Exposed Aggregate Concrete ACT - Cost and Approval Guide

What Exposed Aggregate Costs in the ACT

Exposed aggregate is ordinary concrete with the top layer of cement paste removed so the stone within it shows. That is the whole technique. What it buys is a surface with visible texture and natural stone colour rather than flat grey, and what it costs is $95 to $165 a square metre supplied and placed against $75 to $125 for plain reinforced concrete. On a 45 square metre double driveway the decorative premium is somewhere between $900 and $1,800, which is modest relative to the visual difference.

The complication in the ACT is not the concrete, it is where you are allowed to put it. The verge, meaning the strip of public land between your property boundary and the kerb, belongs to the Territory rather than to you, and the driveway crossing it is built to the City Services standard rather than to your preference. Exposed aggregate on the verge is generally discouraged and is permitted only where an erosion and sediment control management plan has been approved for the site. Concreting driveways in the ACT therefore frequently involves two specifications in one job.

That rule has a practical consequence worth planning around rather than discovering. A great many Canberra exposed aggregate driveways stop the decorative finish at the property line and run plain 32 MPa concrete, which is the strength grade the Territory requires there, across the verge, with a control joint at the boundary where the two meet. Done deliberately it reads as a design decision. Done accidentally, after an application comes back refused, it reads as a compromise.

The territory adds two further conditions that apply regardless of finish. Concrete on the verge has to reach 32 MPa, which is above the strength used for a typical domestic slab. And a formwork clearance is a hold point before any pour on the verge, booked with four to five working days notice, with the driveway certificate depending on it having been obtained. Neither is negotiable and both belong in the programme rather than in the surprises.

Exposed Aggregate Costs by Finish

The word exposed covers three different finishes at three different prices, and most of the confusion in Canberra quotes comes from that. A washed finish removes the cement paste from the surface so the stone stands slightly proud, and it runs $95 to $165 a square metre supplied and placed. A honed or ground finish cuts the stone itself flat and runs $135 to $240. Polishing takes it further again at $180 to $320 and is rarely the right choice outdoors in a Territory that frosts. Polished surfaces suit a covered area far better.

Against those figures, plain reinforced concrete runs $75 to $125 a square metre supplied and placed, which is the number worth holding in mind. The decorative premium on a 45 square metre Canberra double driveway is somewhere between $900 and $1,800 for a washed finish. That is a reasonable sum for a visible change, and it is small relative to the preparation, removal and approval items that sit around it. Those surrounding items commonly exceed the decorative premium itself. Removal of an old slab alone can outweigh the upgrade.

The figures below are Territory wide bands for 2026 and each assumes the verge question has already been settled. Where the work crosses the verge, the approval, the formwork clearance and in the case of exposed aggregate the erosion and sediment control management plan all have to be in place before anybody pours, and those are separate line items rather than part of the square metre rate. Ask which of them the quote includes and which it assumes you will arrange.

The City Services Verge Position

The verge is the strip of land between your property boundary and the kerb, and in the ACT it is public land rather than part of your block. Your driveway crosses it, and the crossing is built to a Territory standard administered by ACT City Services rather than to whatever specification you would prefer. That is the starting point for every conversation about a decorative driveway finish in Canberra. It is also the part most quotes leave out.

On exposed aggregate specifically, the position is that it is generally discouraged on the verge and is permitted only where an erosion and sediment control management plan has been approved for the site. The reasoning is about what comes off the surface during construction and over time rather than about appearance. Loose aggregate and wash water from an exposed finish reach the kerb and the stormwater system, and the Territory manages that through the plan requirement. Appearance is not the reason for the rule. Stormwater is.

The practical consequence is that a great many Canberra exposed aggregate driveways carry two finishes. The decorative work runs inside the property boundary, plain 32 MPa concrete crosses the verge, and a control joint at the boundary marks where one becomes the other. Planned from the outset it reads as a deliberate transition. Discovered after an application comes back refused, it reads as a patch. The transition detail is the same either way, so the difference is entirely in the planning.

