Riverside Concrete Pro builds back-garden patios 4 inches thick on compacted base, set to fall away from the house wall, with the joints cut the same day. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
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How we build them
A patio fails at the house before it fails anywhere else. A slab poured tight to the wall and falling the wrong way sends every storm into the stem wall, and by the time the stucco darkens along the bottom the damage has gone inside. Put a compressible joint at the wall, screed a quarter inch of fall per foot away from it, and the same 4-inch slab sits flat for 30 years.
Marco Delgado started Riverside Concrete Pro in 2021 after 15 years pouring flatwork across the Inland Empire, and he sets the fall on every patio himself. Back gardens here are reached through a side gate or an alley, so the first thing measured is not the slab but the route the concrete takes to reach it, a 60-foot barrow run changes the crew, the pour rate and the shape of the day.
Patios are built under a CSLB C-8 concrete license with liability insurance on every job, to the California Residential Code. A slab that carries a solid cover or an outdoor kitchen is drawn and permitted through Building and Safety at the City of Riverside before it is poured. The work carries a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built.
Warning signs
A patio should shed a quarter inch per foot away from the wall. When it falls the other way, rain gathers against the stucco and soaks the stem wall every winter. Grinding the surface cannot move the fall, so the slab is broken out and re-poured to grade.
An L-shaped patio pulls in two directions as it cures, and the inside corner is where the pull meets. With no joint cut through that corner the crack finds its own line within a year or two. A re-pour puts the joint where the stress already wants to go.
The older Riverside streets have shade trees standing close to the house, and a root under an unreinforced 4-inch slab lifts it in one plate. Cutting the root buys a season and risks the tree. The new slab is routed clear of it or bridged over the run.
Clay in the arroyos here swells above an Expansion Index of 20, the line California code draws, and lifts whatever sits on it once it takes water. A patio that rises at one end each winter and drops back each summer is on that ground, and only a rebuilt base ends it.
What's included
Standard on every patio we pour, with no add-ons. Each one answers something a back garden does to a slab that a frontage never does: the house wall it meets, the trees around it, and the sun it takes all afternoon.
The outline is pegged in the garden and walked with you before anything is dug, so the size is agreed at full scale rather than off a sketch.
Lawn, gate posts and the side path are boarded before the first barrow goes through, and the run is swept and washed down at the end of each day.
Class 2 base goes in and is plate-compacted in layers, so the slab beds on drained ground rather than on loose fill that settles under it.
A compressible joint separates the slab from the building, so the patio can move a little without pushing the stem wall or the stucco above it.
The surface is set to about a quarter inch of fall per foot, away from the house, so a storm drains into the garden instead of into the foundation.
Control joints are cut the day of the pour, in panels close to square and through every inside corner, so the shrinkage lands in a line you chose.
Every edge is hand-tooled and the surface broomed for grip or stamped and colored, with the finish written on the estimate before a truck comes.
Curing compound goes down the same day and the slab is watered for a week, which is the difference between a sound surface and a crazed one here.
Your options
Four ways to finish a back-garden slab, judged on how long each lasts, what it suits, what it asks of you and how long the crew is in the garden. All four sit on the same compacted base, because that is the half that decides the rest.
| Option | Lifespan | Best for | Upkeep | Time in the garden |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Broom-finish concrete | 30 to 40 years | A table, chairs and a barbecue | Reseal every 4 to 5 years | 1 day, then 7 to cure |
| Stamped concrete | 25 to 30 years | Shaded gardens on the older streets | Reseal every 2 to 3 years | 2 days, then 7 to cure |
| Exposed aggregate | 35 years or more | West-facing lots that take afternoon sun | Reseal every 4 years, rinse each spring | 2 days, then 7 to cure |
| Interlocking pavers | 30 to 50 years | Arroyo clay that may still move | Sweep sand into the joints yearly | 2 to 3 days, no curing |
Color decides surface heat more than material does: a dark stamped patio on a west-facing lot reads hot underfoot from June through September.
Local knowledge
The ground under a patio changes by terrace across this city, and a thin slab feels it more than a driveway does, because nothing heavy sits on it to hold it down.
On the flats near the Santa Ana River and Fairmount Park it is river sand and gravel that drains and compacts easily; under the Wood Streets and Victoria Avenue, decomposed granite and sandy loam; in the arroyos, clay that swells once it takes water. So the base is built to what the probe finds rather than to one standard depth, read against the USDA Web Soil Survey, and through July and August the finish is worked early and the slab watered the full seven days.
We build patios behind bungalows in the Wood Streets, post-war houses through Arlington and La Sierra, and 1990s and 2000s homes in Orangecrest, Mission Grove and Canyon Crest. On a west-facing lot the shade is the design problem rather than the concrete, which is why the finish and the color get decided out in the garden, at the hour of day you actually plan to sit there.
Our process
From the morning it is measured in the garden to the day the furniture goes back on it. One crew, one written figure, and the access route agreed before a barrow is loaded.
Marco Delgado pegs the shape, measures the fall at the house wall and checks the side gate for width. The estimate is written before he leaves.
You choose broom or stamped and where the joints fall. A slab carrying a solid cover is drawn and permitted through Building and Safety first.
