New crossover, start to finish
Set out, saw-cut, box up, reinforce, pour, finish, strip and clean. One crew, one day on site for a standard suburban width.
from $1,450job minimum, any finish
Driveway crossovers · Perth north & east
The strip your driveway crossesbelongs to the City, not to you.
We build crossovers from Mount Lawley to Ellenbrook. Before anything is poured we tell you the width your council will approve, what the slab costs, and why the application has to be lodged in your name.
Bassendean yard, on Perth verges since 2014
Your application plan drawn free
One crew: cut, break out, pour, reinstate
What we do
Priced the way it is actually built — by the square metre, with a job minimum
A suburban crossover is usually 20–25 m². Under roughly 11 to 15 m² — where exactly depends on the finish — the truck, the crew and the saw cost more than the concrete, so there is a job minimum and we say so rather than padding the rate.
Plain grey concrete
Broom-finished 25 MPa with mesh and a thickened edge at the kerb. What most councils' standard drawings assume.
from $98/m²supplied and laid
Exposed aggregate
Washed and sealed. Hides tyre marks and oil far better than plain grey, which is the real reason people pick it.
from $128/m²supplied and laid
Brick paving
Pavers on a concrete apron. Councils that require an apron under pavers get one whether or not they ask twice.
from $118/m²supplied and laid
Break-out and cart-away
Old crossover cut, lifted, loaded and taken to a recycler. Priced off the same area as the new slab, not guessed.
from $22/m²added to the pour
Verge reinstatement
Levels made good, soil back, seed or turf to the edges. Left the way the inspector wants to find it.
from $340per crossover
Your application drawing
A dimensioned site plan of the frontage, the verge, the existing infrastructure and the proposed slab — the attachment every council's form asks for.
$0free, and yours to keep
Kerb and infrastructure liaison
Where the kerb has to be dropped, or a pit, pole or street tree sits in the way, we mark it on the drawing so the assessor sees it first time.
$0part of the quote
Width & approval check
How wide can this crossover legally be?
Approvable width
4.5 m
Estimate
$3,040
20.25 m² of new slab
A 12.0 m frontage cannot have a 6.0 m crossover
The City of Melville allows a maximum of 4.5 m where the frontage is 12.5 m or less. That rule just took $864 off our own quote. The 4.5 m we can pour is still the widest crossover this frontage is allowed — we can mark it out this week.
This one bills at the job minimum
The concrete on this slab comes to $1,323.00, under our $1,450 job minimum — a truck, a crew and a saw cost the same whether the slab is 13 m² or 20. You are charged $1,450, said out loud rather than buried in a padded rate. Widening to 3.5 m clears the minimum.
Change any of it
Width of your lot at the street, in metres.
Finish
Distance from your boundary to the kerb. We assume 4.5 metres until we measure it.
- Exposed aggregate, 20.25 m² at $128/m²
- $2,592.00
- Break out and cart away, 20.25 m² at $22/m²
- $445.50
- Application drawing
- $0.00
- Job minimum applied
- $1,450.00
- Estimate, rounded to $10
- $3,040
The two finishes you did not pick, same slab
Where the rule comes from. Min 3 m, max 6 m, and max 4.5 m where the frontage is 12.5 m or less — all published by the City of Melville, whose page also states that all crossover works require the City's approval and that planning and building approvals do not include crossover approval. Councils differ. We check yours in writing before a saw touches the verge, and we never quote a rule we have not read on the council's own site.
The application is yours. It is lodged in the owner's name and nobody can lodge it for you — not us, not your builder. We draw the plan it needs and charge nothing for it. There is no “council liaison fee” on our invoices because there is no such thing.
How it runs
Four steps, and only one of them is ours to rush
We measure, you read the rule
Frontage at the boundary, verge depth to the kerb, where the pits, poles and street trees sit. You get the widths your council allows, in their words, on paper.
We draw the plan — free
A dimensioned site plan in the format the application form asks for. Yours to keep, and yours to use even if you get three more quotes and pick somebody else.
You lodge it
In your name, because that is the only name it can go in. The City of Melville asks for a minimum of 10 business days; yours will publish its own. That clock is not ours to speed up and we will not pretend otherwise.
