Features of Concrete Driveways

Generally, a driveway is a private road used to access buildings or sites on a property. Typically a concrete driveway leads to a house, garage or carport.

There are many elements to consider when constructing a new driveway. Concreting Sydney have been building driveways for over 40 years. With our experience building driveways in Sydney, let’s take a look at some of the features of a concrete driveway by using each letter in the word driveway to create words that highlight this. These are some of the elements that Concreting Sydney incorporates when constructing your new concrete driveway:

Design of a driveway balances both practicality and aesthetics. A driveway is a focal point that mergers the design of your home and its surrounding landscape. Size and layout is relative to space needed and ease of usability.

Road to utilise your property. When building a new concrete driveway, there is a detailed construction process like other forms of road building with the difference is having a customised area to suit your needs. After the planning and design process, excavation can begin to prepare the area. Formwork and steel fixing is then completed in preparation for concreting your new driveway.

Increase the value of your home. A concrete driveway will improve the street appeal of your home. One of the first things a buyer sees when inspecting your home is your driveway. A concrete driveway that compliments the property sets a positive tone when selling. A well designed and constructed driveway extends living space. A concrete driveway acts as a bridge between your indoor and outdoor spaces and improves the convenience of your home.

Vehicle access to property. Concrete is strong and durable, it can handle the heavy weight of your car and is an ideal material for driveways. A concrete driveway is designed to handle vehicle traffic use and will not change in shape. A concrete driveway can also be designed to incorporate parking spaces to create more room for extra vehicles, boats, caravans and trailers.

Entrance to make use of your property. When planning for a new concrete driveway, there are numerous access points created that move you from one point to another seamlessly. New driveway design makes access from the street to your property easy. Driveways are also part of the passage to enter your front door. Driveways can be shaped to link the entrance of your home with the driveway. Furthermore, driveways can be constructed to include a concrete footpath to connect to your front door.

Weather conditions demonstrate versatility of concrete. Concrete being a hard surface performs well in all types of weather. Concrete gives you the ability to access and use your property no matter the weather. A concrete driveway gives you a clean surface to walk on in wet and dry weather. Concrete limits dust, dirt and mud from entering your home. Concrete driveways make the upkeep of your property an easier task.

Appearance of concrete is personalised. Getting a new concrete driveway gives you the opportunity to create a unique look for your property. Concrete is flexible in appearance choices. From plain concrete, coloured concrete, exposed aggregate concrete to decorative patterned concrete; the combination of textures, colours, stones and patterns available gives the opportunity in creating a pleasant and inviting look.

Year after year of service. The processes involved in concrete driveway construction create a durable, functional, and attractive area that can be appreciated for many years. The strength and longevity of driveways built with concrete results in minimal maintenance and greater ability to utilise your property.

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Building Concrete Driveway Crossovers

If your concrete driveway project requires a new concrete crossover driveway, this can be done at the same time when building your concrete driveway that is inside your property.

Driveway crossovers are also known as vehicular crossings. Most local councils in Sydney use either phrase.

There is also a growing trend for concrete driveway crossovers to be wider. A wider concrete crossover driveway makes it easier to steer a vehicle when entering and exiting a property.

A crossover driveway can also be built for an existing home to improve vehicular access to a property. If there is an existing serviceable concrete driveway crossover for the property, this can be used without the need for building a new concrete driveway crossover.

Concrete Parramatta Council for example has different crossover driveway requirements to Concrete Hornsby Council, Concrete Ku-ring-gai Council and Concrete Ryde Council.

All of these local councils are in close proximity to each other however vary greatly. As a concreter in Sydney for 40 years, we can guide you for your particular council concrete driveway crossover requirements. Our service takes care of all the council DA processes when building a concrete driveway crossover.

We also design and build concrete driveway crossovers that suit the terrain of your property. This is particularly important for Hornsby Council as this region has a varied hilly terrain. We can excavate your crossover driveway to improve vehicular access on slope blocks. Hornsby Council’s vehicular crossing designs are unique to other parts of Sydney concrete.

Ku-ring-gai Council has developed characteristics in line with the bushland environment of the Ku-ring-gai Council region, which can include wide crossover driveways for larger blocks. In most cases, it is designed to be in balance with the bush landscape. Ku-ring-gai Council do not have kerb and gutter for the road as well as council footpath concrete. This has created the effect where most properties front yard lawn extends all the way to the road enhancing the bushland feel. Most homeowners prefer minimal kerb and gutter for crossover driveways, it is seen as a way to maintain the bush and vegetation character of the region.

Parramatta Council has implemented that the crossover to be more standardised throughout the local government area. A new concrete Parramatta driveway layback is usually constructed to minimise the steepness of the concrete crossover driveway. Note a driveway layback is a narrow concrete ramp that connects the road to your concrete crossover driveway. The concrete driveway layback section is incorporated into the road kerb and gutter. Parramatta Council prefers the driveway layback wings to be much larger. This design feature creates more space to manoeuvre your vehicle from different angles into and out of the crossover driveway. The driveway design looks at minimising the height difference of the road and crossover driveway. This is important for all concrete driveway crossovers as this can minimise certain vehicles scrapping.

