Replacing an Old Driveway in Sale: What Happens, Day by Day

Replacing a concrete driveway in Sale usually takes four to six days on site. One day to break out and cart away the old slab, a day or two for the base, formwork and steel, one day to pour and finish, then a week before the car goes back on. If the council crossover needs replacing too, allow for the permit before any of that starts.

A lot of Sale's older streets still have the driveway that went in with the house, and plenty of them are well past it. Here's what happens when one comes out and a new one goes in, so you know what the week looks like before you book it.

Does it need replacing, or can it be saved?

Not every old driveway needs to come out. A slab that's sound but tired, with fine cracks, stains and a worn surface, can often be cleaned and sealed or resurfaced for far less. Replacement is the call when sections have sunk or lifted, cracks have opened wide enough to catch a heel, the edges are breaking away, or water sits against the garage every time it rains. Nick will tell you which one you've got on the site visit. The Maintenance half of our name exists for the driveways that don't need a rip-out.

What happens before the first day?

It starts with a proper site visit. Nick measures up, checks which way the water runs now and which way it should, looks at the crossover and the kerb, and works out where the truck and the machine can get in. The written quote comes back with line items: break-out and disposal (usually $40 to $80 per m² on a standard residential slab), the base, the steel, the concrete, the finish and the crossover if it's included.

What about the crossover?

The crossover is the section between the road and your property line, and in Sale it belongs to Wellington Shire's specification, not yours. If it's in good nick it can often stay, which saves money and a permit. If it's cracked, lifting or the wrong width for the new driveway, it gets replaced to council spec, and the permit comes first. We pour crossovers to Wellington Shire spec regularly and we'll walk you through who lodges what at the quote.

What happens on each day?

1. Break-out. The old slab is cut, broken up and loaded out. This is the noisy day, and the one where we find out what the old driveway was sitting on, which usually explains why it failed
2. Dig and base. We dig to depth, deal with anything soft that turned up underneath, then bring in crushed rock and compact it in layers
3. Formwork and steel. The edges are set out to fall so water runs away from the house and garage, and mesh goes in on chairs so it sits inside the slab rather than on the ground
4. Pour and finish. Concrete goes in, gets screeded and finished to the texture you picked, and control joints are cut within 24 hours
5. Curing. The slab is left alone to gain strength. We tell you when it's ready, not the calendar

Weather can move pour day. If heavy rain or a scorcher lands on the booked date, we'd rather shift it a few days than pour into it, and we'll ring you as soon as the forecast makes that call.

What's a week without a driveway actually like?

Manageable, with a bit of planning. You can walk on the new slab after about 24 to 48 hours, but the car stays off for at least seven days, and anything heavy waits a month. In practice that means:

• Park on the street or at a neighbour's for the week, and move the car out the night before break-out day
• Sort the wheelie bins. They need a path to the kerb that isn't the new slab
• Tell anyone with a delivery booked. A skip bin or a delivery truck on a week-old driveway is the most common way new concrete gets damaged
• Keep dogs and kids off it on pour day. Paw prints are forever

What happens to the rest of the yard?

A driveway replacement puts a machine, a truck and a lot of broken concrete across the front of your place, so the job plan includes the lawn, the garden edges, the fence and the neighbour's side as well as the slab. Machine paths are agreed at the site visit, soft ground gets boarded, and the site is cleaned up before we leave. Our rule is to leave your property better than we found it, and that counts double on the front yard everyone sees.

Picking the finish while you're at it

A replacement is the one chance to change the look. Plain broom finish is the budget choice with good grip. Coloured concrete lifts it for a modest step up. Exposed aggregate costs more and hides marks best, which is why it's so common in the newer Sale estates. Nick brings pamphlets and photos of past jobs to the site visit, and can point you to a supplier yard to see real samples in daylight rather than on a phone screen.

Book the site visit

If your driveway in Sale, Wurruk, Longford or anywhere around Wellington Shire is past saving, book a site visit. Nick is a qualified concreter, he'll show up when he says he will, and the written quote will show every step of the job, not just the pour. Workmanship warranty on every driveway. Or give me a call.