Verge levels are the other constraint worth naming early. They cannot be altered to ease a slope, so a steep Canberra block does not become less steep by regrading the verge. The maximum uphill verge grade is 17 per cent, and where a driveway exceeds ten per cent the application needs three cross sections. Excavation in the ACT inside the boundary is where a slope problem gets solved, not on the public side of the line. Three cross sections are required where the driveway grade exceeds ten per cent.

Layout Approval and the Hold Point

Driveway layout approval is required for a new driveway, for any change to its size, shape, location or surface type, and for a second driveway on the same block. A like for like replacement in plain or asphaltic concrete is generally exempt. Changing the surface type to exposed aggregate is squarely inside the approval requirement rather than at its edge. Surface type is named specifically in the requirement. There is no room to read it as covering only size and position.

The application goes through a smart form with a minimum of 15 working days, and that minimum is the figure to build a programme around. Concreters in Canberra are used to this and a good one will raise it before quoting, because a pour date set without the approval in hand is a pour date that moves. A concrete order is placed days in advance, so an approval that slips means paying for a load nobody can use.

The formwork clearance is the part people miss. It is a hold point before pouring on the verge, booked with four to five working days notice, and the driveway certificate depends on it having been obtained. Technically the clearance itself is optional in the sense that it can be declined, and in practice skipping it puts the certificate at risk, which matters when the property is sold. A purchaser conveyancer does look for it. Obtaining it later is harder than obtaining it at the time.

Dimensional requirements sit alongside the approval and they constrain the design more than most people expect. Services at ground level require 1.2 metres of clearance, and 1.5 metres applies where they run above ground. A crossing has to sit six metres from the tangent point, the place where the straight kerb begins curving into the corner. Maximum skew is one in ten. The crossing for a single garage starts at 3.0 metres on the boundary and opens to 4.7 metres at the kerb, while a double is 4.7 metres end to end. Footpaths must stay continuous across the crossing.

The Erosion and Sediment Control Plan

The erosion and sediment control management plan is the condition attached to exposed aggregate on the verge, and it is worth understanding rather than treating as paperwork. The plan sets out how material from the site is prevented from reaching the kerb, the stormwater system and the street during construction and afterwards.

For an exposed aggregate pour the specific concerns are the wash water that carries cement fines and the loose aggregate that comes off the surface as the retarder is removed. Both travel to the gutter if nothing stops them. A plan typically covers containment and capture of wash water, sediment barriers at the kerb and the downslope edges, stockpile management and a programme for cleaning up. Each of those is a line in the plan rather than a general intention. An assessor reads the plan looking for each of them.

Preparing a plan runs $450 to $1,400 depending on the site and the scope. On a flat Gungahlin or Molonglo Valley block it is straightforward. On a steep Woden Valley or Weston Creek site with a fall straight to the kerb it involves more, because the risk it manages is real rather than theoretical. Environmental protection in the Territory is administered through the ACT environment directorate.

Where the plan cost and the approval risk together exceed the value of the decorative finish on the verge portion, the sensible answer is usually to run the aggregate inside the boundary and plain concrete across the verge. On a typical crossing the verge portion is only a few square metres, so a plan at $450 to $1,400 to decorate perhaps eight square metres rarely earns its cost. Run that arithmetic before deciding where the finish stops.

Aggregate Selection and Sourcing

The stone is what you are paying the premium for, so it deserves more thought than it usually gets. Local river gravels give rounded stone in browns, greys and creams. Crushed quarry stone gives angular faces and sharper contrast. Specialist and imported aggregates bring colours that local stone does not, from near black basalt through to white quartz, and they add $18 to $55 a square metre.

A couple of practical points matter more than appearance in a Canberra context. The first is water absorption, because a porous stone holds water that freezes in a Territory winter and eventually spalls off the surface. The second is hardness, because a soft stone wears and polishes under vehicle traffic in a way a hard one does not.

