SkyVale Jurupa Valley Concrete pours drives, walks and patios on the old citrus streets south of downtown, around the university and out in the newer tracts toward Mentone, 18 miles east of our yard.
Redlands is the oldest town we pour in. The citrus streets went up between 1888 and 1920, and a good deal of the concrete laid around those houses has never once been replaced.
That leaves 2 towns in one. South of downtown and around the university the lots are deep, the houses Victorian and Craftsman, and 80 year old drives sit under camphor, pepper and citrus trees still growing. North of the I-10 and east toward Mentone the stock is 1960s to 1990s stucco on ground that shrinks and swells with the season. A contractor who prices the second job and turns up to the first finds a root the width of an arm under the forms and no way to get a truck past the house.
So the trees are surveyed before the figure is written. Roots thicker than an inch are cut back and sealed, a 24-inch barrier goes in wherever a trunk stands within 5 feet, and the slab is poured 4 inches over 4 inches of plate-compacted Class 2 base with rebar on an 18-inch grid. Redlands sits near 1,360 feet, so a December pour is finished by early afternoon and left to cure through a night that runs to the low forties.
Much of the concrete here is older than the people replacing it. A job in Redlands is usually a 1920s drive lifted by a street tree, or an east-side slab from the 1980s that has moved with the ground beneath it.
A drive south of downtown is often the original, poured before 1930 with no steel in it and lifted since by a camphor root. We break it out, cut the roots back, and pour 4 inches over compacted base with rebar on an 18-inch grid, 6 inches where a truck parks.
The east-side tracts were handed over with a 12 foot covered slab off the back door and bare dirt past it, and that is most of the patio work we do in Redlands. We dowel the new pour into the builder's slab rather than butting a cold joint, and cut joints every 10 feet.
Stamped work in Redlands is wanted where a plain gray slab would sit badly against a 1910 porch. We keep the pattern to the walk and the entry, cast it into a 4 inch slab with an integral color rather than a surface stain, and finish with a 2 coat acrylic sealer.
Redlands is a walking town, and the panels through the historic core were laid when the street trees were saplings. We replace 4 inches thick on compacted base, joint every 4 feet, set a 24-inch root barrier where a trunk is within 5 feet, and file the encroachment approval.
Garages on the old streets are detached, sit at the back of the lot, and were poured 3 to 4 inches thick in the 1920s with nothing in them. We break out the cracked bays, pour 4 inches on compacted base, and fall the front 10 feet to the door so wash water leaves on its own.
Exposed aggregate suits Redlands better than a colored topping, because the sun at 1,360 feet takes a surface coat apart in a few summers. The stone is in the concrete rather than on it, so a seeded finish still reads the same after 10 years beside a Craftsman porch.
East toward the Crafton Hills the pads were cut and filled, and a back yard can step 4 feet across its width before anything is usable. We foot a wall 18 inches into firm material, drain the back of the stem with gravel and a pipe, and draw and permit anything over 4 feet.
A polished floor is the slab itself, so it cannot lift the way tile laid over the same slab does when the ground moves. In Redlands we see it asked for in 1920s houses where a rear room has been opened up, ground and sealed in 2 coats over the existing 4 inch pour.
Our yard is on Limonite Avenue, 18 miles west, and the run east on the I-10 puts a crew in Redlands inside 40 minutes. Plans go to the City of Redlands rather than to a Riverside County counter, because this town is in San Bernardino County, and a designated historic property takes a certificate of appropriateness before anything the street can see is altered. We check the register at the estimate, not after the forms are set.
The mansion streets run south of downtown, Cajon Street and Olive Avenue among them, on deep lots where the garage sits at the back of a 150 foot side drive and a mixer cannot follow it. The quarter off Colton Avenue by the university is the same era on smaller frontages. North of the I-10 the flats are plainer and the access is easy. East toward Mentone and the Crafton Hills the tracts are newer, the pads were cut and filled, and a back yard can drop 4 feet across its width.
