Concreters in New Lambton, 2305
New Lambton lies about six kilometres west of the Newcastle CBD, reached along Lambton Road, with Lookout Road and Croudace Road on its western border and the 182 hectares of Blackbutt Reserve filling its south western corner. It began as a pit town: J. and A. Brown turned the first sod of the New Lambton mine early in 1868, and by September 1869 the estate had about 100 houses. In 1888 the government surveyed the Commonage, pasture that miners had settled informally, into a grid of streets. With more than 4,500 dwellings, nearly four in five of them separate houses, there is a great deal of residential concrete here and much of it is old.
Level in the east, high in the west
The eastern side is flat and only a few metres above sea level, while the west climbs to about 90 metres in Blackbutt. Water once lay on the flats for weeks in wet weather, which is why the Broadmeadow stormwater channel was dug from 1895, and the suburb was among those notably flooded in the June 2007 storm. The New Lambton Colliery crossed what is now New Lambton Park, and most of the suburb is mapped within the Newcastle Mine Subsidence District, with a fringe on the eastern and south eastern edge apparently outside. Flat concrete is rarely the concern there, since hard stand spaces and driveways sit on the exempt development list of Subsidence Advisory NSW for all guidelines except 4 and 5. A garage is another matter, and the NSW Planning Portal Spatial Viewer shows where a lot stands.
What gets poured here
Housing arrived here in layers, from the 1860s township and the Commonage grid to hillside streets that council’s stormwater plan dates mostly to the 1960s and early 1970s, and each layer left concrete of its own age and width. The staple is a driveway replaced and widened for two cars, which starts with removal of the old one. Side and front paths are renewed at the same visit, a rear patio follows a renovation, and deep blocks leave room for a garage or shed slab.
Matching finish to house
Exposed aggregate suits the street front of an older house. Coloured concrete gives a calmer surface for a patio, and plain broom finish is the sound choice for side paths and the hill driveways that need grip. At the kerb, City of Newcastle may consider exposed or coloured concrete for the crossing, but stamped concrete and asphaltic concrete are not permitted there.
New Lambton figures
For the front of the block, budget $95 to $185 per square metre, supplied and laid, for a concrete driveway; an exposed aggregate finish runs $130 to $185 within it. Behind the house, allow $100 to $180 for a patio or alfresco slab, $110 to $150 for a shed or garage slab and $90 to $130 for paths. Removal puts about $35 on each square metre. Which side of the suburb you are on moves the figure most: drainage work on the flats, excavation and pumping on the Blackbutt side. The calculator takes two minutes. The cost guide, the Section 138 guide and the specification take longer and are worth it before a quote is accepted.
Council and the crossing
New Lambton sits in the City of Newcastle 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.