Sourcing adds lead time and that belongs in the programme. Local gravels are available on short notice from Canberra suppliers. A specified imported aggregate can take weeks, and running out partway through a pour is the worst outcome available because the batch will not match. Order the full quantity plus a margin before the pour date is set.

Ask to see a sample panel rather than a brochure photograph. A square metre poured, exposed and sealed on site shows the actual stone, the actual exposure depth and the actual colour once wet, and none of those are reliably visible in a catalogue. Good Canberra concreters will do this without being pushed. One who refuses has told you something about how the job will go.

Washed, Honed and Ground Exposure

How the stone is revealed changes the finish more than which stone it is. A washed exposure uses a surface retarder sprayed onto the fresh concrete to delay the set of the top few millimetres, which is then removed with a high pressure wash the following day. The stone is left standing slightly proud and the surface is textured. That runs $95 to $165 a square metre.

Honing and grinding work the other way. The slab is allowed to cure and then mechanical grinders cut through the surface, slicing the stone flat rather than washing around it. The result is smoother, flatter and more uniform, reading closer to terrazzo than to a pebbled surface, and it runs $135 to $240. Each additional grinding pass costs money and takes the finish further.

The choice has a Canberra specific consequence. A honed surface is noticeably smoother underfoot, and on a sloping driveway on a frosty Territory morning that is a practical matter rather than an aesthetic one. Washed exposure is the more forgiving option outdoors here, and honed suits a covered alfresco area or a pool surround under a roof better than a driveway. Match the finish to where it actually sits.

Depth of exposure is the variable within each method. A light wash reveals the tips of the stone. A deeper wash reveals more of each piece and reads as a coarser surface. This is decided on the day by the operator reading the concrete, which is why an on site sample panel beats a specification.

32 MPa, Reinforcement and Site Class

Concrete on the ACT verge has to reach 32 MPa, which is above the strength used in a typical domestic slab and is set by the City Services driveway standard rather than by the concreter. It applies regardless of what finish goes on top, so an exposed aggregate crossing and a plain one both meet the same figure. Strength and finish are separate specifications.

Inside the property boundary the strength is a matter for the site and the engineer, and 25 to 32 MPa is normal for a driveway. Specifying 32 MPa throughout costs very little extra on a domestic pour and removes a point of difference between the verge and the private portion, which simplifies the order. One strength across the whole job also removes a point of confusion on the day.

Reinforcement is separate from strength and both matter. Mesh, which is the welded steel grid laid inside the slab, runs $14 to $28 a square metre at the SL72 grade commonly used for a driveway, and it controls cracking rather than preventing it. It holds a crack together so it stays tight rather than opening, which on a decorative surface is the difference between a hairline and a visible defect.

Site classification under AS 2870 is what drives the thickness and reinforcement decision across Canberra. Sites run from class A for stable sand and rock through S, M, H1, H2 and E for increasing clay reactivity to P for problem sites, and much of the Territory sits in the middle and upper part of that range. A reactive site needs more joints and sometimes more reinforcement, and a site classification report at $650 to $1,600 settles which class applies. Guessing the class is how a slab ends up under reinforced.

Control Joints on Reactive Clay

Concrete shrinks as it cures and moves with temperature afterwards, and on reactive clay, which is soil that swells and shrinks as its moisture changes and covers much of the ACT, the ground underneath moves seasonally as well. Control joints are where that movement is directed so the slab cracks along a straight line you chose rather than across the middle of a decorative surface.

Joints run $18 to $42 a lineal metre and the spacing is a function of slab thickness and site reactivity. Canberra sites generally need more joints than a coastal sand site of the same size, which is a cost rather than an inconvenience. Expansion joints at the boundary, at the garage slab and wherever the driveway abuts a different structure are separate from the control joints across the field. Both appear on a joint layout, which is worth asking for.

On exposed aggregate the joint pattern is a visible design element rather than a technical detail hidden under carpet. A joint layout that lines up with the garage opening, the path and the boundary looks intentional. One laid out purely for crack control without reference to the geometry looks arbitrary, and both cost the same. Ask for the joint layout on a sketch before the pour.

