Concrete Pour Start Time in NSW: Construction Hours and Early Pours

A concrete pour runs to a tight clock. Trucks are booked, the pump is on its way and the slab has to be placed and finished in one go. On a hot day the crew would rather start at first light. The trouble is that a 6am pump arriving next to houses can earn the site a breach notice and an angry neighbour. This guide sets out the standard construction hours in NSW, where the hours for your job actually come from, and how to get approval when a pour has to start early.

Standard construction hours in NSW

The NSW EPA’s Interim Construction Noise Guideline recommends standard hours for normal construction work: Monday to Friday 7am to 6pm, Saturday 8am to 1pm, and no work on Sundays or public holidays. The same table notes that the relevant authority can set hours that are more or less strict.

The guideline dates from 2009 and is still the one in use. The EPA consulted on a replacement in 2021 and says the new guideline will replace the interim one once it is finalised. The draft kept the same standard hours. The EPA describes the interim guideline as helping councils decide whether to approve local construction projects, which is why its hours turn up again and again in consent conditions.

Your consent sets the hours, not a statewide rule

The hours that bind a particular site are the ones in its development consent. NSW Planning’s standard conditions of consent leave the times blank for the council to fill in, and say site work is not to happen outside them except in an emergency or when police or a public authority direct it. The extended hours allowed during COVID ended on 31 March 2022. NSW Planning says weekend work since then is only allowed if the consent authorises it.

That is why hours differ from one job to the next, even within the same council area.

If a job has no consent at all, because the work is exempt development, ask the council which hours it expects before you book anything early.

Why concrete pours start early

Most pours fit inside standard hours. The ones that don’t usually share a reason.

• Heat. On a Transport for NSW project on the Coffs Harbour bypass, the project team gave notice of out-of-hours concrete pours because they had to pour outside approved hours to meet temperature limits.
• Size of the pour. A large slab is placed in one go with trucks arriving back to back. Hornsby Shire Council lists an engineering requirement, how often concrete is delivered, the weather and the size of the pour as things it weighs when an out-of-hours permit is sought for a concrete pour.
• Finishing time. The last truck isn’t the end of the day. The slab still has to be finished once it is ready, and that work runs on after the pour itself.

On commercial concrete jobs the pour date usually drives other trades, so a lost day costs more than the concrete. Warehouse floors and yards on industrial sites are often big enough that the pour has to be split, started early, or both. Either way the start time is a planning decision made weeks out, not on the morning.

How to get approval for an out-of-hours pour

Each council runs its own process. These steps cover what the councils around Sydney ask for.

1. Read the consent first. Find the hours condition and any condition about out-of-hours work. The Hawkesbury consent above required an application to council for temporary extended hours, and a formal modification of the consent where extended hours were needed on an ongoing basis.
2. Apply early and in writing. The Hills Shire Council has a request form for work outside standard hours. It considers exceptional or unforeseen circumstances only and says lodging a request doesn’t guarantee approval. Hornsby asks for at least 48 hours’ notice and charges a fee. Ku-ring-gai Council asks for seven working days and won’t consider requests made for convenience or to speed up a program.
3. Tell the neighbours. The Hills requires adjoining residents to be notified and the site manager’s contact details to be supplied. Ku-ring-gai asks for a letterbox drop within 200 metres, five days before the work.
4. Plan the trucks, not just the pour. The Hills does not allow concrete pumps or delivery trucks to operate before 7am, wants the pour finished by 6pm, and allows only light, low-noise equipment for finishing after that.
5. Sort the road if the pump sits on it. Hawkesbury City Council’s road occupancy application must be lodged at least seven days before work starts and needs a traffic control plan. On a classified road, Transport for NSW issues a road occupancy licence for any activity likely to affect traffic flow. On civil works in the road reserve, this is part of the job from the start.

Residential jobs and the noise rules

Homeowners often hear about a different set of times. The EPA’s guide to dealing with neighbourhood noise lists restricted times for power tools and equipment: before 8am and after 8pm on weekends and public holidays, and before 7am and after 8pm on other days. Those times apply to equipment used at residential premises. They are not the hours for a building site, and the same EPA guide points complaints about building construction noise to council.

For a driveway or a slab at home, the practical answer is the same as on a commercial site. If there is a consent, the consent sets the hours. If there isn’t, check with council and the neighbours before a truck turns up at dawn. On slab and footing work we confirm the hours before the pour is booked, so the start time is settled before anyone sets an alarm.

Before you book an early pour

• Hours condition in the consent read
• Out-of-hours approval in writing
• Neighbours notified
• Truck and pump arrival times confirmed
• Road occupancy sorted if needed
• Finishing plan for after the last truck