Three quotes.
Three different driveways.

Sometimes, genuinely, yes — and if that's the case we'll tell you. A resurfacing system is only as good as the concrete underneath it. If your slab is sound and you just hate the look, a coating can be the better spend.

If it's cracked, lifting at the joints, or sitting on a base that has failed, coating over it is paying twice: once for the coating, and again for the replacement when the movement underneath comes through.

For a driveway inside your property line, usually not. For anything touching the crossover, the kerb or the footpath, yes — councils across Melbourne's east require a vehicle crossing permit, and building works generally require an asset protection permit and a refundable bond.

We'll tell you at the site visit which applies to your job, and what the council will be looking for at final inspection.

Yes. CWH is a licensed and insured concreter carrying $20 million in public liability cover, trading under ABN 41 700 862 143 — which you can look up on the ABN Lookup register before you pay anybody a deposit.

Worth doing on all three quotes, not just ours. Concreting is one of the trades where "he took the deposit and I never saw him again" is a real and common story, and checking an ABN takes about thirty seconds.

Most residential driveways run over several days: demolition and removal, then excavation and base, then formwork and mesh, then the pour, then the wash-off and clean-up. The pour itself is one day.

Then there's curing. You'll typically be walking on it well before you're driving on it, and we'll tell you the actual dates for your job rather than a rule of thumb.

It will if it's resealed. Exposed aggregate needs a reseal every couple of years or it starts looking tired and picks up stains more easily. That's not a defect, it's maintenance — and we'd rather tell you before you choose the finish than after.

If you don't want the upkeep, say so at the quote and we'll talk through the finishes that need less of it.

Concrete moves, and on Melbourne's reactive clay it moves more than most. The job of the base, the reinforcement and the control joints is to decide where that movement shows up — in the joints that were cut for it, rather than randomly across the slab.

Anyone promising you concrete that will never crack is selling you something. What you should be comparing is how each quote is built to handle it.

It might not be. But if it is, the useful thing to do is put the two side by side and compare the base depth, the slab thickness, the reinforcement and the mix — the four things that drive the price and that you can't inspect once the job's finished.

If the other quote states all four and still comes in lower, that's a real comparison and you should take it seriously. If it doesn't state them, you're not comparing prices — you're comparing one known thing against one unknown thing.

Yes — a good share of the work already comes that way. If you're a builder, landscaper or pool builder working across Melbourne's east and you want slab pricing off the plans and a date that holds, get in touch directly.