Tooled joints formed while the concrete is fresh and saw cut joints made afterwards are both valid, and saw cutting is the one that interacts with the silica rules. Cutting has to be done wet or with on tool extraction, which is a method question rather than an optional extra. Expect a wet saw rather than a dry blade on any Canberra driveway.

Sealing and the Canberra Resealing Cycle

Sealing an exposed aggregate surface outdoors in the ACT is a recurring commitment rather than a one off cost, and understanding that before committing to the finish avoids disappointment later. The first application runs $12 to $28 a square metre and resealing runs $10 to $22, with a cycle in Canberra of every two to four years. Budget it as an ongoing cost from the outset.

The cycle is shorter here than in a warmer capital for a specific reason. A sealer on an exposed surface faces ultraviolet exposure in summer and freeze and thaw cycling through a Territory winter, and the combination breaks it down faster than either alone. An unsealed or lapsed surface takes water into the cement matrix around the stone, that water freezes, and the stone works loose over several seasons. By the time it is visible the surface has been losing stone for a while.

Sealer type changes both the look and the interval. A penetrating sealer soaks in and leaves the surface looking close to natural, with modest sheen and a longer life. A film forming sealer sits on the surface, gives the wet look many people want and needs more frequent renewal. Neither is wrong and they are not interchangeable mid cycle, so the first choice sets the pattern.

Timing the first seal matters. The slab has to finish its initial cure, commonly 28 days, and the surface has to be dry, which in a Canberra autumn or winter is not a given. Driveway cleaning and sealing in the ACT is a service in its own right and worth booking rather than deferring, because the first winter on an unsealed exposed surface is the one that does the damage. Sealing before winter rather than after it is the whole point.

Frost, Freeze Cycling and Surface Loss

Canberra is the coldest Australian capital and that fact reaches a decorative concrete surface more directly than most people expect. The airport records a July mean minimum of 0.1 degrees, a June minimum of 0.9 and an August minimum of 1.2, with the annual mean minimum at 6.8. Those averages mean a substantial number of nights below zero every winter. Those are the nights that do the work on a driveway surface.

Water held in the surface of concrete expands as it freezes. On a plain slab that shows up over many years as fine surface scaling. On an exposed aggregate surface the water sits in the interstices around the stone, and the expansion works at the bond between the stone and the cement matrix. The result over time is stone coming loose from the surface, which is both a cosmetic and a grip problem.

Several things reduce it and each one is a decision made before the pour. A dense, well cured concrete at adequate strength rather than a weak mix. An aggregate with low water absorption rather than a porous stone chosen purely for colour. And a sealing regime maintained rather than started and abandoned.

Winter pouring is the related question. Concrete gains strength through a chemical reaction that slows as temperature falls, and a pour into a frosted base or in near freezing conditions cures poorly and stays weaker. Reputable Canberra concreters decline marginal winter days on exposed work, and that judgement deserves respect rather than pressure. A slab poured in marginal conditions stays weaker for its whole life.

Slip Resistance on a Decorative Surface

Slip resistance is a real consideration on a Canberra driveway rather than a specification formality, because a sloping surface that is wet or frosted at seven in the morning is where people fall. AS 4586 classifies the slip resistance of new pedestrian surface materials, and the classification is the right basis for comparing finishes. Ask for the classification on the data sheet rather than judging by eye.

A washed exposed finish performs comparatively well because the stone provides texture and the surface is not flat. A honed or ground finish performs considerably less well, and a polished one less again. That ranking runs opposite to the price ranking, which matters before choosing on appearance alone for an outdoor Territory surface. The smoothest finish is also the dearest and the most slippery.

Where a finished surface turns out smoother than expected, anti slip treatment runs $35 to $85 a square metre and avoids replacing the slab. An anti slip additive mixed into the sealer at $3 to $8 a square metre is the cheaper preventative and is worth specifying on any sloping Canberra driveway from the outset. Non slip coatings and anti slip strips in the ACT cover the retrofit case. Specifying the additive at the outset is cheaper than either.