The land falls from the Crafton Hills west toward the Santa Ana River, and the Mill Creek Zanja runs on that line: the irrigation ditch dug in 1819 to carry Mill Creek water 12 miles west across what is now Redlands, culverted through the western half of town since the 1920s. Grade is therefore something a slab can use here, which is not true everywhere we work. We pour Redlands from October through May by preference, and start at 6 in the morning through the summer.
Four stages and one written figure, run by the crew that measured the job. On the old streets we plan the access first, because on a deep lot the concrete often has to travel the last 100 feet by barrow or by pump.
Daniel Reyes measures the run, probes the subgrade, photographs every trunk within 5 feet of it and checks how close a truck can get.
The old slab comes out, roots over an inch are cut back and sealed, and 4 inches of Class 2 base goes down in 2 compacted passes.
We apply to the City of Redlands, flag a historic designation, and file the encroachment approval for curb work. You never see a counter.
Most Redlands jobs run 2 to 3 days on site. Walk on it after 24 hours, park on it after 7, and the trees stay where they were.
Send the form or call and we will call you back within 1 business day. Nothing is charged for the visit or the written figure, and Redlands is on our regular run east rather than a trip we make as an exception.
Reviews
Reviews left by the homeowners who hired us, across every town this one crew reaches. Some were written after a job in Redlands, and the work behind them is the work described above.
“They measured our driveway on a Tuesday and handed me the written estimate before they left. The crew was on site four days, poured 540 square feet at 5 inches in one morning, cut the joints that afternoon, and after its first summer over 100 degrees there is not a crack in it.”
“A tree root had lifted the same sidewalk slab three winters running. They cut the root back, set a root barrier, poured the new section 4 inches on compacted base and pulled the right-of-way permit themselves. Ten months on it is still flat.”
“Our patio was original to the house, 1980s and crumbling. Daniel walked the base prep with me before they started: they dug out the clay, packed gravel in layers, poured 300 square feet in ashlar slate and sealed it at 28 days. It looks like cut stone.”
What homeowners ask us before booking concrete work in Redlands: what moves the figure, what the city wants to see, what the street trees do to a slab, and how the old streets differ from the east side.
Size first, then the trees and the access. A drive on a deep lot south of downtown can run 100 feet, and where a truck cannot pass the house the pour is barrowed or pumped, which is labor rather than concrete. Root cutting, a 24-inch barrier and thickness move it after that. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
Not for a slab at grade on your own land. Yes for a retaining wall over 4 feet, a footing under a patio cover, and anything in the right-of-way, which takes an encroachment approval as well. Add a certificate of appropriateness if the house is a designated historic resource. We file all of it with the City of Redlands and meet the inspector.
Keeping the roots out from under it. The camphors and pepper trees on the citrus-era streets are 80 to 100 years old and their roots are what lifted the drive you are replacing, so anything thicker than an inch is cut back and sealed and a 24-inch barrier goes in within 5 feet of a trunk. Under that, 4 inches of compacted base and rebar on an 18-inch grid.
They make the access the hard part rather than the concrete. A Craftsman on Cajon Street usually has a detached garage at the back of a long side drive with 8 feet between the house and the fence, so the mix is barrowed or pumped the last stretch. That is the single largest difference between a job here and one on the east side, and it is hours rather than materials.
Most run 2 to 3 days on site, and a long drive with root work runs 4. Then 24 hours before anyone walks on it and 7 days before a car parks on it. What stretches the start rather than the work is the approval: a right-of-way panel or a designated historic house adds a certificate of appropriateness before we can set a date.
Yes, and the trees are what change. South of downtown the ground is settled and level after a century, but the mature planting means root cutting and a barrier on nearly every job. East toward Mentone the lots are young and open, and the work is grading and drainage on pads that were cut and filled. The older streets take longer to prepare.
Highland and Loma Linda both sit under 5 miles from Redlands and Colton is 9, all on the same run east. If your address falls over one of those lines, use that town's page instead.
Open the Jurupa Valley Office in Google Maps Send the form and we will call you back within 1 business day. The figure is measured and written at the property at no cost, and everything we pour in Redlands carries a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built.