Winmalee, NSW 2777
Concreters Winmalee
Concreting for Winmalee homes, from driveways and pool surrounds to stairs, paths, retaining walls and outdoor entertaining areas. Bush-edge blocks are often sloping, which makes preparation and drainage as important as the finish. We take care of excavation, formwork, reinforcement, pour and finish with our own crew, so the result holds up.
- LicensedNSW contractor licence 398552C
- Fully insured$20M public and product liability, plus workers insurance
- 13+ yearsHands-on in the concreting trade
- 5.0 on Google10+ five-star reviews
Who does concreting in Winmalee?
Southo Concrete is a licensed concreting contractor working in Winmalee, NSW 2777. We build driveways and crossings, shed slabs, pool surrounds, outdoor areas and paths for homes across Winmalee, and we do the excavation and site preparation ourselves. Winmalee is in the Blue Mountains local government area, and any work in the road reserve — including building a driveway — needs Blue Mountains City Council’s approval.
- Business
- Southo Concrete, NSW contractor licence 398552C, $20M public and product liability plus workers insurance
- Suburb
- Winmalee, NSW 2777, Blue Mountains local government area
- Services
- Driveways and crossings, shed slabs, machinery slabs, hardstand, sandstone block retaining walls, pool surrounds, outdoor areas, excavation and site preparation
- Also covers
- Bell, Mount Tomah, Yarramundi and Bilpin and the rest of the Blue Mountains ridge
- Experience
- 13+ years in the concreting trade, 5.0 from 10+ Google reviews
- Quotes
- Free, and we aim to respond within 24 hours. Call 0468 491 882
Winmalee, on the lower Blue Mountains
A residential suburb at 310 metres, surrounded by national park, next door to Yarramundi.
Surrounded by the World Heritage area
Winmalee is about 77 km west of the Sydney CBD, at about 310 m, in the City of Blue Mountains. It is surrounded by the Blue Mountains National Park and sits within the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, next to Springwood, Faulconbridge, Yarramundi and Hawkesbury Heights.
Source: Wikipedia locality entries: Winmalee
Check if your block is bush fire prone
Winmalee is surrounded by national park. Whether a lot is mapped as bush fire prone land is confirmed on the section 10.7 planning certificate from Blue Mountains City Council. A new home on mapped land has to meet the NSW Rural Fire Service’s Planning for Bush Fire Protection 2019, which includes rules for property access, so settle it before the driveway is designed.
Source: NSW RFS, Bush fire prone land tool; NSW RFS, Planning for Bush Fire Protection 2019
Sloping bush blocks
Many Winmalee blocks fall steeply from the street. We cut the grade, use a broom finish for grip, and add drainage so water doesn’t run down the driveway to the house.
Recent Southo projects
Recent work from across the Hawkesbury and the Hills, with the suburb named under each photo.
What we build out here
Driveways and the crossing at the road, shed and machinery slabs, hardstand and turning areas, retaining walls, pool surrounds and large outdoor areas.
Excavation included
We do our own cut, fill and base, so one crew handles the job from the first bucket to the final finish, and one price covers it.
Acreage, not patch-ups
Complete jobs on rural and acreage properties, where access, levels and drainage matter as much as the pour itself.
What goes under a Winmalee driveway or slab?
Winmalee is the one suburb in this group that is a suburb rather than a ridge-top locality — established homes on the sandstone country above the Grose, where the constraint is usually stormwater rather than access.
Sandstone country, and what sits on it
Winmalee is not on one of the basalt caps — the Scientific Committee’s determination names those as Mount Irvine, Mount Wilson, Mount Bell, Mount Tomah, Mount Banks, Mount Caley and Mount Hay, describing them as basalt caps overlying sandstone. Below and away from them, the ground is the sandstone country the mountains are built on, and what sits over it varies block to block.
Source: NSW Threatened Species Scientific Committee, Blue Mountains Basalt Forest in the Sydney Basin Bioregion — final determination
Altitude, rain and curing
The same determination records this community as occurring mostly between 750 and 1050 metres altitude, in areas with 950 to 1350 mm of annual rainfall. Cold and wet is the normal working condition up here, and it affects both when concrete can be placed and how it cures — which is why a pour on the ridge gets booked against the forecast rather than the calendar.