We pour to the approval
Saw-cut, break out, cart away, box, mesh, pour, finish, strip, reinstate the verge. Built to the width on the approval, not the width on the quote — they are the same number because we checked first.
What people said
Three jobs, in their words
“Our builder had drawn a six-metre double on a twelve-metre block. Frontage told us on the phone it would not get approved and re-drew it at 4.5. Saved us lodging the thing twice.”
Priya R.Eden Hill — new build, aggregate, 4.5 m
“Old bitumen crossover, cracked and sunk. They cut it out, carted it, poured plain grey and had the verge back to level the same week. The plan they drew went straight onto the council form.”
Dan M.Bayswater — break-out and replace, 3.5 m
“I asked them to lodge the application for me and they said they could not, and then explained why for ten minutes. First tradie who has ever talked me out of paying them something.”
Wendy T.Guildford — brick paving over an apron, 4.0 m
Where we work
Perth's north and east, out of the Bassendean yard
The councils between the river and the hills each publish their own crossover specification and their own application form. We read yours before we quote, not after — and we do not quote a rule we have not read on the council’s own site.
We pour in: Bassendean · Bayswater · Maylands · Mount Lawley · Inglewood · Dianella · Morley · Noranda · Beechboro · Lockridge · Eden Hill · Kiara · Caversham · Ellenbrook · Ashfield · Guildford · South Guildford · Midland · Swan View · Greenmount.
Asked every week
The six questions that come before the price
Who actually owns the strip my driveway crosses?
Not you. The City of Melville puts it plainly on its verges page: “The verge is the area of land between the kerb and the property boundary. It's where public utilities and services such as power, gas and telecommunications are located.” The same page defines the crossover as “the portion of driveway between the property line and the road edge.”
Your lot stops at the boundary. Everything from there to the road is road reserve your local government manages, which is why they get to say how wide the slab is, what it is made of and when it goes in — and why you are usually still the one who mows it.
Do I need approval if I am only resurfacing what is already there?
Assume yes and check. The City of Melville's crossover page states that “All crossover works require approval from us” and, importantly, that “Planning/development and building approvals do not include crossover approval” — so a signed building permit for the house is not an approval for the crossover in front of it.
That catches people on new builds constantly. The builder's permit is in the file, the crossover is not, and the first anyone hears about it is when the slab is already grey.
What happens if it goes in wider than approved?
It is unauthorised work on land that is not yours. Melville's page says works performed without approval “will be deemed as unauthorised works and could be liable to warnings and/or fines”, and the practical outcome is worse than the fine: the wide edge has to come back out, which is a saw cut, a break-out and a second pour on an eight-week-old slab.
This is the entire reason the check above refuses to quote you a width your frontage cannot carry.
How long does the council take?
Longer than you want and less than you fear. The City of Melville asks applicants to “allow a minimum of 10 business days for crossover approvals”. Other councils publish their own figure and we will not guess it for you — we look it up on their site and put it in the quote.
What we can promise is our end: measured and drawn within two working days of the site visit, and on the board within a fortnight of the approval landing.
Who gets the subsidy, and how much is it?
You do — the owner, not the contractor — and only some councils pay one. We will not print a figure for a council we have not read. One we have: the City of Melville publishes that its crossover subsidy is “a fixed sum of $495 regardless of the size or material of the crossover”, that you are eligible “if this is your first crossover to the land, or if it is an upgrade from a bitumen crossover to a concrete or brick paved crossover”, and that you can apply “only after the crossover has been constructed” with a delivery docket as evidence.
Yours may pay more, less or nothing. Check your own council's crossover page before you budget for it — and note that the money goes to you, so any contractor who offers to “handle the subsidy” for a fee is charging you to receive your own rebate.
Can you lodge the application for me?
No, and be careful of anyone who says they can. The application is made by the property owner. What we do is the part that actually slows applications down: a dimensioned plan showing the frontage, the verge depth, the kerb, the services and the proposed slab, drawn to what your council's specification asks for. That is free, it is yours, and you can attach it to a form we never see.
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