Driveway removal and replacement in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie

A driveway that has cracked through, dropped at the kerb or lifted at a joint is past patching. Grinding a trip hazard or filling a crack buys a season; pouring a new slab on top of a moving one copies the movement into the new concrete within a couple of winters. The honest fix is to take the old driveway out, find out why it failed, correct that, and pour once.

What removal costs

About $35 per square metre, added to the rate of the new driveway. A 60 m² double in plain concrete is therefore priced at $130 to $165 per square metre all up, or $7,800 to $9,900; the same driveway in exposed aggregate is $165 to $220 per square metre, or $9,900 to $13,200. The removal figure covers cutting, breaking, loading and tipping ordinary reinforced concrete of normal thickness. A slab poured thick, a driveway over a buried second slab, or a site the excavator cannot reach are quoted after the measure. The cost guide prices more combinations and the calculator has a removal switch.

What actually happens

1. The slab is saw cut at the boundary, at the garage and at any concrete that stays, so the edges of what remains are clean.
2. The concrete is broken up with a breaker or an excavator and loaded out. The mesh goes with it.
3. The base underneath is inspected. This is the point of the exercise: a driveway that dropped usually sat on uncompacted fill or on clay that was never drained; a driveway that heaved usually had a tree root or a leaking pipe under it.
4. The base is corrected, compacted and brought to level, with drainage added where water was the cause.
5. The new driveway is poured to the specification: 100 mm of 25 MPa concrete inside the boundary on the corrected base, SL72 mesh on chairs, joints at no more than 3 metres, and the crossing to the council’s own thickness.

The crossing goes back through council

Replacing the crossing, boundary to kerb, is approved work in both council areas, even like for like. Lake Macquarie City Council is explicit that a replacement means a fresh application and a fresh fee. City of Newcastle’s Section 138 (Type 1) approval covers taking out or altering a driveway that joins a public road, not just building one. It is also the moment to fix a crossing that was too narrow or in the wrong place, because the approval is being sought anyway. The Section 138 guide covers both councils; note that Lake Macquarie reinstates any crossing it digs up in plain concrete only.

Replace or widen?

Often both. If the old driveway is coming out, the new one can be poured at the width a second car needs in one operation, with one base, one pour and one joint layout, rather than a strip added later. A plain or coloured replacement at the new width costs less than a replacement now and a widening later.

Old paths and patios

The same $35 per square metre applies to a cracked front path or a patio slab coming out ahead of the new work, priced with the paths, slabs and patios rates.

Have the whole job measured and quoted, removal and new pour on one sheet.