Concrete driveways in Toronto

Driveways in Toronto, 2283

Toronto is the town on the western shore of Lake Macquarie, about 28 km south west of the Newcastle CBD and a few minutes from the M1, with The Boulevarde running down to the foreshore, Cary Street along its western edge and the 1887 hotel on the bluff above Victory Parade. It was laid out in 1887 as a lakeside resort on small lots, grew slowly, from 153 homes in 1911 to 639 in 1954, and is mostly post-war in its houses, with timber and iron cottages from the 1890s to the 1950s surviving on the foreshore and in the heritage precinct to the north. Three quarters of the dwellings are separate houses. The driveways are old, steep and close to the water, and the work is replacing them.

The steepest ground on this site

Excelsior Parade sits on a ridge about 40 metres above the lake, the hotel bluff rises 16 metres over Victory Parade, and the northern foreshore houses stand up the slope with gardens running down to the water. The western side is recorded under the name Toompoah, a place of clay, and Stony Creek and its tributaries are the flooding risk the SES names. Effectively the whole suburb is inside a mine subsidence district, the West Lake district for most of it and the Lake Macquarie No 1 Extension district for the streets to the north. Subsidence Advisory NSW exempts driveways and hard stand spaces under all its guidelines except 4 and 5, so the district bears on a garage, a boatshed slab or an extension rather than on the driveway; the NSW Planning Portal Spatial Viewer shows which district and guideline a lot carries.

Replacing a driveway that climbs

On a block that falls to the lake the driveway climbs or drops to the garage, and an original slab poured decades ago on reactive clay is usually cracked, stepped at the joints or dropped at the bottom of the run. Removal and replacement is the core job, with the grades reset, a drain across the garage threshold and, often, a retaining wall alongside. Closely built foreshore lots with boatsheds and jetties, and two sailing clubs on the shore, make a trailer hardstand or a boat pad beside the driveway the usual add-on. Morisset down the lake is the growth end of the same council area.

The crossing on a Toronto slope

Lake Macquarie City Council holds a residential crossing to a grade of 1 in 5 unless it specifically approves steeper, and every application carries a profile drawing from the road to the house. On this ground that drawing is where a driveway is approved or sent back, so levels are taken at the measure. The crossing itself is 125 mm at minimum, dowelled to the kerb. The Section 138 guide has the Minor Public Works steps.

Grip on the fall

A steep run wants a firm broom on plain concrete or the held stone of exposed aggregate; coloured concrete suits the level pad at the top and the boat hardstand. If the exposed finish is to run onto the crossing, council wants at least 75 percent rhyolite or basalt in the stone, and will reinstate in plain concrete only if it ever digs the crossing up.

Toronto rates per square metre

Supplied and laid: shed and garage slabs $110 to $150; paths $90 to $130; patios and alfresco $100 to $180; exposed aggregate $130 to $185; plain concrete $95 to $130; coloured $115 to $160; taking out the old driveway adds about $35. What moves a Toronto price is the gradient: cut and fill to hold the grade, a retaining wall where the cut is deep, and a pump where the truck stays on the street. Run the calculator, read the cost guide, and hold quotes to the specification and the Section 138 guide.