Source: NSW Threatened Species Scientific Committee, Blue Mountains Basalt Forest in the Sydney Basin Bioregion — final determination
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How your block gets classified
Slabs and footings for a house or habitable building are designed to AS 2870, which classifies a site by how much the ground is expected to move with moisture — Class A and S are stable to slightly reactive, M moderately, H1 and H2 highly, and E extremely. On a ridge where basalt and sandstone sit within a few hundred metres of each other, that classification matters more than usual, and it comes from a geotechnical soil test on your property rather than from a suburb map.
Source: AS 2870 Residential slabs and footings, AS 3600 Concrete structures, and the National Construction Code
Concrete, stormwater and your Winmalee block
Every square metre of new concrete adds to your impervious area, and in the Blue Mountains that has design consequences it does not have elsewhere.
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Your driveway counts as impervious area
Blue Mountains City Council’s DCP treats runoff from roof downpipes, rain tank overflows, driveways and paved areas as one impervious catchment. For a single dwelling or dual occupancy it looks for a rain garden with a filter area of at least 2% of that contributing impervious catchment — so 400 m² of roof and paving implies about 8 m² of rain garden. Rain gardens are also set back 4 metres from the boundary unless fully lined.
Source: Blue Mountains Development Control Plan 2015, Part J — stormwater and water sensitive urban design
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Design the access to suit the contours
Council’s development control plan asks that access roads be designed to minimise grades and suit the contours, so as to minimise erosion, and that stormwater be diverted from impervious surfaces to vegetated areas. Driveways for a single dwelling, alteration, addition or outbuilding are to be designed in accordance with council’s Specification for Dwelling Driveways.
Source: Blue Mountains Better Living DCP, C5.3 Vehicular access, parking and roads
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Why it is stricter here
What leaves a block on this ridge runs into a World Heritage catchment, which is why council’s stormwater controls go further than most. For a concreting job it means the fall, the edges and where the water is sent are part of the design from the start, not something sorted out after the slab is down.
Whether a rain garden or other measure is required for your job is confirmed with council or your certifier, not assumed.
Our concreting services
Driveways and crossings
Mountain driveways and the crossing at the road, approved through Blue Mountains City Council’s road reserve process.
Concrete drivewaysShed slabs
Slabs for sheds, workshops and studios, sized and reinforced for what goes on them.
Shed slabsRural and acreage concrete
Hardstand, water tank bases, and sandstone block retaining walls where the ground falls away.
Rural and acreage concretingExcavation and site preparation
We do our own cut and fill, and on erosion-prone mountain blocks the way the ground is left matters as much as the pour.
Excavation and site preparationPool surrounds and outdoor areas
Concrete around new and existing pools, and outdoor areas built to handle a lot of rain.
Pool surroundsDecorative and exposed aggregate
Coloured and exposed aggregate finishes for entries, courtyards and garden paths.
Decorative concrete
Driveway approvals in Winmalee
A new driveway almost always includes the crossing between the road and your boundary. In Winmalee that part sits in the road reserve under Blue Mountains City Council, and council’s restoration clause makes getting it right the contractor’s problem, not yours.
Approval for works in the road reserve
Any work carried out within the road reserve requires approval from Blue Mountains City Council, and constructing a driveway is on council’s own list of works that need it. It is lodged as a Roads Act Application.
$20 million, for the duration
Council requires a minimum of $20 million public liability insurance, with cover held for the duration of the works — not just at the point the application goes in.
Inspected, and restored at cost
Council inspects the work and requires restoration to original standards. Where those standards are not met, council carries out the restoration itself and charges the cost to the principal contractor.
Source: Blue Mountains City Council, Works in a road reserve
Call for a free quote
Tell us about the driveway, shed slab or hardstand, and we’ll talk you through what the job involves.
Our customer reviews
Google reviews from customers across the Hawkesbury and the Blue Mountains.
Nearby suburbs
We work along the ridge and down into the mountains.
- Grose ValeConcreters Grose Vale
- Agnes BanksConcreters Agnes Banks
- Mount WilsonConcreters Mount Wilson
- BilpinConcreters Bilpin
See the whole Blue Mountains ridge area, our rural and acreage concreting, or every service area.