The old slab or lawn comes out to depth, boards go down the side path, and the subgrade is probed and proved before any base is brought in.
Base compacted in layers, forms set to the fall we agreed, then the concrete placed, the edges tooled and the finish worked with the owner on it.
Joints cut within 12 hours, curing compound down and the side path washed off. You walk the slab with the owner and take the written guarantee.
What moves the estimate
Area sets the floor and access sets the rest. A patio that holds a table and six chairs runs about 250 to 400 square feet; past that the number moves on how the concrete reaches the garden and what the ground under it needs.
A mixer at the curb and a 60-foot barrow run through a side gate is a different day from a pump over the roof, and often the largest single line.
River sand off the flats wants base and little else. Arroyo clay wants digging deeper and a thicker compacted layer before a slab goes on it.
A rectangle is one set of forms. Curves, inside corners and a step down to the lawn add forming and hand-tooling to the same square footage.
Broom is the baseline and stamped adds hands at the pour. Footings for a patio cover are poured with the slab and drawn on the same permit.
The visit is free and the figure is written out in the garden, and we call back within 1 business day to arrange it. (951) 584-0685 or send us a message.
Send the form or call, and someone rings you back within 1 business day. We measure the garden, walk the access route with you and write the figure there, and nothing is owed if you go no further with it.
Reviews
Reviews left on Google, Facebook and the BBB by homeowners we built patios for. All three are about back-garden slabs rather than driveways or footings.
“Our garden is behind a side gate barely wide enough for a barrow and they still poured 320 square feet in a morning without marking the lawn. Marco set the fall himself, and the first real rain ran off into the beds instead of standing at the back wall.”
“The old slab sloped back toward the house and the stucco had gone dark along the bottom of the wall. They broke it out, re-poured 280 square feet falling the other way and put a joint in at the building. Two winters on and that wall has stayed dry.”
“West-facing garden, so they talked us into a light stamped color instead of the dark one we had picked out. It is walkable in August, which the old brick never was. Joints were cut the same afternoon and there is not a line in it anywhere yet.”
FAQ
Thickness, drainage, access, permits, heat and the guarantee, answered for a Riverside back garden rather than for concrete in general.
4 inches on a compacted base is right for a patio holding furniture, a barbecue and people. Thickness only goes up where something heavy sits in one place, a spa, an outdoor kitchen island, the posts of a cover, and there we pour a thickened edge or a footing under that point rather than a deeper slab across the whole garden. What we pour is written on the estimate.
Away from the wall, at about a quarter inch of fall per foot. That clears a storm in minutes and is still flat enough that a table does not rock on it. A slab that falls the other way puts water against the stem wall every winter, and it is the fault worth fixing first, because the damage ends up inside the house rather than on the concrete.
Usually not for a slab on the ground, but we confirm it rather than assume it, the city's exempt list names driveways and walkways, and a patio is read against those. A patio cover, a solid roof over the slab, or an outdoor kitchen carrying gas and water goes through Building and Safety at the City of Riverside for drawings and a permit. We file for the ones we build and stand the inspection.
Usually not, and it does not need to. The mixer stays at the curb and the concrete goes through the side gate by barrow, or over the roof by pump where the run is long or the gate is narrow. That route is walked and measured on the estimate visit, boards are laid over lawn and paving, and the access is priced as its own line rather than discovered on pour day.
Foot traffic after 24 to 48 hours, furniture at seven days, and anything heavy such as a spa at 28 days, when the concrete has reached full strength. A chair dragged across a green slab scores it permanently, so the week is worth waiting out. We give you the date on the day of the pour and leave the curing compound working until then.
A light broom finish stays usable through a Riverside afternoon over 95 degrees; a dark stamped one on a west-facing lot with no tree does not. Color decides that more than the material does, which is why the finish is chosen out in the garden at the hour you plan to use it. Where the sun cannot be avoided, a cover on footings answers it better than a paler slab.
Broom costs least to lay, grips underfoot when it is wet and wants a reseal every 4 to 5 years. Stamped concrete is patterned and colored while the slab is still plastic, which puts more hands on the pour, and it wants resealing every 2 to 3 years because the color goes before the surface does. Underneath they are the same slab on the same base.
Yes, in writing. The guarantee covers defects in how the patio was built, the compaction under it, the fall away from the house, the joints and the finish, and its terms sit on the estimate you sign. It does not cover staining, wear, or ground movement beyond what the joints are cut to control. Where the fault is ours, Marco Delgado comes back out to it himself.
Service area
The eight nearest towns we build patios in, with the straight-line distance from Riverside. The full list runs to 20 towns inside 25 miles.
Four jobs that most often go in beside a patio, or on the same visit, same crew, same compacted base, and one written figure covering all of it.
The same slab out at the frontage, poured 4 to 6 inches to what parks on it and jointed the same day.
Where the garden steps down, a poured wall on footings holds the bank off the edge of the slab.
The run from a back door down to the new slab, poured with the patio and finished to match it.
Posts for a patio cover or a pergola, on footings poured with the slab that carries them.
Call or send the form and someone rings you back within 1 business day to fix a time. The measurement is free, the figure is written before we leave, and there is nothing to pay if you go no further.