Concrete driveways on the North Shore are typically unique. North Shore driveways are larger than most concrete drive projects in Sydney.
A North Shore concrete driveway can totally change the ability for vehicles to enter a property. Many concrete drives in the northern suburbs have small and narrow driveways. New driveway builds completely change the usability of homes. The driveway makeover usually starts right from the street. Many of our Wahroonga and Killara projects, include concreting from the council driveway road.
In Wahroonga and Killara, concrete driveway infrastructure in these places have not been modernised compared with other North Shore areas.
Building our Wahroonga and Killara projects is often from a clean slate. Many Wahroonga and Killara projects need to identify street entrance positioning. As partners with local governments in the North Shore, creating the best concrete driveway road entrance is the first step in building new driveways.
On many occasions there is no street concrete gutter. Before building the road entrance, a new concrete gutter is built so it aligns with the section of the driveway that is inside the boundary.
Concrete layback and gutter works has to be built specifically as the land terrain is hilly and cannot be standardised as in flat areas of Sydney. For Wahroonga driveways, street dimensions where often built with the natural contours and features of the land. North Shore road grading those days was more flexible.
For Killara this meant many streets maintain the hilly topography of the area as road grading machinery was primitive compared with today. This makes Wahroonga and Killara to have completely different street concrete gutters and laybacks for driveways. Concrete on the North Shore is influenced by the topography.
In Killara, there have been many instances where homes never had a concrete driveway. As there are many steep blocks in Killara, these types of blocks are common for not having a concrete driveway. There was simply no mini excavating machinery at the time. Driveways on the steep blocks were simply built with a gravel driveway.
Driveways in Killara has slowly developed. Killara homeowners have had to deal with rutted and eroded driveways longer than other North Shore areas.
When we concrete a driveway in Killara on a block for the first time, it has increased home values considerably. Even with the increased home values, it changes so much the way homeowners use their home that many decide not to sell.
As vehicles have become lower over the years, it is safer to concrete as it provides a durable even surface. There have been many instances in Killara where vehicles has bottomed out on a rock boulder. Gravel driveways are being discontinued and being replaced with concrete driveways.
For concrete in Killara, we generally recommend a minimum two and a half metre wide driveway. This width gives sufficient room to navigate your vehicle on slope blocks which is common in Killara.
Working with Ku-ring-gai Council on concrete driveway projects, we have modernised many driveways and streets. We have improved many sites with our experience concreting in the Ku-ring-gai region. We work with Ku-ring-gai Council to create improved driveway and footpath spaces.
Concrete driveways on the North Shore can sometimes become a mini road building project. Our Wahroonga projects are some of the largest on the North Shore. Wahroonga projects are usually completed after extensive home renovation. The concrete driveway brief is usually to create heritage North Shore concreting styles.
As concrete on the North Shore is a site specific non standardised from of concreting, this requires local North Shore knowledge. Wahroonga is a good example where concrete has varied requirements.
Wahroonga sites have a high degree of layout variation than most North Shore localities. To complete a concrete driveway design for Wahroonga is to incorporate home location. For Wahroonga this looks at making the grand heritage federation homes of the suburb work with modern road infrastructure.
With the manor style homes of Wahroonga, homes are represented differently to today’s standard. Wahroonga homes can be at the front or rear of blocks. Many homes in the past where self sufficient estates. Driveways did not exist as we know today. Sometimes a heritage gate is the only marker to work with when building a new concrete driveway.
Building driveways in Wahroonga, requires detailed excavation. As many homes previously had small dams or ponds for irrigation of crops, concrete slab drainage is important for this locality. Driveway excavation may include altering surface runoff away from low spots on the property to prevent flooding. Driveway excavation rectifies past drainage practices.
New concrete driveways usually solves many onsite legacy land uses. For Wahroonga, this can include eliminating gravel footpaths that crisscross each other. Gravel footpaths originally lead to many parts of a block. For example, gravel footpaths led to wells, fruit orchards and out houses. When building a new concrete driveway, gravel footpaths are usually removed. Driveway excavation removes gravel footpaths and incorporates those spaces into the existing landscape.
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