Concreters in Aberglasslyn, 2320
Aberglasslyn lies north of Rutherford towards the Hunter River, reached from the New England Highway along Aberglasslyn Road and Oakhampton Road. Its release area covers about 200 hectares of former grazing land, and its old name, The Country Estate, tells you what it looked like. Estates such as The Sanctuary and Weblands Wonderland now run out to a neighbourhood centre at McKeachie Drive and the sportsgrounds on Redgum Circuit, while Aberglasslyn House, the sandstone home of about 1840, looks over the river bend. The median age is 32, about half of all families are couples with children, and the work is driveways, sheds and back yards being finished off.
Grazing paddocks turned into house pads
The ground is the low, undulating Permian hill country that runs through Rutherford, its sandstone, shale and mudstone weathering to clayey soils that swell and shrink with the seasons. Council’s area plan listed slope, drainage and flooding as constraints, warned of saline soils and iron sulfate sediments in low lying parts, and required residential land to sit clear of the one per cent AEP flood level, so pads were built up over drainage lines. A small pocket at the Rutherford end, part of the suburb, falls within the Maitland West Mine Subsidence District.
What the new estates order
Almost every job starts with a driveway the builder left as a single strip, then the alfresco slab that turns a covered pad into an outdoor room. A shed or garage slab follows once the back fence is up, and paths go down the bin side and around to the clothesline. On the earlier precincts, a driveway laid on fill that was never compacted in layers has settled and cracked by now, and removal and replacement over a fresh base is the cleaner fix.
Finish choices north of Rutherford
Exposed aggregate is the estate default at the front, with plain broom for sheds and side paths and coloured concrete where the driveway should sit quietly beside a render colour. Maitland City Council asks that the layback, kerb and gutter stay plain, while the footway can take a decorative surface on council’s usual condition that it is not slippery, so stone normally runs across the verge and stops at the layback.
Aberglasslyn prices per square metre
Supplied and laid, per square metre: driveways $95 to $185 by finish, exposed aggregate $130 to $185, paths $90 to $130, patios and alfresco $100 to $180, shed and garage slabs $110 to $150, with about $35 added for removing old concrete. What moves a price in Aberglasslyn is fill depth under a pad, because a base cut down to firm ground and rebuilt costs more than one that only needs trimming. Try the calculator, read the cost guide, then the Section 138 guide, which walks through the $435 Maitland application, the Hunter clay guide and the specification for what a quote on fill has to cover.
Nearby: Rutherford, Maitland