Concreters in Wembley Downs

One pour, front to back

The job on this page is 85 square metres of exposed aggregate at an established Wembley Downs home, and the thing worth noticing is that it is all one surface. The driveway running up to the garage, the side access past the gate, and the alfresco down the back are the same concrete, poured in the same Limecrete Kajaani White mix.

That is a deliberate way to do a property like this. Concrete done in stages almost never matches, because a later batch is a different day, a different load and often a different mix. Doing the whole run in one go means the driveway, the side path and the alfresco floor read as one house rather than as three jobs that happened to meet.

Exposed aggregate, and why it suits a driveway here

Exposed aggregate is finished so the stone in the mix is showing rather than hidden under a smooth top. Two things follow from that, and both matter on a sloping block.

It has grip. A driveway on a rise gets walked on in wet weather and driven on every day, and the exposed stone gives it a surface with some texture instead of a polished sheet.

It also hides what a driveway collects. Leaf drop, tyre marks and general dirt disappear into a speckled surface in a way they never do on plain grey. It is the practical reason it stays the most asked for finish on this side of the suburb, ahead of the way it looks.

Getting to the back of the block

The alfresco here is behind the house, down a covered walkway with an outdoor kitchen built along one side. A truck cannot pour that from the street.

So it was line pumped: the concrete goes through a hose from the truck out the front to where the work actually is. It is normal on Wembley Downs blocks, where there is a house across the front and a fence close on both sides, and it is worth asking about when you get a quote, because pump hire is a real line on a job and a quote that has not accounted for access is a quote that will move.

Working around what is staying

None of this was a bare block. The house, the fences, the garden bed and the brick outdoor kitchen were all there and all staying, and a new garage was going in at the same time.

That is most of the concreting in this suburb. The new work has to meet a garage slab, a doorway and a step that are already built and already at a fixed height, drain away from the house rather than back toward it, and finish neatly against brickwork that was not laid to suit it. The drain grate across the side access in one of the photos is part of that: on a block with fall, the water has to be given somewhere to go before the surface goes down, not after.

Talk to us about your Wembley Downs job

If you have a driveway, an alfresco or a side access in Wembley Downs you want quoted, call Regan on 0433 510 118 or send through the details and we will come and have a look at it.