Tree Protection Zones and Driveway Work

Driveway work in Canberra frequently sits near a tree, and in the ACT that brings its own approval question that catches people out. The Urban Forest Act 2023 protects a tree that stands eight metres tall, carries an eight metre canopy, measures one metre around the trunk at 1.4 metres above natural ground, or is listed on the ACT Tree Register as exceptional. A dead native on leased land is protected at 1.88 metres circumference. Dead does not mean unprotected in the Territory.

The tree protection zone covers the canopy area, a two metre strip beyond the vertical canopy projection and a four metre radius around the trunk measured at one metre, unless an approved Tree Management Plan sets something different. Excavation, base preparation and pouring inside that zone is work that may affect a protected tree, and a Tree Activity Application is required for it. That applies to work on neighbouring land as well as your own.

For a driveway application a Tree Management Plan is compulsory where a protected tree is involved, at $850 to $2,400, and work inside a protection zone needs a Landscape Management and Protection Plan at $950 to $2,600. Penalties under the Act reach $80,000 for an individual and $405,000 for a corporation, with a criminal record possible, so this is not an area to proceed on assumption. Check the measurements before the design is settled.

The practical sequence is to establish the tree position and measurements before the driveway design is settled rather than after. Measuring circumference around the trunk rather than across it is where people go wrong, since a one metre circumference describes a trunk only about 320 millimetres wide, and plenty of ordinary Canberra garden trees clear that. Stump grinding and root removal in the ACT is itself regulated where a protected tree is involved. Grinding a stump inside a protection zone is still work in that zone.

Where a tree has to come out to make a driveway work, the approval sequence runs ahead of the concreting rather than alongside it. A Canopy Contribution Agreement is required before removal of a protected tree, and a Canberra homeowner either plants two replacement trees or pays $600 for each tree not replanted. Tree lopping and arborist services in the ACT and stump grinding both sit inside that framework, so neither is simply a matter of booking a crew.

Silica Controls on Grinding and Cutting

Grinding an exposed surface and saw cutting control joints both release respirable crystalline silica, and the controls apply to residential driveway work rather than only to commercial sites. The workplace exposure standard is an eight hour time weighted average of 0.05 milligrams per cubic metre, which is low enough that a short period of dry grinding will exceed it. That number is a legal limit rather than a recommendation.

Under the Work Health and Safety Regulation, uncontrolled dry cutting of crystalline silica materials is prohibited, and concrete sits squarely within that along with stone, masonry, brick and mortar. The control hierarchy begins with eliminating the task, then continuous water flow, then wet suppression with a second control, then on tool extraction with a second control, with respiratory protection as the final layer rather than the first. A respirator is the last layer of protection and not a substitute for the earlier ones.

On a honed exposed aggregate job this is the central method question rather than a side issue, because grinding is the whole technique. Expect water fed grinders or on tool extraction running throughout, slurry contained rather than hosed to the gutter, and the work area kept clear of other people. Those duties are administered by WorkSafe ACT across the Territory. Enforcement reaches residential driveways rather than only commercial sites.

Training through the crystalline silica exposure prevention course has been required since July 2023, and air monitoring is required at least every twelve months and on any change of control, with records kept for thirty years. Air monitoring measures exposure rather than reducing it, so an offer of monitoring instead of water or extraction has answered a different question. Monitoring records are kept for thirty years, which indicates how the risk is viewed.

Licensing and Who Carries the Work

Concreting is not a licensed occupation in the ACT, and knowing that changes how a Canberra homeowner should check a contractor. Construction occupation licences are administered through Access Canberra, and the licensed occupations are builder including owner builder, electrician, plumber, drainer and gasfitter, building surveyor, building assessor, gas appliance worker, works assessor and plumbing plan certifier. Carpenters, bricklayers, tilers, waterproofers and plasterers sit outside the scheme alongside concreters.

