Professional Masonry Contractor in West Covina CA - Built to Last

West Covina incorporated in 1923 but grew most of its housing stock during the postwar decades of the 1950s through the 1970s. With roughly 106,000 residents and about 35,000 housing units, the city is one of the larger communities in the San Gabriel Valley, and the majority of those homes are single-family ranches on modest lots. At 45 to 75 years old, original concrete driveways, brick chimneys, and block walls throughout the city are at the age where significant deterioration is expected. The underlying cause is the same expansive clay soil that affects every community in this valley - it swells in winter and shrinks in summer, and that movement stresses rigid masonry structures with each passing year.

West Covina winters bring rain that pools against foundations and behind block walls where drainage was not originally designed to handle it. Santa Ana wind events in fall push ash and debris onto roofs and into chimney flues, and the associated dry heat accelerates mortar deterioration. Stucco exteriors are standard on West Covina homes, and while stucco holds up well in dry conditions, any cracks or open joints invite water behind the surface during the rainy season. A masonry contractor who works West Covina jobs regularly understands the specific sequence of damage that the local climate and soil produce, and approaches repairs in the right order.

West Covina is a city of about 106,000 people in the eastern San Gabriel Valley, roughly 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. The city was incorporated in 1923 but grew most of its housing stock during the postwar decades, when the San Gabriel Valley was being developed rapidly for returning veterans and young families. The result is a city whose residential neighborhoods are dominated by single-story ranch homes on modest lots - most of them built between 1950 and 1980, sitting on stucco exteriors and concrete flatwork that has now been through several decades of use. The Westfield West Covina mall has been a commercial anchor since the 1970s, and the South Hills area on the city's south side includes more elevated, larger-lot properties near South Hills Country Club.

West Covina borders Covina to the east, Baldwin Park to the north, and Rowland Heights to the south. About 57 percent of the city's housing units are owner-occupied, reflecting a community where homeowners have a real stake in maintaining their properties. Neighboring Baldwin Park to the north has a similar housing profile, with many of the same masonry conditions that come from the clay soil and postwar housing stock shared across the western San Gabriel Valley.