Concreter Bunyip: Driveways and Shed Slabs on Unmade Ground

An acreage driveway takes more than the family car. Delivery trucks, a trailer, a caravan, and all of it riding on ground that has never carried anything heavier than a mower. Big Fella Landscapes has been pouring driveways and shed slabs onto ground like that since 2007, through Bunyip and across West Gippsland. The concreter who finishes your surface is the one who cut the levels, ran the drainage and compacted the base under it. Kane Dalman prices the work standing on your site, at no cost: phone 0412 881 728.

One Booking for the Ground and the Pour

Excavation, levelling and drainage are commonly sold as a separate trade from the concreting itself, which puts two contractors either side of one important join. We take on both ends. Kane Dalman holds qualifications in Landscape Construction, Concreting and Carpentry, the crews include qualified concreters, and none of the work goes out to subcontractors. Carpentry sits in that list too, which is why decking in Bunyip can be built by the same crew that pours the slab it steps off.

On unmade ground, the preparation is most of the job. Topsoil comes off, the subgrade is cut to level and compacted, crushed rock goes back in to a depth suited to what the slab will carry, and the falls are set so water leaves the surface and does not pool underneath it. Formwork and reinforcement follow, then the pour and the finish.

A long entrance run raises one more question worth settling early: whether an agitator truck can reach the far end of the pour, or whether the concrete has to be pumped the last stretch. That gets worked out at the site visit, not on the morning.

What Happens Once You Accept the Quote

Your job is scheduled with a crew allocated to it and a start date you can plan around. Kane Dalman stays the single point of contact from the first visit through to handover, so anything that changes reaches you from the person who quoted it. The work is delivered on time and on budget, and every slab carries a 12-month workmanship guarantee. You are not locked into the first design or the first figure either.

How Long Big Fella Landscapes Has Been Pouring Concrete

Kane Dalman started Big Fella Landscapes in 2007. He holds the concreting qualification himself, alongside Landscape Construction and Carpentry, and it has been in the business from the start. Thousands of residential and commercial projects have gone through the team since, for homeowners, builders, owner-builders and developers. That work takes in what we do as a concreter in Garfield too. Our concreting page sets out the trade in full.

Picking a Finish You Will Be Driving On

Finish decides how the job reads from the road and how much grip it holds when wet. Settle it early, because a couple of the options change what happens on pour day.

• Plain: broom-finished for texture or trowelled smooth. The usual answer for shed slabs, machinery pads and utility paths.
• Coloured: oxide run through the mix, so the colour is in the concrete rather than sitting on it.
• Exposed aggregate: the surface washed back to bring the stone up. Hard-wearing, with grip built in.
• Stamped: a pattern pressed into the slab while it is green, reading as stone, pavers or timber.
• Stencilled: colour and pattern laid over the surface for a brick or tile look that hoses clean.

On a long run, plain and exposed aggregate do most of the work. The decorative finishes tend to earn their keep closer to the house.

What Moves the Cost Up or Down

Area and shape start it. Thickness and reinforcement follow from what the slab has to carry, and a car, a caravan and a loaded machinery shed each ask for something different. On unmade ground the biggest variable is underneath: how much comes out, how much base goes back in, and how far water has to be taken. After that it is truck access, whether an old slab has to be cut out and carted away, and the finish you settle on.

None of it can be guessed down a phone line, which is why the quote follows the visit. Neither costs you anything.

What Cardinia Shire Needs to Confirm

Where a new driveway crosses the footpath and joins the road, it stops being purely your own ground. The vehicle crossing, and the legal point at which your stormwater is allowed to discharge, are both council matters, and Bunyip sits in Cardinia Shire. Ask the Shire to confirm what applies at your address before the driveway is priced, since the answer can change levels and falls. It comes up at the site visit so nobody is chasing it late.

Wet Weather, and When You Can Use the Slab

Saturated ground will not compact, and rain landing on a green slab marks the surface for good. A wet stretch therefore moves pour dates, and when that happens you get a call from Kane with the replacement date.

Concrete keeps gaining strength for weeks after it goes down, and more slowly through the cold. You get a date for walking on it and a later one for driving on it, and on a driveway the second is the one that protects the slab.

Have Kane Look at the Ground First

The ground tells you more than any description of it ever will. Ring Kane Dalman on 0412 881 728 or fill in the enquiry form, and the free on-site visit gets booked from there.