Because there is no licence number to verify, the other checks carry the weight. Confirm the ABN. Confirm public liability insurance directly with the insurer and the policy number rather than accepting a forwarded certificate. Confirm workers compensation where the business has employees. And get the scope in writing, because the written scope is what a dispute turns on.

The statutory warranty position follows from the size of the job rather than the trade. The ACT statutory warranty under the Building Act, which is a guarantee the law supplies regardless of what the contract says, applies to residential building work that required a building approval and cost $12,000 or more. A driveway is a non habitable structure and generally falls outside it, which puts Australian Consumer Law guarantees in the frame instead. Those cannot be contracted out of, which is the useful part.

Those guarantees require services to be rendered with due care and skill and to be reasonably fit for purpose, and no contract term can set them aside. The ACCC publishes what they cover. Disputes go to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, where the civil claims jurisdiction generally reaches $25,000. A building inspection in the ACT is worth commissioning where a slab has failed and the cause is contested.

The checks worth making before engaging anybody in the Territory are short and all public. Access Canberra holds the licence register for the trades that are licensed, so the plumber connecting a stormwater point or the electrician running a driveway light can be verified there even though the concreter cannot. WorkSafe ACT publishes the work health and safety duties that apply to the silica controls on grinding and cutting. Between them those two sources answer most of what a Canberra homeowner needs to know.

Timelines and the Canberra Pour Window

An exposed aggregate driveway is a short job with a long tail, and the approvals at the front and the curing at the back are what set the duration rather than the labour. The layout approval runs a minimum of 15 working days. The erosion and sediment control plan, where the work crosses the verge, runs alongside it. Site preparation and formwork take two to three days.

The pour itself is a day. Washed exposure happens the following day once the retarder has done its work. Honing waits for the slab to cure enough to grind, commonly a week or more. Then seven days before light vehicle traffic, 28 days before anything heavy, and 28 days before the first seal.

Canberra narrows the usable window at both ends of the year. Mid winter brings frost on the base and air temperatures that slow the cure and delay the morning start. High summer brings the opposite problem, where a slab sets faster than the finishers can work it and an exposed finish needs to be caught at the right moment. October to November and March to April give the most reliable conditions for decorative work in the Territory.

Where a driveway has to be out of service, the cure period is the constraint rather than the construction. Plan for roughly four weeks from pour to full vehicle use, and arrange parking accordingly. A Canberra household with a single driveway and no street parking needs to think about that before the pour date is confirmed rather than afterwards. Four weeks without a driveway is a long time in a Canberra winter.

Canberra District Pricing and Site Conditions

Exposed aggregate pricing across the ACT varies by site rather than by suburb, and the two site factors that move it are slope and access. A flat block with a short run from the kerb to the garage and room for a truck to reverse is the cheapest case available in the Territory. A steep block, a long run, or a narrow street with no room for a concrete truck adds to every stage. A pump at $900 to $2,400 is sometimes the only way in.

The districts fall into a recognisable pattern. The inner Canberra suburbs bring narrow streets, mature trees close to the crossing and frequently an existing slab to remove. Woden Valley and Weston Creek bring the steepest blocks in the Territory. Belconnen and Tuggeranong sit in the middle. Gungahlin and the Molonglo Valley bring flatter blocks, wider streets and fewer protected trees, which makes them the straightforward end of the range.

Access costs belong as their own lines rather than absorbed into a rate. A concrete pump at $900 to $2,400 is sometimes the only way to reach a back courtyard on a narrow inner Canberra block. Rubbish removal across the Territory is a separate figure where an existing slab is coming out, since broken concrete is charged by weight. And excavation in the ACT is its own line where a sloping Woden Valley or Weston Creek site needs cut and fill before any formwork goes down.

Alternatives Worth Pricing Alongside It

Exposed aggregate is one of several ways to get a decorative driveway in Canberra and it helps to know what the alternatives cost before committing. Plain reinforced concrete at $75 to $125 a square metre is the baseline and can be improved cheaply with a good joint layout and a broom finish laid in a deliberate direction. Coloured concrete through the mix adds a modest premium for a substantial change. Stamped concrete patterns the surface rather than revealing stone within it.

