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La Mirada Masonry handles stone masonry, concrete repair, and brick work across Lakewood, CA - a city where nearly every home was built in the early 1950s, the original flatwork is well past its service life, and mature tree roots have been quietly pushing up driveways and walkways for decades. We reply within one business day and provide a written estimate before work starts.
Lakewood homeowners frequently use stone masonry to upgrade the curb appeal of a 1950s ranch home - adding a natural stone surround to an entry column, a low stone garden wall at the front yard, or a stone veneer on the chimney exterior that the original builder never finished. Our stone masonry work is sourced and set to hold up in the dry Southern California climate without cracking or fading within a few seasons.
Driveways, patios, and walkways poured in the early 1950s are now well over 70 years old on Lakewood properties, and the combination of clay soil movement, aging unreinforced concrete, and tree root pressure has pushed most of them past the point where patching alone solves the problem. We remove the damaged slab, address any root intrusion and drainage issues beneath it, and pour a properly reinforced replacement.
Chimneys on Lakewood homes - nearly all of them from the original 1950s construction - have been exposed to decades of UV, rain, and minor seismic movement that loosens mortar joints and eventually causes brick faces to spall or shift. We match the original brick color and size and use a mortar formula matched to the existing masonry, which matters on soft vintage brick where hard modern mortar causes the surrounding brick to crack.
Mortar joints on Lakewood brick chimneys and block garden walls dry out steadily in the long Southern California summer and then absorb moisture during the concentrated winter rainy season, a cycle that opens gaps over time. Tuckpointing removes the deteriorated mortar and replaces it with a matched mix, closing the joint before water can get behind the brick face and cause larger structural issues.
Original concrete walkways on Lakewood lots are frequently heaved by tree roots or cracked from clay soil expansion, creating trip hazards that are both a safety issue and a liability concern for homeowners. We remove the damaged concrete, cut back roots as needed, install a root barrier where large trees are close to the path, and lay new walkways in brick, stone pavers, or reinforced concrete.
Many Lakewood homeowners want a low decorative brick wall along the front property line or between the driveway and the front yard as a way to give a post-war ranch home a more defined, finished look without changing the overall character of the property. We set new brick walls on proper footings sized for the local soil conditions, so the wall stays plumb and crack-free as the ground moves through each wet season.
Lakewood is unusual in Los Angeles County because the overwhelming majority of its housing stock was built within a four-year window - between 1950 and 1954 - as part of one of the largest planned residential developments in American history. That means roughly 17,500 homes across the city are nearly identical in age, construction method, and the problems they now face. Original concrete driveways, block garden walls, and brick chimneys from that era were built without the drainage requirements, footing depths, or reinforcement standards that would be required today. Seventy-plus years of clay soil movement, wet winters, and dry summers have worked on them continuously. The result is a city where a very large portion of the housing stock is reaching the end of its original masonry and concrete service life at the same time.
The mature trees planted on Lakewood lots in the 1950s compound the problem in a specific way. Those trees are now large - many with root systems that extend well beyond the drip line - and their roots have had decades to find their way beneath concrete driveways, walkways, and patio slabs. Root intrusion is one of the most common causes of concrete heaving and cracking in Lakewood, and patching the surface without addressing the root beneath it guarantees the same problem returns within a few years. The City of Lakewood Public Works Department manages street trees, but roots from yard trees are a homeowner responsibility, and a masonry contractor who understands how to cut back roots and install barriers correctly makes the difference between a repair that holds and one that fails again.
Our crew works in Lakewood regularly, and the housing type here is one of the most consistent we encounter anywhere in Los Angeles County - small ranch homes on 5,000 to 6,000 square foot lots, nearly all built to the same developer plan between 1950 and 1954. Because so many homes were built the same way at the same time, the masonry and concrete problems we find tend to repeat: original driveways with wide root cracks at the tree line, brick chimneys with open mortar joints, and block back walls showing lateral movement from clay soil pressure. The consistency of the housing stock means we can often assess what is needed quickly and accurately.
Del Amo Boulevard runs east-west across the northern part of the city, and Lakewood Boulevard is the main north-south corridor that cuts through the center of town. Lakewood Center - one of the first large regional shopping malls in the country when it opened in 1952 - sits at the intersection of these two roads and is a reference point most residents know. The residential neighborhoods extend in all directions from there, and the masonry conditions are consistent block to block.
We serve all of Lakewood and work regularly in neighboring Downey, CA, which borders Lakewood to the north and has the same 1950s tract home conditions and clay soil issues. Our crews also work throughout Bellflower, CA, which sits just to the east and shares Lakewood's postwar construction character and flatwork replacement demand.
Reach us by phone or through the online form and we respond within one business day to set a site visit. You do not need a prepared scope of work - describe what you are seeing and we take it from there.
We visit your Lakewood property, look at the masonry or concrete in question, and provide a written estimate before work starts. We assess permit requirements upfront and tell you whether your project needs one through the LA County Department of Public Works.
We arrive on the agreed date and work through the project efficiently. Most Lakewood homeowners are at work during the day, and we operate independently as long as we have access to the work area. We keep the site clean throughout.
When the job is finished, we walk you through the completed work and explain how long the concrete or mortar needs to cure before it takes full load. We remain reachable after the job is done if questions come up.
We serve all of Lakewood, CA. No obligation, no pressure - just an honest assessment of what your property needs and what it will cost.
(562) 689-9880Lakewood is a city of about 80,000 residents in Los Angeles County, bordered by Long Beach to the west, Bellflower to the east, Cerritos to the north, and Signal Hill to the northwest. It was incorporated as its own city in 1954 - a distinction residents take seriously, as Lakewood has its own city government and identity independent of Long Beach, despite their shared border and similar street grids. The city is entirely residential and commercial with no undeveloped land remaining, and the overwhelming majority of the housing stock consists of single-story ranch-style homes built by a single developer over a four-year span in the early 1950s. That makes Lakewood one of the most architecturally consistent cities in Southern California - and one of the most predictable from a masonry and concrete maintenance standpoint.
Most Lakewood neighborhoods are quiet, tree-lined streets with modest front yards, attached single-car garages, and backyard patios - many of them original to the home. The city has a high owner-occupancy rate, and many families have lived in the same home for decades. Homeowners here tend to take maintenance seriously and value contractors who show up on time, do honest work, and explain what they are doing. We work across all of Lakewood and also serve nearby Cerritos, CA, which borders Lakewood to the northeast and has a newer housing stock with its own distinct masonry needs.
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Learn MoreMost Lakewood homes are over 70 years old - the longer aging concrete and brick go unaddressed, the more the surrounding structure is affected. Contact us now and we respond within one business day.