Concrete driveways in Charlestown

Driveways in Charlestown, 2290

Lake Macquarie’s biggest suburb sits on the ridge the Pacific Highway follows, about 10 km from the Newcastle CBD to the west-south-west, with Charlestown Road meeting the highway at the centre and Charlestown Square on Pearson Street drawing shoppers since 1979. The housing tells you what the driveway work is. A coal company laid out the township in 1876, it stayed small between the wars, and the streets filled once town water came in 1927 and the sewer in 1959, with two new primary schools opening in 1959 and 1963. Three quarters of the occupied dwellings are separate houses on that post-war layout, and council is now zoning the centre for townhouses and apartments. So the driveways here are, overwhelmingly, replacements.

The ground under a Charlestown driveway

Council describes a north-south ridge under the highway, with the land dropping off either side into gullies that carry the creeks. At around 116 metres up, plenty of blocks sit a storey above or below the road, and the driveway is where that height is paid for. Every part of Charlestown lies within the Lake Macquarie Mine Subsidence District, and council’s area plan says a good many sites around the centre sit directly over old workings. For a driveway that is background: Subsidence Advisory NSW exempts driveways and hard stand spaces under all of its guidelines bar 4 and 5, so the pour itself rarely needs its sign-off. A garage or a shed on a new slab is a different matter, and the lot is worth a look on the state’s Spatial Viewer before it is ordered.

Replacement first, widening second

The original driveways followed the sewer, and a lot of them are now cracked strips or thin slabs that have dropped at the kerb, which is what removal and replacement is for. Because the old slab is coming out anyway, most Charlestown owners take the chance to pour the new one at a width that fits two cars, rather than adding a strip later. On the sloping blocks the driveway needs its grades worked out before the pour, a surface with grip, and a grated drain across the garage threshold so water does not follow the fall inside. Townhouse infill behind an original house brings a second stream of shared driveways, and a benched pad for a shed or a patio often goes in on the same day. Neighbouring Kotara shares the slope and most of the same problems.

The crossing: what Lake Macquarie will approve

Every Lake Macquarie application carries a driveway profile, and on a ridge that drawing is where the job is decided. Council keeps the crossing to 1 in 5 unless it specifically allows steeper, wants it 125 mm thick, and allows no more than 4 metres of width at the kerb. The concreter will shoot levels during the measure rather than price from a photo. The application itself is covered in the Section 138 guide.

Finishes for a sloping block

On a block that tilts, grip beats looks. A firm broom on plain concrete or the washed stone of exposed aggregate both hold a car in the wet; a coloured slab is best kept for a flat forecourt or the alfresco. If a decorative finish is going onto the crossing, council’s stone rule applies, and if council ever digs the crossing up it goes back as plain grey.

Charlestown rates per square metre

Supplied and laid: exposed aggregate $130 to $185, coloured $115 to $160, plain $95 to $130, and around $35 on top of any of them where the old slab comes out first. Patios and alfresco run $100 to $180, shed and garage slabs $110 to $150, paths $90 to $130. What moves a Charlestown figure is the fall of the block: cut and fill to get the grade, a pump when the truck has to stay on the street, a drain at the garage. Bracket the job in the calculator, read what sits behind the numbers in the cost guide, and take the specification to whoever quotes.