Pavers and segmental paving are the genuine alternative rather than a variation. Paving and driveway installation across the ACT runs on a different basis, and a paved crossing can be lifted and relaid where a concrete one has to be broken out. On a reactive Canberra site that flexibility has real value, because a paved surface accommodates ground movement that cracks a rigid slab. On a reactive Territory site that is a real advantage rather than a theoretical one.

Asphalt sits at the cheaper end and is specifically relevant on the verge, because a like for like replacement in plain or asphaltic concrete is generally exempt from layout approval. Where the only concern is a failing crossing rather than an aesthetic upgrade, that exemption matters before an application is lodged. Asphalt is also the cheapest option on the verge by a wide margin.

The comparison most worth running is the whole of life one rather than the install one. Exposed aggregate needs resealing every two to four years in the Territory. Plain concrete needs very little. Pavers need occasional relaying and weed management. Over fifteen years those maintenance differences are comparable to the installation difference, which is the kind of arithmetic that rarely makes it into a quote comparison.

What to Look for in Exposed Aggregate Quotes

An exposed aggregate quote that can be compared with another one separates seven items. The finish, named as washed, honed or polished rather than just as exposed. The aggregate, named by type and supplier. The concrete strength in MPa, the slab thickness and the mesh grade. Site preparation and removal of any existing slab. The joint layout. The approvals and any erosion and sediment control plan. And the sealing, with the product type and the expected interval.

The finish name is the item that most often reveals whether two quotes describe the same work. Washed and honed differ by $40 to $75 a square metre and look nothing alike, and both get called exposed aggregate in conversation. A quote that does not say which has left the most expensive variable undefined. Put the question in writing and file the response.

Request a sample panel at $180 to $450 before committing on any job above about 40 square metres. It shows the actual stone, the actual exposure depth and the colour once wet and sealed, none of which a catalogue photograph conveys. Good Canberra concreters offer this unprompted, and the cost is trivial against the risk of disliking a 50 square metre driveway. Nobody can unpour a slab.

Getting the Best Value from Exposed Aggregate

The clearest saving available on a Canberra exposed aggregate job is deciding the verge question before anything is ordered. Running the decorative finish inside the boundary and plain 32 MPa concrete across the verge avoids an erosion and sediment control plan at $450 to $1,400 to decorate perhaps eight square metres, and it removes the risk of an application coming back refused after the aggregate has been delivered. A pallet of imported stone is not returnable.

The second saving is the sample panel, which is the cheapest insurance in decorative concrete. At $180 to $450 it settles the stone, the exposure depth and the sealed colour before a 50 square metre pour commits you to all three. Disliking a finished driveway is the expensive outcome and the panel is what prevents it. Spend the few hundred dollars before the few thousand.

Bundling pays where a truck and a crew are already on site. Pouring the driveway, a path to the front door and an alfresco slab in one visit costs less per square metre than three separate pours, because the concrete order, the pump and getting the crew on site are shared. Patio and verandah work in the ACT and landscaping often belong in the same programme for the same reason. One concrete order and one crew across three areas beats three of each.

The last piece of value is maintenance rather than construction. A Canberra exposed aggregate surface that is sealed on schedule lasts decades. One that is sealed once and forgotten starts losing stone within a few winters, and there is no economical repair for a surface that has lost its aggregate. Budget the resealing at $10 to $22 a square metre every two to four years as part of the decision rather than as an afterthought.

One further ACT specific saving is in the sequencing with other outdoor work. Where a retaining wall in the ACT or blockwork is going in on the same Canberra site, doing it before the driveway rather than after avoids damaging a new slab with a bobcat. Access Canberra approvals and the City Services driveway clearance both run on their own timetables, so a programme that sequences the earthworks, the walls and then the concrete is the one that finishes without rework.