Local FAQs
Anything else, call 0468 491 882.
Do you do concreting in Winmalee?
Yes. We build driveways and crossings, shed slabs, hardstand, retaining walls, pool surrounds and outdoor areas for properties in Winmalee and the surrounding district, including Bell, Mount Tomah, Yarramundi and Bilpin.
Do you come up to Winmalee from the Hawkesbury?
Yes. Winmalee borders Yarramundi, on the Hawkesbury side, and we do driveways, slabs and outdoor areas there.
Do I need council approval for a driveway in Winmalee?
Yes. Winmalee is in the Blue Mountains local government area, and any work carried out within the road reserve requires approval from Blue Mountains City Council — constructing a driveway is on council’s own list of works that need it. It is lodged as a Roads Act Application, and council requires a minimum of $20 million public liability insurance held for the duration of the works.
What does Blue Mountains council require the driveway to be built to?
Driveways for a single dwelling, alteration, addition or outbuilding are to be designed in accordance with council’s Specification for Dwelling Driveways, and the development control plan asks that access be designed to minimise grades and suit the contours so as to minimise erosion. We would rather point you at council’s own specification than paraphrase figures we have not read from it, so the numbers are deliberately not quoted here. Council inspects the work, and where it does not meet standard council carries out the restoration itself and charges the cost to the principal contractor.
Does a new driveway affect my stormwater obligations in Winmalee?
It can. Blue Mountains City Council’s DCP counts driveways and paved areas alongside roof downpipes and rain tank overflows as one impervious catchment, and for a single dwelling or dual occupancy it looks for a rain garden with a filter area of at least 2% of that catchment — roughly 8 m² for 400 m² of roof and paving. Rain gardens are also set back four metres from the boundary unless fully lined. Whether it applies to your job is confirmed with council or your certifier, but it is worth knowing before you design the driveway rather than after.
How much does a concrete driveway cost in Winmalee?
It depends on the length, how much excavation and base preparation the ground needs, whether an old surface comes out, the crossing at the road, and the finish. Out here it also depends on the run in, because distance and access change how a pour has to be staged. The accurate number comes from seeing the site, and quotes are free.
What’s underneath a Winmalee driveway or slab?
On this ridge, that genuinely varies. The Scientific Committee’s determination describes basalt caps overlying sandstone, with adjacent areas where the soil is influenced by weathering from upslope basalt — so two blocks a few hundred metres apart can be sitting on different parent material. A site classification under AS 2870 comes from a geotechnical soil test on your property, not from a suburb map, and on country like this that matters more than usual.
Do you do standard residential driveways in Winmalee?
Yes. Winmalee is the most conventional suburb on this part of the site — established homes, normal street frontages, and driveways, pool surrounds, patios and paths rather than acreage hardstand. What is not conventional is the stormwater side: Blue Mountains City Council’s DCP treats every new hard surface as part of your impervious area, and that has design consequences a Hills District job would not have.
Are you licensed and insured?
Yes. Southo Concrete holds NSW contractor licence 398552C and a general construction induction white card, and carries $20 million public and product liability cover plus workers insurance. Certificates of currency are available on request, along with SWMS where a site needs them, and we can complete site inductions as required.
How long will the concrete last, and will it crack?
We use high-quality materials and proven construction methods to help ensure our work lasts for 25 years or more. We also use appropriate materials and techniques to control cracking in our slabs, helping to keep it very limited, if not eliminate it altogether. Please note that cracking can be affected by factors outside our control, including ground movement, weather and site conditions.
Do you do small concrete repairs in Winmalee?
No. We take on complete jobs — driveways, shed slabs, hardstand, retaining walls, pool surrounds and outdoor areas — where we control the work from excavation through to finish. We don’t do small patch-up repairs.
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Accuracy note
Local information on this page — council requirements and site conditions — is taken from public sources including Blue Mountains City Council’s road reserve and stormwater requirements and its Better Living DCP, the NSW Threatened Species Scientific Committee’s final determination for Blue Mountains Basalt Forest, and Australian Standards AS 1379, AS 2870 and AS 3600, and was checked on . Rules and mapping change. If anything here is inaccurate or out of date, please email southoconcrete2@outlook.com and we’ll correct it. Nothing on this page is advice for a specific property.
