Concrete Driveways In Melbourne
At New Era Landscapes, we lay concrete driveways across Melbourne's south east. Exposed aggregate, coloured, stamped and honed, on a base built to carry a car for decades.
New Era Landscapes builds concrete driveways in Melbourne, from the dig-out to the finish. A concrete driveway in Melbourne is the biggest single surface on most front yards, and it's the first thing anyone sees. Quotes are free and measured on site.
Most of what we pour is an exposed aggregate driveway, in Melbourne at least, because it wears well and it doesn't show every mark. But the finish is the last decision, not the first.
The first one is what's underneath. A driveway is a slab that a car drives onto every day, and how long it stays flat and uncracked is settled by the base and the steel, long before anyone picks a colour.
What lasts
What Makes a Driveway Last?
What's under it. A slab is only as good as the ground holding it up, so we dig out the soft material, bring in crushed rock and compact it properly before any concrete arrives. Skip that and the slab bridges a soft spot until it can't, and then it cracks along a line nobody chose.
Then the steel. Reinforcing mesh sits in the slab to hold it together when it moves, and it has to sit at the right height in the pour rather than on the ground. Concrete moves no matter what you do, so control joints get cut in to give the movement a line to follow.
Melbourne's reactive clay makes this matter more than it would elsewhere. It swells through a wet winter and shrinks back over summer, and it lifts and drops whatever sits on it. A driveway built on compacted rock rides that out. One poured straight onto clay follows the clay.
The process
Our Driveway Process
Every driveway starts with what's there now and what your council wants at the kerb. From there it runs in three stages.
- Consultation and site assessment. We measure it up, work out what has to come out, check the fall so water runs off the slab rather than towards the house, and tell you whether the crossover needs a council permit.
- An itemised quote. The excavation and cartage, the base, the pour and the crossover are priced separately, so you can see what each part costs instead of one number per square metre.
- Dig, prepare, pour and finish. Our own crew strips it out, builds and compacts the base, sets the formwork and the mesh, pours it, finishes it and cuts the joints.
The finish
Concrete Driveway Finishes We Lay
Exposed aggregate concrete in Melbourne is what most people end up choosing, but it's one of four, and you don't have to arrive knowing which you want. Tell us where the driveway sits and how you want the front of the house to read, and we'll tell you what suits.
Coloured concrete in Melbourne is the one people underestimate. The oxide goes through the whole mix rather than onto the surface, so the driveway reads as a single clean plane and a chip doesn't expose grey underneath. It suits a house where you want the driveway to sit quietly against the render or the brick.
Whichever finish you choose, it goes on the same base and the same steel. That's worth saying plainly, because the finish is the part you're buying with your eyes and the base is the part that decides whether you're happy with it in ten years.
| Finish | How it looks | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Exposed aggregate | Washed back to show the stone in the mix. Speckled, textured, mid-grey to charcoal. | The most common choice in Melbourne right now. Grippy underfoot on a slope, and it hides the dirt a plain slab shows. |
| Coloured | Oxide through the mix, so the colour goes all the way down rather than sitting on top. | Reads as one clean surface. Because the colour is in the concrete, a chip shows the same colour underneath. |
| Stamped | Pressed while wet to take the pattern of pavers, slate or boards. | Gets you a paved look in one pour. It's sealed rather than bare, so it wants re-sealing to keep looking new. |
| Plain or honed | Off-form grey, or ground back to a smooth, low-sheen finish. | Plain is the straightforward option. Honed is the expensive one, and it suits a modern house where the driveway should disappear. |
Why New Era
Choosing New Era Landscapes for Your Driveway
We bring over 10 years of experience in landscaping and turf work across Melbourne, and driveways come with most front yard jobs we do.
That's the practical difference between us and a concreter who only pours. The garden beds either side, the path to the door, the lawn that meets the edge and the levels that make water run the right way are all ours, on the same quote. A driveway finished to a bare dirt edge is a job half done, and you're the one who has to find someone else to finish it.
We'll tell you up front what your council wants at the crossover, including when that adds time. You'll get that before you commit, not once the formwork is up.
Quotes are free, measured on site and itemised, with no obligation. You can see the work on Instagram, where we post jobs as they finish.
Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need council approval for a new driveway in Melbourne?
For the crossover, almost always. That's the piece between the kerb and your property line, it sits on council land, and you need a vehicle crossing permit to build, widen or replace one. Every council sets its own width, gradient and layback rules, and most inspect before the pour. We'll tell you what yours wants before we quote.
Source: City of Melbourne, vehicle crossings.
How much does a concrete driveway cost in Melbourne?
Three things move it more than square metres do: the finish you pick, what has to come out before we pour, and whether the crossover is in the job. Digging out an old driveway and carting it away is a real cost that a rate per metre hides. Quotes are free and itemised, so you see each part separately.
What's the difference between exposed aggregate and stamped concrete?
Exposed aggregate is washed back while it's green, so the stone in the mix becomes the surface. Stamped is pressed with a mat while it's wet, so it takes the pattern of pavers or slate. One shows you what it's made of, the other imitates something else.
How long before I can drive on a new concrete driveway?
You can usually walk on it the next day and drive on it after about a week. We'll give you the exact dates for your pour, and cold weather pushes them out. Driving on it early leaves no mark you can see, which is why people do it anyway.
Why do concrete driveways crack?
Concrete always moves, so the job is deciding where it cracks rather than stopping it. We cut control joints to give it a line to follow, and the reinforcement holds both sides together. A crack that wanders instead of following a joint means the base moved.
Areas We Serve Across Melbourne
We're based in Melbourne's south east and we work right across the city. There's no shopfront to visit, so we come to you and measure the driveway where it's going in.
Councils differ on crossovers, so working across the south east regularly is worth something here. You'll find us in Brighton, Berwick, Frankston, Cranbourne, Glen Waverley, Cheltenham, Narre Warren, Pakenham, Dandenong, Bentleigh, Beaumaris, Mentone, Mordialloc, Hampton.
Not on that list? Call and ask. We cover most of Melbourne, and you'll get a straight answer either way.
Written by Jono O'Brien, who runs New Era Landscapes and has been in landscaping and turf renovation for over ten years. You can talk to him directly about your yard.
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