Paddington work is almost entirely small, awkward and steep: courtyards behind character houses, driveways cut into the ridge, and stair landings between levels. Slabs are often later additions poured against pre-1946 timber, so the edges and the junctions get more attention than the field. Access is the real cost driver — most sites take barrows, not trucks.
What we do here
Paddington is not estate work. The housing is pre-1946 timber on stumps, the blocks are narrow and long, and the concrete came later — a slab poured under the house in the 1970s, a courtyard added in the 1990s, a driveway cut into the fall because there was nowhere else to put one.
That changes what resurfacing means here. We are rarely covering a large open driveway. We are usually joining a small area to something older: a retaining wall, a set of timber stairs, a brick pier, a garage floor that sits half a metre below the yard.
- Courtyards and under-house slabs
- Steep, short driveways with a crossover to match
- Stair treads, landings and thresholds
- Garage and carport floors
- Crack repair against character-era brickwork
- Sealing that suits shaded, damp sites
What the slabs are like in Paddington
The single biggest factor on the ridge is shade and damp. Paddington blocks are tight, tree cover is heavy, and a lot of the concrete we look at never sees direct sun. That grows moss and mould, holds moisture in the slab, and makes sealer choice more important than colour choice. A high-build film sealer on a permanently damp courtyard will blister; a penetrating sealer will not.
The second is that much of the concrete is an addition rather than part of the original build. Additions move independently of the house they are poured against, so the crack you can see usually runs along a junction rather than through the middle. Those get cut out and re-formed with a proper joint, not bridged and hidden — bridging a moving junction just moves the crack up into your new surface.
Third, character protections apply across most of the suburb. We are not touching the house, but the crossover, the front fence line and anything visible from the street can be constrained. We work to what is approved rather than guessing.
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 Paddington work
Access decides the program. Paddington streets are narrow, on-street parking is contested, and a lot of properties have no way to bring a truck onto the block. That means smaller loads, more barrow runs and a longer day for the same square metreage — which we price honestly rather than discovering halfway through.
We quote after standing on the site, never from an address. On a steep block the difference between a two-day job and a four-day job is whether there is a path wide enough for a machine, and that is not visible from a map.
Services in this area
What goes down most often here
Covercrete / Covacrete
A trowelled cement overlay stamped or stencilled into pattern. Two to four millimetres over a sound slab.
See finishColoured concrete
Full-strength oxide colour, with or without a cut pattern. Reads terracotta against brick and charcoal against render.
See finishPolished concrete
Mechanically ground through finer diamond grits to a honed or gloss sheen — the slab itself as the finished floor.
See finishThe questions we get asked in Paddington
Can you get machinery onto a Paddington block?
Sometimes. Where we cannot, we grind with smaller machines and barrow the material out — it takes longer and we say so in the quote rather than surprising you on day two.
My courtyard is always damp and green. Can it be resurfaced?
Yes, and it should be. We grind off the growth, treat the surface, and specify a penetrating sealer instead of a film. A film sealer on a permanently shaded slab will lift.
There is a crack where the slab meets the house. Is that serious?
Usually it is a junction between two things that move independently, not a structural failure. It gets cut out and re-formed as a proper joint. We tell you which it is before quoting.
Do character protections affect the work?
They can affect anything visible from the street, including the crossover. We work within what is approved and will tell you at the quote if what you want needs an approval 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.