the parcel map before the first cut, because that line is not always where the fence runs.
Lake Mathews has El Sobrante at its northwest corner, Perris and Menifee down Interstate 215 to the southeast and Temescal Valley over the hills to the west, and each has a page here. Where a lot straddles a line, read the page for the road you come in on.
Open the Riverside Office in Google Maps Send the form and we will call back within 1 business day. The estimate is free and written at the lot, and the work carries a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built.