Ryde Council’s crossovers have different options depending on the location in the Ryde Council district. All types of terrain can be found in Ryde. Parts of Ryde such as Denistone have narrow and hilly blocks. We look at minimising the steepness of driveway crossovers, this usually involves excavation of concrete that lowers the height of the original driveway crossover. Denistone driveways can also involve landscaping surrounding areas from the new concrete driveway crossover. The surrounding lawn for example may be much higher than the new concrete driveway crossover that you have to step up and onto the lawn. We can excavate surrounding areas from the driveway crossover to blend and match the height of the driveway crossover to improve the usability of your property.

Denistone driveways usually have a narrow concrete driveway crossovers. This concrete driveway design feature is to create more on-street parking spaces. Wider concrete driveway crossovers create less on-street parking spaces. In comparison Marsfield are designed quite differently from Denistone. Marsfield is generally flatter than Denistone. As Marsfield has much wider blocks than Denistone, we have more flexibility with concrete construction in Marsfield. Concrete driveway crossovers tend to be wider for concreters Marsfield projects as many properties have large garages. A wider driveway crossover makes it easier to align your vehicle to park inside the garage.

As concreters in Sydney, we have built concrete driveway crossovers all over Sydney with different characteristics and design elements. If your driveway project needs a new crossover, layback, kerb and gutter as well, we can construct all in one time for a complete concreting service.

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Decorative Driveway Design Process

In new concrete driveway construction, Concreting Sydney can design and build driveways in traditional plain concrete, or design and build driveways with a modern decorative concrete finish.

A driveway makeover is usually preferred to incorporate decorative finishes. Concrete driveway patterns and colours are some of the more popular options for a designer driveway.

Concreting Sydney are driveway specialists and can help enhance the look of your home with a decorative finish that also improves usability of your property.

As a concreter driveway specialist we can take care of your driveway project from concept to completion.

We are concreters that provide an all in one service, there are many different driveways that can be designed and built by us. We are driveway experts with over 40 years of concreting projects completed in Sydney.

As decorative concrete driveways are commonly optioned, Concreting Sydney with our experience in different types of finishes can create a bespoke look for your home. As expert driveway concreters, creating solutions that incorporate aesthetic finishes tailored to suit is how we build driveways of distinction.

Creating unique and distinctive driveways involves our many years of experience together with exploring all the different drive way options. The design flexibility of concrete gives you the opportunity to have a driveway that will complement and improve your home as well as add street appeal.

Designing a new driveway is an intricate task. Modern concrete construction involves combining practicality and style. As a driveway specialist concreter, Concreting Sydney has built thousands of driveways in Sydney.

Our many years of building driveways makes for a custom building experience. As concrete experts, we can advise colour, pattern and layout combinations that will suit with your home.

Decorative concrete finishes are common as drive ways are a prominent visual feature. Driveways are one of the first things seen when entering a property. A drive is also important functionally as they are commonly used on a day to day basis. With the numerous features that can be included in a build, no two driveways are the same.

Concreting Sydney as driveway specialists, we custom design and build to achieve distinctive drives for homeowners.

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Concrete Driveways Sydney Design

There are many options and designs that can be used for driveways. Concrete for your drive is a great option. As a concreter in Sydney, concrete is the primary choice for the region. Concrete for driveways is used as it is durable and easy to clean.

Concrete can be shaped and designed to suit your home. Driveways can be moulded to different shapes and sizes to get the most out of your outdoor space.

As concrete is a custom building experience other architectural elements of your home can be complemented or matched with. We can also create a custom design with your ideas. We aim to get your driveway built to get the most out of your property.

Driveway concreting comes in many options such as plain concrete, coloured concrete and decorative concrete.

Driveways in plain concrete usually is a more practical option. A driveway in plain concrete is the traditional look. Plain concrete is also optioned to create a minimalist look for modern homes.

Driveways are also available in a wide range of concrete colours. Usually to match the colour scheme of your home. It makes such a difference to your home aesthetically and it improves the overall presentation of your home.

Concreting a drive with colour concrete is where the colour is pre-mixed into the concrete. The colour is added to the concrete before it is delivered onsite. There is no need to add additional colour during pouring. Colour concreting with this method is a good option as the colour is all the way thru the concrete. This ensures the longevity of the colour.

Colour concreting is great as you get to pick a colour for your driveway for a custom look. The concrete colour chosen can emphasis the driveway or can highlight your home. These are usually the main two considerations and can assist in deciding which colour to choose for your driveway.

The chosen concrete colour is ordered specifically for your driveway prior to pouring. At Concreting Sydney we have a large range of colours to choose from to get the right look for your home.

