Coorparoo is post-war housing being steadily replaced by townhouse infill, so slab ages sit at both extremes on the same street. Older driveways are often thin and unreinforced; the new infill is sound plain concrete needing first-time decorative work. We test-grind before promising a finish either way.
What we do here
Coorparoo is a suburb mid-transition. Post-war brick and timber on one side of the fence, three-year-old townhouses on the other, and driveways sixty years apart in age within twenty metres of each other.
That makes assessment the first job rather than a formality. The same street produces both a slab that should be replaced and a slab that only needs preparing and finishing.
- Post-war driveway resurfacing
- Under-house and carport slabs
- Townhouse and duplex common driveways
- First-time decorative over new infill slabs
- Crack repair and joint replacement
- Paths, stairs and side access
What the slabs are like in Coorparoo
Old Coorparoo concrete was poured to a different standard — often thinner than current practice, frequently with little or no reinforcement, and rarely jointed the way we would joint it now. Plenty of it is still dense and sound and takes an overlay well. Some of it has too little cover left to grind. We test-grind a patch at the quote so the answer comes from your slab.
The newer infill has the opposite problem: sound concrete with a slick trowelled surface or a curing compound that an overlay will not key into. That needs a mechanical grind, not an acid etch.
Reactive clay and old cut-and-fill lines run through the suburb, and movement cracking along them is common. Each crack gets assessed individually — a stable one is filled and covered, a moving one is cut out and re-formed.
Licensed concreting contractor, fully insured.
On site, with the slab tested before anyone quotes a finish.
Foot traffic at 24 hours, vehicles at 72 on most finishes.
Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, Redlands and both coasts.
How we schedule Coorparoo work
Access is generally better than in the inner suburbs — most Coorparoo blocks take a truck. That makes it one of the quicker inner-city areas to program, usually inside a fortnight.
Townhouse and duplex driveways are staged in halves so both households keep access, agreed in writing before we start.
Services in this area
What goes down most often here
Stencilled concrete
A paper stencil laid into the colour coat, sprayed over and lifted — leaving pattern joints in a second colour.
See finishExposed aggregate
Washed back to reveal the stone. The South East Queensland driveway default, and the most forgiving surface underfoot.
See finishFlake flooring
Vinyl flake broadcast into resin and sealed. The garage and laundry floor that hides dust and shrugs off tyre marks.
See finishThe questions we get asked in Coorparoo
Our driveway is from the 1950s. Can it be resurfaced?
Age is not the issue — remaining thickness and soundness are. We test-grind at the quote and tell you honestly if replacing is the better spend.
The townhouse slab is new. Does it still need grinding?
Yes. New concrete carries a curing compound and often a slick trowelled surface, and an overlay will not bond to either.
A crack keeps reopening. Why?
Because it is a moving joint, not a crack. It needs cutting out and re-forming, not another fill.
We share a driveway with the neighbour. Can we both keep access?
Yes. We stage shared driveways in halves and agree the sequence with both households first.
Worth reading first
Others in Brisbane City
Send a photo of the slab.
We will tell you whether it can be resurfaced, what finish suits it, and what it costs — before anyone turns up with a grinder.