Concreters in Toronto, 2283
Toronto is the main business centre for the western side of Lake Macquarie, about thirty kilometres out of Newcastle and eight minutes from the M1. The Boulevarde, its main street, runs west from the foreshore, Cary Street marks the western edge of the centre, and Victory Parade fronts the new Town Green and the enclosed baths. Above them, on its bluff, stands the Toronto Hotel, built of locally made brick. The town was laid out in 1887 as a lakeside resort ringed by small residential lots, and it grew slowly, from 153 occupied homes in 1911 to 639 in 1954. Council’s heritage plan records timber and iron homes from the 1890s to the 1950s near the water and mostly post-war building overall.
A bluff, a ridge and a place of clay
Little of Toronto is level. The ridge along Excelsior Parade sits about 40 metres above the lake, the hotel bluff rises 16 metres over Victory Parade, and on the northern foreshore council describes gardens running down to the water with the houses set further up the slope. The Aboriginal name recorded for Toronto West means place of clay, and a brickworks opened on that side in 1886. Virtually the whole suburb lies inside a declared mine subsidence district, West Lake for most addresses and Lake Macquarie No 1 Extension in the north, which is a matter for structures ahead of flat concrete.
Jobs that come with a slope
Close to four in five dwellings are separate houses, and on this terrain the driveway is the demanding item: grades worked out on paper first, a textured surface, and a drain where the run meets the garage. Stepped paths link street, house and yard. A patio usually has to be benched into the hill behind a low retaining edge, and a shed or garage floor begins the same way. Around the older cottages much of the concrete is original or an early replacement, so removal and replacement is steady work, and the closely built foreshore lots leave little room for access.
Finishes with grip
Where the ground tilts, choose texture before colour. Exposed aggregate and a coarse broom texture each keep their hold in rain, and a coloured mix is better kept for a terrace that sits flat. Bear in mind that when Lake Macquarie has to reinstate a crossing it uses plain concrete regardless of what it removed, so costly stone is best kept inside the fence.
Toronto rates
The published ranges, all per square metre supplied and laid, are these. Concrete driveways are $95 to $185 by finish and exposed aggregate is $130 to $185. Paths cost $90 to $130, patios and alfresco slabs $100 to $180 and shed and garage slabs $110 to $150, and pulling up existing concrete puts about $35 on top. Steps are the Toronto extra. Each riser is formed by hand, so a stepped path costs more than a flat one of equal length, and a steep site commonly needs a line pump as well. Rough out the areas in the calculator, set the result beside the cost guide, and give the Section 138 guide, then the specification, a careful read before anyone quotes the crossing.
Council and the crossing
Toronto sits in the Lake Macquarie City Council area. What that council asks of a driveway crossing is set out on the areas page and, step by step, in the Section 138 guide.
Nearby: Morisset, Glendale, Warners Bay