Plain Concrete to Coloured Concrete in Sydney

Sydney concrete designs vary greatly between the regions. Sydney concrete design is influenced by the varied landscape and architecture that can be found in Sydney. From the hilly topography in the Hills District, federation style homes on the North Shore and to the large modern homes of Western Sydney, concrete gives flexibility in design options.

As driveway specialist concreters for over 40 years, Concreting Sydney has designed thousands of concrete solutions. A benefit of concrete construction is that concrete can be shaped and styled in a multitude of ways. Creating a design brief for us concreters is exploring the different options to create a plan that suits the layout and look of your home.

In driveway and concrete design, traditionally was focused on structural purpose and improved practicality. The introduction of concrete colouring gave us concreters the flexibility in designing driveways to blend aesthetically with its surrounds.

Prior to the introduction of concrete colouring, driveway finishes where based on the natural grey colour of concrete.

Cement colours basically come in varying shades of grey. Building concrete driveways up until the late 80’s in Sydney was for the most part with traditional grey concrete or also known as plain concrete.

Designing concrete driveways on the North Shore for us concreters usually is in plain concrete. With all the different driveway options available, plain concrete is still a popular in the northern suburbs.

Plain concrete works well on the North Shore as it maintains the traditional presentation style of properties. The Lower North Shore makes use of plain concrete more greatly than the upper North Shore. Projects in Chatswood are usually designed with plain concrete. Concreting Sydney has designed more plain concrete driveways in Chatswood than any other locality on the North Shore.

The ornate brickwork of many homes on the North Shore channels design as a driveway renovation. Plain concrete is used as it is a subtle driveway finish. Plain or grey concrete keeps the emphasis on the façade of your home and makes brickwork visually stand out.

Interestingly, driveways in the Hills District is split between traditional plain concrete driveways and decorative concrete driveways. With many new homes built in the late 80’s in the Hills District, designing concrete driveways for us concreters at this time focused on layout. Colour concrete finishes for driveways in Sydney where yet to emerge, design focused on utilising space as many homes in the Hills District where built on large blocks.

Building construction in the Hills District at this time was when home footprint sizes began to expand in Sydney; it was the predecessor and influenced large home design of Western Sydney. Typically concrete driveway design for large homes is based on decorative finishes.

The Hills District is unique in that large homes can be found with plain concrete driveways. A legacy of this concrete and homebuilding design period is new driveways in the Hills District are often designed with plain concrete. It is still common in Baulkham Hills to build driveways in plain concrete. This preference is due to many homes in Baulkham Hills where built just prior to the introduction of coloured concrete in Sydney.

- Concreting Sydney