Concrete driveways in Lambton

Driveways in Lambton, 2299

Lambton is about 8 km west of the Newcastle CBD, arranged around the 14 hectares of Lambton Park between Morehead, Elder and Howe streets, with Elder Street as the main street and Newcastle Road and Croudace Street through the grid. The Scottish Australian Mining Company opened its colliery in 1862, cleared 25 acres for a town that September and sold the first 90 lots in June 1864. The pit closed in the 1930s; by the 2021 Census three quarters of its 2,268 dwellings were separate houses, more than a third rented. Very few miners’ cottages survive; the houses have been rebuilt and resold many times, and each driveway dates from whichever owner last did the front yard. The work, almost always, is taking out an old driveway and pouring a better one.

Runoff from the rise, coal underneath

The park was 35 acres of swampy scrub because rain came down off the higher ground around Morehead Street, until Ker-rai Creek was cut through to the Broadmeadow channel. Blocks on the rise still shed water downhill, so a low side driveway is shaped to pass it, not pool it. Eleven smaller collieries once worked coal under the suburb. Part of Lambton, the western and southern side continuous with New Lambton, appears to lie inside the Newcastle Mine Subsidence District, with a detached pocket to the east, and old colliery workings about 30 metres down gave way under a modern estate in 2012 and 2014 before being grouted. None of that reaches a driveway, which is exempt along with hard stand spaces under all Subsidence Advisory NSW guidelines except 4 and 5; a garage is assessed, and the lot is checked on the NSW Planning Portal Spatial Viewer.

The second driveway on an old lot

The commonest job is a removal and replacement of a driveway poured a generation or two ago, cracked or dropped at the kerb, going back at the width the lot allows in one piece, not two strips. Widening for a second car is done in the same pour, since the old slab is coming out anyway. A plain concrete run is the default on a tenanted house, an exposed aggregate finish carried to the porch suits a renovated cottage, and the path and the patio are poured on the same day. New Lambton over the boundary shares the age and the council.

Replacing the crossing, like for like or wider

A replacement crossing in Lambton is a Section 138 (Type 1) application to City of Newcastle even when it goes back at the same width, because building, widening, altering and removing a crossing all sit inside the one approval, and the approval letter rather than the drawing sets the grades. Council inspects the new formwork before the pour. The Section 138 guide explains what to lodge and when.

Finishes for a rebuilt cottage

Plain broom is the workhorse on a tenanted house and any shared run, coloured concrete gives a charcoal or sandstone tone against old brick, and exposed aggregate is the renovation finish. On the crossing council wants plain broom with bevelled edges and will consider a coloured or exposed finish on the application, but not stamped concrete or sealer.

Lambton rates per square metre

Supplied and laid, breaking out the old driveway adds about $35 to whichever finish follows; exposed aggregate $130 to $185; plain concrete $95 to $130; coloured $115 to $160; shed and garage slabs $110 to $150; patios and alfresco $100 to $180; paths $90 to $130. In Lambton the old slab is what moves the price, since a thick one with mesh takes longer to break and cart than a thin one, and a low side block may need a drain and a pipe to the kerb. Estimate it in the calculator, read the cost guide, and give the specification and the Section 138 guide to whoever prices it.