Concreter, Brisbane west and Ipswich
Driveways, house and shed slabs, exposed aggregate and paths from Kenmore to Ipswich. One crew digs, forms, pours and finishes, then the slab cures on concrete's clock, not ours.
Typical car driveway, on SL72 or SL82 mesh
Control joints saw cut within it
To full strength. Heavy loads wait
The top 3 mm
It is the only layer anyone looks at, and it decides how the slab grips in the rain and what you do to look after it. Pick one to see it.
A stiff broom dragged across the wet surface leaves fine ridges you can see and feel.
Swatch, not a photo
Trowelled smooth and dense, with a soft sheen. The plainest finish there is.
The cement film is washed off the top on pour day, so the stones in the mix show through.
Flat swatches. The real colour depends on the cement and the finish on top.
Oxide mixed through the whole slab rather than painted on top.
Pour schedule
Six kinds of job, one crew from dig-out to finish, and a quote done standing on your block.
| Job | What goes in | Usual finish |
|---|---|---|
| Driveways | Typically 100 mm with SL72 or SL82 mesh on chairs, 25 or 32 MPa, saw-cut joints, a fall to the street. | Broom, exposed aggregate or coloured |
| House slabs | Slab and edge beams engineered to AS 2870 for your site class, on a vapour barrier, plumbing set before the pour. | Steel trowel |
| Shed and granny flat slabs | Thickened edges, hold-down bolts set wet, poured square and level to the kit's plans. | Steel trowel |
| Exposed aggregate and coloured | Washed back on pour day, or oxide mixed right through. Sealed once cured. | Exposed aggregate or coloured |
| Paths, patios and pool surrounds | Falls away from the house, joints laid out so cracks land in straight lines. | Broom |
| Cutting and removal | Old cracked concrete saw cut, broken out and carted away, base made good for a new pour. | Ready for the next pour |
Under the slab
Two quotes for the same driveway can be far apart, and the difference is nearly always below the surface. This is what goes in, top to bottom.
Broomed for grip, steel trowelled smooth, or washed back to the stones. The only layer anyone looks at.
Ordered by strength in MPa. A car driveway is usually 100 mm; a motorhome or truck gets more depth and more steel.
Steel mesh held up on plastic bar chairs so concrete gets underneath it. Mesh lying on the dirt does next to nothing.
A plastic sheet under a house slab keeps ground moisture out of your floors.
Compacted in layers so the slab bears evenly and water drains instead of pooling under it.
A lot of Brisbane and Ipswich sits on reactive clay that swells when wet and shrinks when dry. That is why depth gets decided standing on the block.
How a job runs
Most of a good slab is the prep before the truck and the curing after it. We give you the dates for your slab before we leave site.
We walk the block, check levels, access for the truck and where the water will go.
Dig out, compact the base, set formwork to the falls, lay mesh on chairs.
Placed, screeded, floated and finished the same day. The crew stays until it is done.
Control joints cut as soon as the slab can take the blade, so shrinkage cracks run in the joints.
Foot traffic is fine. Keep cars, bins and sprinklers off.
Cars from about a week, longer in cool or wet weather. We give you the date.
The age concrete strength is specified at. Heavy loads wait until here.
Our work
Driveways, paths and slabs, from the mesh going down to the finish going on.
Service area
Based in Kenmore, serving Brisbane's western suburbs and Ipswich. Close enough that the truck turns up on time and we can be back next morning to cut joints and check the slab.
Asked on site
Walk on it after a day or two. Keep cars off for about a week, and longer in cool or wet weather. Caravans, trucks and heavy trailers wait until the concrete is close to full strength at around 28 days. We give you the actual dates for your slab before we leave site.
Concrete shrinks as it dries, so some cracking is normal. That is what the saw-cut control joints are for: they give the crack a straight line to follow. A hairline crack in a joint is the slab doing its job. A crack that runs across a joint, opens wider than a couple of millimetres, or has one side higher than the other points to ground movement or drainage and is worth a look.
Most car driveways are poured 100 mm thick with SL72 or SL82 mesh on bar chairs. If a motorhome, boat on a trailer or delivery truck will use it, we pour it thicker with heavier steel. We decide on site, because the soil and what drives on it both change the answer.
MPa is the strength the concrete is ordered to reach at 28 days. 25 MPa is common for driveways and paths. 32 MPa is stronger and more durable, and it is what we suggest for exposed aggregate and anything that takes heavy wheels. A house slab uses whatever grade the engineer specifies.
AS 2870 is the Australian Standard for residential slabs and footings. A soil test gives your block a site class, from stable sand through to highly reactive clay, and the engineer designs the slab and edge beams to suit. Plenty of Brisbane and Ipswich blocks are reactive clay, so this is the step that stops a house slab moving with the seasons.
Both are square sheets of steel mesh with bars at 200 mm spacing. SL82 uses a thicker bar than SL72, so it carries more load and holds cracks tighter. Either way the mesh sits up on bar chairs so concrete surrounds it, because mesh pressed into the dirt does very little.
Plain concrete is broomed or trowelled smooth. Exposed aggregate has the cement film washed off the top on pour day so the stones in the mix show through. It costs more because of the extra finishing and a better mix, it grips when wet, and it hides tyre marks and stains. Coloured concrete has oxide mixed right through, so a chip shows the same colour underneath.
Every slab we pour has a fall built into the formwork so rain runs away from the house, toward the garden, a grated drain or the street. We agree where the water goes before the forms go in, because changing it after the pour means cutting concrete out.
Concrete needs a dry window to be placed and finished. From November to April an afternoon storm can arrive with little warning, so we pour early in the day and move the pour date rather than pour into rain. If rain is forecast while the slab is green, we cover it.
In Queensland, building work valued over $3,300, labour and materials included, must be done by a contractor holding the right QBCC licence. Residential work over that amount also needs a written contract. Our licence number is on every quote, and you can check it on the QBCC online licence search.
A crossover is the section between your boundary and the road. Brisbane and Ipswich councils both need an application before one is built or changed, and it has to match the council's standard. We pour it to that standard and tell you what the application needs. Stormwater connections are plumbing work and go to a licensed plumber.
Most jobs are locked in a couple of weeks out, because the truck, the crew and the weather all have to line up on the same morning. A standard driveway is one prep day and one pour day. Sealing an exposed aggregate finish happens once the slab has cured.
Free site visit
Size, access for the truck and what drives on it all move the price, so quotes are done on site and they're free. The phone is still the fastest way.
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