Concrete driveways in New Lambton

Driveways in New Lambton, 2305

New Lambton sits about 6 km west of the Newcastle CBD along Lambton Road, bounded by Lookout Road and Croudace Road on the west, with Blackbutt Reserve filling the south western corner and the sports stadium in the north east. It was among the first ring of colliery townships, with about 100 houses standing by September 1869, and it has been added to ever since, through the 1888 Commonage subdivision, a 1920s Panorama Estate and the upper slope streets council dates to the 1960s and early 1970s, with infill continuing on the steeper parts. Nearly four in five of its 4,500 odd dwellings are separate houses. That is a suburb of original driveways in every width and state, and the staple work is replacing them, usually wider.

Flat and wet in the east, steep in the west

The eastern side is nearly level and only a few metres above sea level; the western side rises to about 90 metres below Lookout Road. The Broadmeadow stormwater channel drained the flats from 1895 because water lay on them for weeks, a New Lambton branch followed in 1901, and the suburb still flooded on 8 June 2007. Most of the suburb appears to be inside the Newcastle Mine Subsidence District, with an eastern and south eastern fringe towards the railway outside it. Driveways and hard stand spaces are on Subsidence Advisory NSW’s exempt list under every guideline but 4 and 5, so the district is a question for a new garage or shed, and the lot is checked on the NSW Planning Portal Spatial Viewer.

Replacing and widening on two kinds of block

On the flats the original driveway is a strip or a thin slab that has cracked and sunk, and it comes out in a removal and replacement at two-car width, with a fall to the street or a drain at the garage. On the western rise the replacement resets the transitions at the kerb and the door and usually needs a pump because the truck stays on the road. A plain concrete strip dowelled beside a sound original is the cheaper second car on the grid streets, and the front path and the patio go in on the same day. Lambton to the north is a little older and much the same.

The crossing for a wider driveway

City of Newcastle’s drawing A1300 gives a single residential crossing 2.5 to 3.0 metres wide and a double 2.5 to 4.5 metres, so a driveway widened for the second car usually widens the crossing too, and that is a Section 138 (Type 1) application lodged before the pour. Council also keeps a 1.2 metre band across the crossing at 1 in 40 for a future footpath, which fixes where a western driveway can start to climb. Read the Section 138 guide before booking the concreter.

Finishes for a mixed suburb

Older brick and weatherboard frontages on the grid take exposed aggregate well, and coloured concrete suits the level forecourts of the eastern streets, while a steep western run wants the grip of a broom finish or washed stone. Council’s drawing fixes plain broom on the crossing and will not accept sealer or stamped concrete there.

New Lambton rates per square metre

Supplied and laid, plain concrete $95 to $130; coloured $115 to $160; exposed aggregate $130 to $185; taking out the old driveway adds about $35; shed and garage slabs $110 to $150; paths $90 to $130; patios and alfresco $100 to $180. Which side of the suburb the block is on moves the price more than the finish, since a flat eastern lot pours off the chute with a drain at the door while a western lot pays for a pump and the cut to hold the grade. Try the calculator, read the cost guide, and compare every quote with the specification and the Section 138 guide.