A beautiful and consistent exposed aggregate concrete driveway is the result of proper site preparation and professional concrete pouring. With more than 35 years installing concrete in Adelaide homes, we’ve perfected the craft.
Panorama Concrete Adelaide has developed a thorough and methodical approach which produces stunning concrete projects to meet the needs of our customers. From your very first contact with Panorama Concrete, we take the time to listen to your needs from start to finish.
This begins with helping you choose an exposed aggregate concrete mix for your driveway which matches your home. Following this, we do a thorough site preparation to ensure a high standard of work completed on the day we pour the concrete.
Here’s why we produce an exceptional quality of concrete projects with a high level of customer satisfaction.
- Once you are totally satisfied with your quote and choice of exposed aggregate concrete and have signed your contract, we schedule your project for the earliest possible completion date.
- Your Consultant will then prepare a plan of the work to be done. Two copies of the plan are sent to you.
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- We ask that you check everything on the plan meets your requirements. If they do, you sign and return one copy of the plan to our office. The other copy is for you to keep.
- If you would like to make any additions or alterations at this point, please note them in red ink on the copy of the plan to be returned to our office or phone your Consultant to discuss further.
- If you have made changes to the plan, we will contact you to confirm that the changes have been noted and will be actioned.
- From now on our Work’s Manager will be handling your project and will contact you to introduce themselves and to give you an idea where your project is placed on the schedule. If you have any special events coming up, please discuss suitable dates for the paving installation with them.
Preparing your site ready for the paving installation
- If Panorama is not preparing your site, your Consultant can give you our sheet on “Tips for a Quality Site Preparation” to assist your site preparer with our requirements.
When your site has been prepared you will need to contact our Work’s Manager to confirm your site is ready for our concreting team.
- If Panorama is contracted to prepare your site ready for our concreting team, you will be contacted the day before our site preparer is due to arrive to discuss arrival times.
- On the day scheduled our site preparer will arrive with a truck and bobcat.
- Preparing your site could involve some or all of the following tasks depending upon your situation and requirements:
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- Arrangement of white ant treatment
- Removal of old concrete or pavers
- Removal of soil
- Introduction of rubble (fill)
- Removal of rubbish if required
- Removal and replacement of invert and water tables
- Checking that levels fall away correctly
- After the site preparation is finished, steel reinforcing will be delivered to your site to be part of the concrete pour.
Exposed aggregate concrete installation
- On the day prior to installation we will telephone you to confirm that we will be on site early the next morning and give you the name of your concreter. We will also re-check your colour and stone selection and run through other points you need to know for your own convenience.
- On the big day your concreters will arrive early. They will commence by installing all of the formwork for that day’s pour. The formwork ensures that we install a nominal 100mm of concrete in the shape you require.
- Once the area has been formed up, we will ask you to have a look once again to make sure that everything is to your liking. We do this at this stage so that you will have a chance to give a final approval and make any minor adjustments.
- The best quality steel reinforcing (F72 thickness or larger if required) is then cut to shape and placed.
- Your concrete with the 25 MPA aggregate mix you have chosen has already been ordered and will arrive.
- The concrete is then placed into the formwork and poured to levels.
- Any additional pebbles or stones that you may have ordered will now be added and trowelled into the top surface of the concrete.
- At this time you can consult with your concreter about whether you would like a few more stones added.
- The concreters will then finish trowelling the concrete.
- A retarding agent is then placed over the concrete. This helps to ensure that you receive the right amount of exposed stones. Although your paving may be hard enough to walk on, it is important to keep off until after the retarder has been washed off or the aggregate might be displaced.
- Before we leave the site our concrete team will clean up and remove any excess materials relating to our work.
- Subject to weather the job will be washed down on the same day as the pour or the following day.
- Control joints will be cut in to the paving as soon as the concrete has cured enough for this to happen. These are in the concrete to help control cracking which can be caused by ground movement and other elements outside of our control.
Ready for Sealing
Please keep in mind that on the day scheduled for concrete sealing, if rain threatens or the Weather Bureau is predicting rain fairly soon, we may want to delay sealing the paving until drier weather prevails.
- After your project has been sealed the surface will be touch dry in 1-2 hours but should not be walked on for 6-8 hours. If the paving is in a driveway it is best that vehicles are kept off it for 4 days.
Your Project is now completed, and you will have the satisfaction of professional high quality concrete paving to increase the value of your property and enhance your lifestyle.
Concrete after-care
Now that your concrete paving is complete there is very little maintenance needed to keep it in tip top condition. An occasional wash or clean with a garden blower will usually be sufficient.
Resealing is an option and only if required
There are no firm rules about when or if your concrete will need to be resealed. Many people will never want to reseal preferring their paving to weather into a very natural look.
Some people will want to keep their concrete paving looking more like new and this could mean a reseal every 2-3 years. Whatever your individual taste, the option to reseal is there if you need it.
In the future if you are doing some house or garden alterations which might affect the condition of your paving you will be able to bring it back to mint condition relatively easily by giving it a reseal. We can sell you the sealer if you prefer to do it yourself with some instructions.
Other services available
- Installation of storm water drains
- Installation of small retaining walls for planter beds
- Additional bobcat levelling and landscaping (while we are on site)
Concrete Cracking
As our Consultants would have discussed with you already, hairline cracks do occur in concrete. Our experience tells us that it is better to leave a crack alone rather than trying to repair it. Cracks will open slightly in summer and close in winter due to soil movement and temperature. If a crack is filled up in summer, the fill material can be forced up and make the crack more noticeable in winter.
Panorama Concrete has been installing concrete paving since the early 1980s. If you walk past our older jobs most of them look in good condition. Probably all of them have a couple of hairline cracks somewhere but you won’t see them without looking for them. With pavers however, you will notice cracks and gaps much more when walking around unruly, sunken paver installations with weeds growing up through the pavers.
Concrete paving is usually a better long term solution! Have a look at our exposed aggregate and stamped concrete styles. If you prefer the paver look, our handcrafted saw-cut concrete style looks like a high-end paver but without the weeds, subsidence or maintenance.
Call Panorama Concrete for a beautiful exposed aggerate concrete driveway
Get it done right the first time with a professional concrete company who knows how to finish a job to your specifications. Phone us on 08 8272 9611 to chat with a friendly consultant or send an email to enquiry@panoramaconcrete.com.au.