Concrete driveways, Newcastle

Concrete driveways in Merewether

Beach flats of old cottage lots with narrow side driveways, hill streets climbing to Scenic Drive, and nearly a fifth of the homes in townhouses and terraces that share one.

Driveways in Merewether, 2291

Merewether stretches 3 km inland from Merewether Beach to the Adamstown boundary, about 3 km south west of the city centre along the coast, with Scenic Drive along the ridge above it. It began as a colliery town and stayed leasehold until the estate owners started selling in 1910, so the flats filled with weatherboard miners’ cottages on small lots. North of Glebe Road the garden suburb sold from 1914 put bungalows on lots over 600 square metres, set well back with a side driveway, and the larger homes on Scenic Drive date from the late 1950s onward. Three homes in five are separate houses; the rest are townhouses, terraces and flats. So the work splits three ways, replacing narrow side driveways on the cottage and bungalow lots, rebuilding steep runs on the hill, and pouring shared driveways on the townhouse sites.

Alluvium, brick clay and coal waste

Alluvial plains reach from the beach inland towards Broadmeadow over a thick clay bed that fed seven brickworks by 1877, and the ground rises from those flats to the Scenic Drive ridge. Some of that flat land is made ground. A brick clay pit 90 feet deep was filled with waste coal in the early 1920s and sold as building blocks, and mine waste levelled what became Cram Street and National Park Street, so a base here is proofed and compacted rather than trusted. The whole suburb appears to lie within the Newcastle Mine Subsidence District, bounded by the coast on the east. That bears on buildings, not paving, since driveways and hard stand spaces are exempt under every Subsidence Advisory NSW guideline other than 4 and 5; a garage or a shed is assessed, and the lot’s status is read off the NSW Planning Portal Spatial Viewer. Merewether was also among the suburbs flooded in June 2007, briefly but fast.

Three kinds of driveway job

On the flats the bungalow lots have a side driveway between the house and the fence, often two broken strips, and the job is removal and replacement at whatever width the side setback allows, with the front path in the same pour. On the hill streets the replacement resets the grades and adds a drain at the garage door. Townhouse and terrace sites take a shared driveway in plain concrete or exposed aggregate with a courtyard or patio behind each unit. Inland, Adamstown carries the same small miners’ lots.

The crossing on a Merewether frontage

City of Newcastle approves the strip between the boundary and the kerb through a Section 138 (Type 1) application, and its drawing A1300 gives a single residential crossing 2.5 to 3.0 metres wide, set square to the kerb, the size a cottage side driveway usually needs. Council inspects the formwork before the pour. The Section 138 guide sets out the lodgement.

Finishes by the sea

Exposed aggregate carries a renovated cottage frontage well, coloured concrete suits a townhouse forecourt, and plain broom finish does the side driveway and the shared run. Council’s drawing sets plain broom on the crossing and bars sealer from it, so a sealed exposed driveway stops at the boundary.

Merewether rates per square metre

Supplied and laid, plain concrete $95 to $130; exposed aggregate $130 to $185; coloured $115 to $160; paths $90 to $130; shed and garage slabs $110 to $150; patios and alfresco $100 to $180; and about $35 more per square metre to break out and cart away the old driveway. In Merewether the price moves with access, because a side driveway between a cottage and a fence is barrowed or pumped rather than poured off the chute, as is a hill lot where the truck stays on the road. Size it in the calculator, let the cost guide explain each range, and hand the specification and the Section 138 guide to whoever quotes.

Before the crossing is poured

The strip from your front boundary to the kerb needs City of Newcastle's Section 138 (Type 1) approval before it is poured, whether the driveway is new, wider than before or a replacement. Council's drawing A1300 fixes the width, the 100 mm thickness and the plain broom finish on that strip. What happens inside the boundary is your call.

The application, step by step

Straight answers

Asked in Merewether

Can my exposed aggregate driveway be sealed right down to the gutter in Merewether?

Not the crossing. City of Newcastle's drawing A1300 calls for plain concrete with a broom texture on the strip between the boundary and the kerb, says coloured, exposed aggregate and stencilled finishes may be considered, and does not permit sealer or stamped concrete there at all. The usual answer is to run the exposed finish and its sealer to the front boundary and pour the crossing plain, or to ask for an unsealed exposed crossing on the Type 1 application.

The side driveway beside our Merewether cottage is two narrow strips. Can it be made wider?

Inside the boundary the width is set by the gap between the house and the fence, and a replacement slab usually takes all of it, poured at 100 mm with mesh so a modern car does not break the edges. The garden suburb lots north of Glebe Road were laid out with side driveways on blocks over 600 square metres, so there is often more room than the strips suggest. If the crossing changes width or position, that part goes to council first.

Does the filled ground in Merewether matter for a driveway?

It can. A brick clay pit was filled with waste coal in the early 1920s and sold off as building blocks, and mine waste was used to level ground in what became Cram Street and National Park Street. Concrete poured over loose fill settles along the soft line and cracks, so the concreter digs to firm material, compacts the base in layers and puts SL72 mesh in the slab rather than pouring over whatever is there. Ask what was found at the measure.

Merewether, 2291

Measured on the block, not priced from a photo

One independent local concreter, one site visit, one figure in writing for a Merewether driveway.