Concrete driveways in Cardiff

Driveways in Cardiff, 2285

Cardiff is 13 km west-south-west of the Newcastle CBD by council’s measure and 4 km north-west of Charlestown, with its shops along Main Road, one of the region’s busiest stations and the Macquarie Road corner that opens onto the industrial estate. Once the railway workshops moved here from Honeysuckle in 1928 it became a suburb for workers in heavy industry, and it filled early, with 881 homes by 1933 and 1,160 by 1947, water from 1922 and sewer from 1945. That inter-war layer is unusual for Lake Macquarie, and post-war streets sit around it. More than four dwellings in five are separate houses, so the driveways are old, and the work is replacing them.

Valley floor and ridge

Council’s area plan puts the centre on relatively low-lying ground with sloping ridges to the north and east, says the lower parts of the shopping centre flood in local events, and warns that the hilly ground makes inter-allotment drainage difficult, particularly on the low side of a street. The valley flooded in 1981, 1990 and 2007. The whole suburb is inside the Lake Macquarie Mine Subsidence District, and council says the centre and its surrounds are partly affected by older underground workings. Subsidence Advisory NSW exempts driveways and hard stand spaces under all its guidelines except 4 and 5, so the district bears on a garage rather than the driveway; a lot’s guideline is on the NSW Planning Portal Spatial Viewer.

Two kinds of Cardiff job

On the valley floor the driveway is flat and the problem is water, so the removal and replacement of an old slab is the chance to set falls that take rain to the street rather than to the garage. On the ridge streets the driveway is steep and the problem is the low side of the road, where the driveway drops below the kerb and the garage becomes the lowest point on the block. Both are poured in plain concrete, widened for the second car where the old side gap allows. Council is steering townhouses and manor houses onto the flatter land between the rail loop and the Main Road shops, so shared driveways and the visitor bays and paths that go with them are a growing share. Charlestown up the road has the same ridge problem at a larger scale.

The crossing under Lake Macquarie’s rules

Lake Macquarie City Council wants a residential crossing at least 3 metres wide and no more than 4 at the kerb, wings excluded, which retires the narrow twin strips of the inter-war streets, and on the ridge it holds the grade to 1 in 5 unless the profile drawing persuades it otherwise. A replacement crossing is a fresh Minor Public Works application with its own fee. The Minor Public Works steps are in the Section 138 guide.

Finishes for a workers’ cottage and a ridge house

A plain broom finish suits the inter-war cottages and is the safest surface on a ridge driveway in the rain; exposed aggregate is the choice for a renovated front on the flat, and coloured concrete for the patio behind. Council accepts a coloured or stencilled crossing only when it is sealed with a non-slip product, and its own preference is plain.

Cardiff rates per square metre

Supplied and laid: shed and garage slabs $110 to $150; exposed aggregate $130 to $185; plain concrete $95 to $130; coloured $115 to $160; paths $90 to $130; removal of the old driveway adds about $35; patios and alfresco $100 to $180. What moves a Cardiff figure is which side of the street the house is on, because a low-side block on a ridge needs a drain, a fall worked out on the profile drawing and sometimes a pump. Bracket it in the calculator, read the cost guide, then measure any quote against the specification and the Section 138 guide.