FAQ
Concrete and Masonry in North Hills, answered
The questions we hear most from North Hills homeowners.
The list is fairly consistent across these tract neighborhoods. Driveways and front walkways come first, because they are the oldest surfaces on the property and the most heavily used. Rear patio slabs and pool decks follow close behind. On the masonry side we build block walls along property lines, low seat walls around a patio, pilasters at a driveway entrance, and stone veneer or brick facing over block. Steps appear wherever a slab meets a threshold. Most requests are replacements of something already there rather than a first surface on bare ground.
Age, and what sits underneath it. Flatwork poured decades ago when these tracts were built was often thin, lightly reinforced or not reinforced at all, and placed over soil that was never compacted to any standard. Add years of vehicle loads, root growth, moisture moving through the subgrade, and joints spaced too far apart, and slabs settle at the edges and crack across the middle. Once a panel has dropped, patching the surface accomplishes nothing, because the failure is in the ground below. Replacement over a compacted base is the honest fix.
Yes, and it is routine work for us in this area. We saw cut clean edges, break out the old slab, haul the debris away, and expose the subgrade so we can see what caused the failure in the first place. Original driveways on these lots are frequently narrow and thin, so a replacement becomes a chance to widen the approach, thicken the slab, and add the reinforcement that was never there. Where the drive meets the sidewalk and street, we treat the apron separately, since that portion sits in the public right of way.
It puts all of the responsibility on us. On a property with natural fall, a slab can be tied into grade that already moves water somewhere useful. Here the land does none of that work, so pitch is set by string line and screed before the pour rather than discovered afterward. We slope the surface away from the house at a consistent fall, direct water toward a planted area, a swale or a drain inlet, and check grade at the far edge so the last few feet do not go flat and hold puddles.
A base that carries the load, since concrete is strong in compression and helpless over a soft spot. We strip organic material and loose fill, shape the subgrade to follow the finished slope, then place crushed aggregate and compact it in lifts with a plate compactor rather than dumping the full depth at once. The base gets checked for depth and uniformity before forms go in. Skipping that step is the single most common reason a slab which looked perfect on day one is cracked and stepped a few years later.
It depends on what drives over it. Rebar tied in a grid is the right answer for driveways, aprons and anything carrying vehicle weight, and we tie that steel into adjoining walls or footings where the two meet. Wire mesh is acceptable on lighter duty walkways and patios. Placement matters more than the choice itself. Reinforcement lying flat on the dirt does nothing whatsoever, so we set it on chairs at the correct height within the slab, where it can genuinely resist the forces pulling concrete apart.
Vehicle surfaces get more. Driveways, aprons and any area a delivery truck may use are poured thicker and reinforced with bar, because point loads from wheels concentrate stress along edges and joints. Walkways and patios carrying foot traffic and furniture do not need that mass and are poured lighter. Thickness is only half the equation, though. A thin slab over an excellent compacted base routinely outlasts a thick slab poured on soft ground, so we would rather spend the effort below the surface than simply add depth.
All concrete shrinks as it cures and moves as temperature changes, and it has very little capacity to stretch, so it relieves that stress by cracking. Control joints do not prevent the crack, they decide where it lands. We cut or tool joints at a spacing suited to the slab thickness, keep panels close to square instead of long and narrow, and align joints with inside corners, posts and other places where stress naturally concentrates. Done properly, the slab still cracks, but it cracks in a straight line you were expecting.
They pull water out of the surface faster than the concrete wants to give it up. Full sun, warm air and low humidity drive rapid evaporation, which leads to plastic shrinkage cracks, a weak dusty surface, and a slab that never reaches the strength it was designed for. We schedule pours to avoid the worst heat of the day where the job allows, keep the surface damp or covered through the early curing period, and protect it from traffic. Curing is not waiting around, it is an active part of the work.
A broom finish is the workhorse: slip resistant, easy to repair, and forgiving of ordinary wear. Exposed aggregate offers more texture and visual depth, which suits pool decks and patios well. Stamped concrete presses a pattern and color into the surface for a stone or plank look, and it needs periodic resealing to stay sharp. Integral color mixed through the batch weathers far better than a surface stain, because the color runs all the way through. Lighter tones also stay noticeably cooler underfoot, worth considering on an unshaded rear patio.
Yes, and on level ground those elements are about definition more than elevation. Steps here are typically one riser or two between a slab and a threshold or a raised patio, formed and poured with consistent riser heights so nobody catches a toe. Seat walls edge a patio, hold planting soil back and give people somewhere to sit without hauling furniture out. Pilasters mark a driveway entrance or anchor the end of a wall. Every one of them is built on a proper footing, since masonry set on loose soil moves and cracks its face.
The section between the sidewalk and the curb sits in the public right of way, so it is not simply part of your property. Work there generally requires a permit from the city and must meet its standards for dimensions, slope and materials. The portion of the driveway inside your property line is treated differently. We tell you clearly which part of the job falls into which category before anything gets broken out, so there are no surprises once the saw is running and the old slab is already gone.
It starts below ground. We excavate and pour a footing sized for the wall, set vertical rebar into it at the required spacing, then lay block over that steel course by course. Cells containing rebar are grouted solid so the wall behaves as one reinforced unit instead of a stack of masonry. Horizontal steel goes in as the height builds. Because these lots sit close together, we confirm the property line and talk through height before anything is laid, since a wall in the wrong place is an expensive thing to move.
Often yes, and it is a popular way to make an original tract era wall look like part of a finished yard. The existing wall has to be sound first, so we check it for movement, cracking, and a footing still doing its job. From there the face is prepared and veneer is set in mortar over a scratch coat, with real attention paid to corners, caps and the top edge where water would otherwise work its way behind the stone. A wall that is already failing gets rebuilt rather than dressed up.
Less often than hillside properties, but it happens. Raised planters, a sunken patio, a small grade change built into a redesign, or a wall holding soil between two lots all qualify. Any wall retaining soil gets a footing, vertical rebar grouted into the block, gravel backfill behind the face, a perforated drain pipe at the base carried to daylight, and weep holes. Water trapped behind a wall is what pushes it over. Above a certain height an engineered design and a permit are required, and we handle that properly rather than eyeballing the limit.
By deciding in advance where it goes. On level ground water does not drain, it collects, so new concrete needs a designed path off the surface and out of the yard. We pitch the slab away from the house, keep finished soil grade below the slab edge so planting beds do not dam the runoff, and add channel drains or area drain inlets where a surface is boxed in by paving and planting. Lines run with fall to a discharge point. Solving this while the ground is open costs far less than correcting it later.
Our people. Daniels Landscaping performs concrete and masonry work with one licensed contractor. The same employees who set the base and place the steel are the ones finishing the surface and laying the block. Concrete is unforgiving of a rushed crew, because the window to get a finish right is short and there is no going back once it sets. Keeping the work inside the company means one standard, one point of accountability, and nobody pointing a finger at anyone else.
Call (818) 443-9300 and we will set a time to walk the property. Many longtime residents still call this area Sepulveda, and we work throughout it. On site we look at the condition of the existing flatwork, check the subgrade where it has failed, discuss thickness, reinforcement, finish and joint layout, and confirm where water needs to go. You then receive a free written estimate laying out scope and materials in plain language. Daniels Landscaping is licensed in California under number 1138709, and one licensed contractor performs every part of the work.