Concreters in Stirling

Most Stirling jobs are a replacement, not a first pour

Stirling was built out a long time ago, so the concrete we get asked to look at here has usually been in the ground for decades. Driveways that have cracked along the joints, sunk where the fill was never properly compacted, or lifted where a street tree got underneath them. The job is generally to take all of it out and start again rather than to patch it.

That matters for what you should expect. A rip out and replace carries a demolition and cart away component that a new build simply does not have, and on an established block the machine has less room to work. It is not a reason to avoid the job, it is a reason to have it quoted properly rather than compared against a new estate price.

A recent Stirling job, 250 square metres front and back

We stripped out the existing concrete across the front and back of a two storey Stirling home and replaced it in one go, about 250 square metres all up. The driveway and the side pathways went down as exposed aggregate. The portico and the alfresco were finished honed. All of it came from the same Limecrete Kajaani White mix.

Running one mix through the whole property is the part that makes a job this size read as deliberate. When a driveway gets replaced on its own it almost never matches what is left around it, and the house ends up looking patched. Doing the front and the back together, in one mix, means every surface belongs to the same house.

The honing on that job was done in house. We do not sub the grinding out, which is the reason the portico and the alfresco finish the way they do rather than being sent away and coming back however they come back.

Exposed and honed in the same job, and why

The two finishes are not competing, they do different work. Exposed aggregate is left with the stone showing, so it has grip and it hides the dirt a driveway inevitably picks up. Honed is ground back smooth, which is what you want underfoot on a portico or an alfresco, where people walk barefoot and where the surface is being looked at up close rather than driven over.

Using the same mix in both finishes is what ties them together. Same stone, same colour, two different treatments, so the change from driveway to portico reads as intentional rather than as two separate jobs meeting in the middle.

Getting the levels right on an established block

The hardest part of replacing concrete around a finished house is that almost nothing is adjustable. The garage slab is where it is. The crossover is already poured to the kerb. The front step is built. The new work has to meet all three at the right height, drain away from the house, and still fall correctly to the street.

This is the part that separates a replacement done properly from one that ponds against a wall after the first decent Perth downpour. It is worth walking the fall with whoever is quoting before anything comes out, because once the old surface is gone the levels are set by what is left behind.

Talk to us about your Stirling job

If you have concrete in Stirling that is cracked, sunk or just past it, call Regan on 0433 510 118 or send through the details and we will come and have a look at it.