Building driveways is usually associated with concreters who have many years of experience in the industry. Driveways have many types of concrete construction and finishing methods. For complete driveway implementation, an experience concreter professional can incorporate many structural, practical and decorative concrete options.

Combining these elements creates unique driveway results tailored to suit your property. Driveway design is flexible. It achieves a custom end result as you can include as many concrete design elements as needed.

Concrete for your driveway can incorporate other features on your property. Designs tends to suit the characteristics of your land. It can also include designing concrete to complement your garden. Creating a flower bed around a driveway adds an architectural element and is one of many ideas that you can include.

The concrete for the driveway acts as a garden bed. The driveway edge eliminates the need to box up a garden bed with timber. This creates a cleaner garden bed look. Plants are more prominent as they can be landscaped to match with the level of the drive.

Garden beds for plants are usually located near the front door to soften the entrance. Another commonplace for a driveway edge gap is along the fence line. A concrete edge works well along a sunny fence line as most plants like a sunny position to grow. A driveway edge plays an important part to differentiate different landscape elements.

A concrete driveway edge provides an outline for your lawn. The edge stops your lawn spreading to other parts of the garden. A concrete edge gives your lawn its own space for it to grow and this helps create a robust lawn. It also speeds up mowing time.

A concrete edge acts as a border so you are only cutting the lawn with the mower. The edge can be designed to be higher or lower than your lawn cutting height. Most people preference the edge to be a little higher than the lawn cutting height. A driveway edge built this way helps keep dirt off the concrete drive. This is especially the case during wet weather. It is a simple and effective barrier.

During construction, the layout is marked out to build the body of the drive. A benefit of building with concrete is that the layout of the driveway can be changed during the construction phase. We can reposition the layout onsite so you can decide what works best.

This is part of the personalised building experience that you get with concrete. Driveways are built to suit your property and lifestyle needs. As the majority of the building process is onsite, concrete gives you a high level of customisation compared with other materials.

Style-wise, concrete driveways tend to be built to suit and enhance the appearance of homes. Driveways vary greatly from one home to another and usually address site-specific needs. Driveways are sometimes influenced by the nature of the land it is built on. Most of the time concrete driveways are influenced by the prominent colours on your home.

Building a drive needs thorough planning. With concreting driveways, most of the planning is done prior to pouring of concrete. When concreting a drive there is a limited time to pour and finish concrete. There are unique skill requirements when concreting driveways. Our experience will provide the expertise for your next project.

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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.

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Influence of The Hills District, Parklea, Glenwood and Ryde on Driveway Design

Concrete driveways have taken a greater role in the presentation of homes. Driveways in Sydney at a time were associated with the grey colour of traditional plain concrete. Driveways are commonly built with concrete as it is a practical and durable material.

As concreters for 40 years, we have seen concrete driveway design progress from essentially a functional space to where driveways are now seen as a design element in the presentation of your property.

Plain concrete being naturally grey in colour is the traditional look of concrete. Plain concrete is a timeless finish with a utilitarian appearance. Plain concrete can work as an aesthetic design element, however today there are a multitude of decorative finishes that you can use to easily blend with your home and landscape design.        

Concrete driveways in Sydney aesthetically became more prominent in the early 90’s. The Hills District, Parklea and Glenwood now part of the North West Sydney region, where the pioneering areas for decorative concrete.

Decorative concrete became the go to choice for residential concreting. With the high volume of new home construction in the Hills District as well as the residential development of North West Sydney at the time, new home owners in this period where at the forefront in optioning custom decorative driveway design.

Designing a driveway became an extension of the new home construction process. New home owners in this period leaned towards driveway options that carried over the characteristics of their home building design.

The concrete designer driveway period was born. Driveway aesthetic designs in this period leaned towards brick pattern driveways that resembled the brickwork style of the home. Colouring was also based on the brickwork colour of the home.

Driveway colours such as brick red, burgundy, sandstone, sandy beige and terracotta were well liked during this driveway design period. In contrast, a green colour concrete driveway although not common was seen as a way to differentiate from the common favorites.

Uniquely, driveways in Ryde was where the majority of green coloured concrete construction projects were completed. The preference for green coloured concrete sets Ryde apart in concrete design.
  
The suburbs surrounding Ryde such as West Ryde, Denistone, Denistone East, Denistone West, Eastwood and Marsfield have the highest concentration of green coloured concrete driveways in Sydney.

Understanding how the Ryde area developed this preference for green coloured concrete is difficult to pinpoint as it was different to the driveway design preferences of the time.

Historically Ryde was an agricultural district. This agricultural past of Ryde is evident today in the greenness of parks and open spaces compared with other localities in Sydney. Continuing with the green theme, the origins of the Granny Smith apple came from within the Ryde district in Eastwood.

Another nod to the past is Ryde Council and its use of green colour in signage and infrastructure throughout the Ryde local government area. The Ryde district and its affinity for the colour green go hand in hand with its historical past and geographical features.

Ryde has left its mark on concrete design language in Sydney.

- Concreting Sydney