Concreters in Cardiff, 2285
Cardiff lies in the Winding Creek valley, thirteen kilometres west-south-west of the Newcastle CBD by council’s measure. Main Road holds the shops, the library and the post office, the railway passes over it beside one of the busiest stations in the region, and Macquarie, Myall and Munibung roads meet at the entrance to the Cardiff Industrial Estate. Peach and plum orchards came first. Then the railway workshops arrived in 1928, and Cardiff grew as a place where industrial workers could afford land near good transport. It had 881 homes by 1933 and 1,160 by 1947, an older layer of housing than most Lake Macquarie suburbs have.
Valley floor, ridges and old pits
Council describes the centre as relatively low-lying, with ridges sloping up to the north and east. Most drainage runs to the Winding Creek channel, the lower streets around Main Road and Harrison Street see local flooding, and the library’s flood history records significant events in 1981, 1990 and 2007. On the slopes council flags the reverse problem, drainage between allotments for sites on the low side of a street. Cardiff also lies wholly within the Lake Macquarie Mine Subsidence District, over ground worked by four main collieries and many small pits, which bears on garages and sheds far more than on flat concrete.
What Cardiff’s housing calls for
Older houses tend to come with older concrete: narrow side driveways, twin wheel strips and thin slabs laid long before households ran two cars. Removal and replacement with a full-width driveway is the usual remedy, and tight side passages often mean the concrete has to be pumped. Post-war streets bring widening jobs, side paths and a rear patio. Council is steering townhouses, manor houses and low-rise apartments towards the flatter land between the rail loop and the Main Road shops, so shared accessways and visitor bays are a growing share of the work, alongside the garage or shed slab wherever a back yard survives.
Picking a surface
A warm exposed aggregate or a muted coloured mix sits well against an older house, and plain broom finish is the economical answer for long shared accessways. Should the exposed finish run out to the kerb, Lake Macquarie accepts it on the crossing only where at least 75 percent of the stone is rhyolite or basalt.
Cardiff guide rates
Supplied and laid, a square metre of driveway spans $95 to $185 from plain through coloured to exposed, and exposed aggregate takes the $130 to $185 share of that. Paths come in at $90 to $130, a patio or alfresco slab at $100 to $180 and a shed or garage slab at $110 to $150. Where old strips or slabs are broken out first, add about $35. Drainage is the item that most often lifts a Cardiff quote, whether a grated drain on a low-side block or extra pipework on the valley floor. The calculator will size the job, the cost guide shows a worked example, and the Section 138 guide and the specification are the two pages to read before a crossing is priced.
Council and the crossing
Cardiff sits in the Lake Macquarie City Council area. What that council asks of a driveway crossing is set out on the areas page and, step by step, in the Section 138 guide.
Nearby: Glendale, Charlestown, Warners Bay