Concrete driveways in Belmont

Driveways in Belmont, 2280

Belmont is 20 km south-west of the Newcastle CBD, on a sandy peninsula with the Tasman Sea on one side and the lake on the other. The Pacific Highway runs through the centre with the Macquarie Street mall off it, Brooks Parade follows the water, and Belmont Hospital has stood on Croudace Bay Road since 1968. Council calls it the sailing capital of the lake. The town grew once the railway arrived in 1916 and the highway in the 1920s, from 470 occupied homes in 1933 to 1,292 by 1947. Council describes detached single storey dwellings on large blocks with setbacks of 3 to 5 metres; seven dwellings in ten are separate houses, though flats make up one in seven and council wants more along Brooks Parade. Driveways laid between the wars and after them are the work here, and most of it is replacement.

Sand, low ground and old workings on the hill

The peninsula is sand, flat through the centre and rising into hills on the northern side around the Lewers Estate and the hospital. The north-western part of the centre is low and floods locally, sites below 3 metres AHD carry council’s sea level rise controls, and the centre sits on acid sulfate soils, all of which argues for shallow excavation over a well compacted base. The northern and central part of Belmont sits inside the Lake Macquarie Mine Subsidence District, with the lakeside strip in the southern half outside it. For the driveway the district is beside the point, since Subsidence Advisory NSW exempts driveways and hard stand spaces under all guidelines except 4 and 5; a garage or an extension needs the lot’s guideline read on the NSW Planning Portal Spatial Viewer.

Long driveways on big blocks

A deep setback and a large block mean a long run of old concrete, and when it has cracked into panels or sunk it is a removal and replacement from kerb to garage. The new driveway usually goes back at two-car width, and a trailer pad for the boat alongside is the Belmont extra. Where the original run is sound but single, a strip of plain concrete dowelled beside it does the widening. The flats and townhouses add shared driveways and the odd basement ramp. Warners Bay, further up the eastern shore, has the same post-war stock without the sand.

The crossing on a Belmont frontage

Lake Macquarie approves the crossing through a Minor Public Works application with a site plan and a profile. On a flat sandy frontage the profile is short work and the width is what to watch, at least 3 metres and no more than 4 at the kerb with the wings excluded, so a two-car driveway flares behind the line. The verge slab is 125 mm, dowelled into the kerb. The Minor Public Works steps are in the Section 138 guide.

Finishes between the highway and the lake

Renovated houses near Brooks Parade take exposed aggregate well, and a coloured driveway in a sand or stone tone suits a single storey frontage better than charcoal. A plain broom finish does the trailer pad and the shared driveways. Council’s own preference for the crossing is plain concrete, coved or broomed; anything else is an exception it has to accept.

Belmont rates per square metre

Supplied and laid: paths $90 to $130; shed and garage slabs $110 to $150; plain concrete $95 to $130; exposed aggregate $130 to $185; patios and alfresco $100 to $180; coloured $115 to $160; and about $35 on top where the old driveway is broken out. In Belmont the length of the run sets the figure, since a deep setback on a big block puts more square metres between kerb and garage than anything else. Put the length into the calculator, read the cost guide, and ask for the quote to follow the specification and the Section 138 guide.