Common property driveway sealing across the Central Coast.

Who actually decides.

The owners corporation, not an individual lot owner. A common-property driveway is the owners corporation’s responsibility to maintain and repair under section 106 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, and the spend is usually approved either by the strata committee within its delegation or by an ordinary resolution at a general meeting, depending on the scheme’s by-laws and the amount involved.

In practice, the person who rings us is usually one of three: the strata manager, a committee member who has had enough of the moss on the ramp, or an owner who has been told to get a quote. All three are fine. We quote to whoever asks and we format it so it can go straight into an agenda: scope, staging, area, rate, total, and what happens if we open it up and find something. We are a driveway contractor, not a strata consultant, and we will not pretend to know your by-laws.

The capital works argument that gets it approved.

Every strata scheme has to have a ten-year capital works plan under the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, and sealing is exactly the kind of item that belongs in it. The arithmetic is the argument. A $6 to $11 per square metre reseal every few years is what stops a $45 to $90 per square metre resurface. On a 420m² common driveway that is the difference between roughly $2,500 and roughly $19,000. Committees defer driveways because they are not leaking and nobody is complaining, and then the driveway does the expensive thing all at once. Whether a specific spend comes from the capital works fund or the administrative fund is a question for your strata manager, not for us.

Ramps are the whole safety story.

This is where we push hardest, because it is where the owners corporation carries real exposure. Strata ramps on the Coast are steep, often shaded and always wet after rain, and a glossy sealer on one is a genuine public liability problem. Any decorative or wet-look coat we put on a ramp carries an anti-slip additive targeting a P4 or P5 wet pendulum classification under AS 4586, tested in service against AS 4663. On a shaded ramp we will often recommend a matte penetrating seal instead, which does not change the grip at all and cannot peel.

The gradients themselves come from AS 2890.1, the off-street parking standard, and plenty of older Central Coast blocks have ramps at or near the limit of it. We do not change gradients, but we do refuse to put a slippery finish on one. There is more on how the additive works on our anti-slip coatings page.

Access: how we do it without a riot.

We stage it. On most Central Coast unit blocks and villa complexes we seal in halves so one lane stays open, or we take the visitor bays and the ramp separately from the main run. Residents need to be off the sealed section for 24 hours before foot traffic and 48 to 72 hours before driving on it, so we plan the sequence with the committee, provide written notice for the noticeboard and work weekends where that causes less disruption.

The two things that go wrong are always the same, and they are both about people rather than product. One car that does not move means a bare patch we have to come back for. And someone always walks the dog across a wet coat at 6am. We bollard and tape, but a committee that actually pushes the notice out twice makes the difference between one visit and two.

Strata surfaces are different from home driveways.

• Far more traffic. Twenty cars a day over one entry strip wears a coat at the entry point long before the rest. We often spec a heavier coat on the first ten metres.
• Oil, everywhere. Older cars, more of them, parked in the same spots for years. Degreasing is a bigger share of a strata job than a home one, and it is in the quote at $3 to $7 per square metre, not added later.
• Shade and moss. Blocks in the Erina and Narara valleys with tall trees and a south-facing ramp are green every winter. Moss and lichen treatment runs $3 to $8 per square metre and is usually part of seal prep.
• Bin areas and washdown. Bin bays stain worse than anything else on the site and they need their own attention.
• Salt, if you are near the water. Blocks around Terrigal and the beachfront strips get the same chloride load as any house, over a much bigger area.

The environmental bit that matters on a big site.

Wash water off 400m² of oil-stained strata driveway is not the same as wash water off a home driveway, and Central Coast stormwater discharges to Brisbane Water, Tuggerah Lakes and the ocean. Under the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 it is an offence to let polluted water enter the stormwater system, so on strata sites we bund the pits, contain the degreaser wash and dispose of it properly. That costs a little more than hosing it into the gutter, and it is the owners corporation’s address on the offence if somebody does the cheap version.

What it costs.

The rates are the same as residential: $6 to $11 per square metre for a penetrating seal on plain concrete, and $10 to $16 per square metre on the ramp section where a slip additive is blended through the seal. Larger areas sit at the lower end of the band because setup is a smaller share of the job. Minor crack repairs are $25 to $90 each and get quoted as a schedule rather than lumped into a single number, so the committee can see exactly what it is approving.

Worked example. A 24-unit villa complex at East Gosford: 340m² of common driveway, 60m² of visitor bays and a 20m² shaded ramp, 420m² all up. Plain concrete, fifteen years old, sound but never sealed, moss down the southern edge and oil in eight bays. The job is pressure clean and degrease throughout, moss treatment on the shaded strip, three crack repairs, a penetrating seal across the lot and a slip-rated additive on the ramp: roughly $2,900 to $4,800, staged over two weekends so one lane stays open. The comparison the committee should be making is the resurface that arrives if this gets deferred another decade: at $45 to $90 per square metre that is $18,900 to $37,800. Which one it actually needs is worked through on our sealing versus resurfacing guide, and the full rate card is on the pricing page.

Small commercial sites too.

The same job, the same rates and the same staging logic apply to a small commercial car park, a cafe forecourt or a medical suite entry. The difference is usually trading hours rather than by-laws: we work around when you are closed, and we are honest about the fact that a site which cannot give up 48 hours of parking cannot be sealed in one hit. There is more on the surface itself on our concrete sealing page and the numbers are broken down on our cost guide.

Strata questions.

Who decides whether a strata driveway gets sealed?

The owners corporation, not an individual lot owner. A common-property driveway is the owners corporation’s responsibility to maintain and repair under section 106 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, and the spend is usually approved either by the strata committee within its delegation or by an ordinary resolution at a general meeting, depending on the scheme’s by-laws and the amount. We are happy to quote to the strata manager, the committee or an owner who is chasing it up, and we will format the quote so it can go straight into a meeting agenda.

Can the capital works fund pay for driveway sealing?

In most schemes yes, because sealing is maintenance of a common-property asset and every strata scheme has to have a ten-year capital works plan under the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015. Sealing is exactly the kind of item that belongs in it: a $6 to $11 per square metre reseal every few years is what stops a $45 to $90 per square metre resurface. Whether a specific spend comes from the capital works fund or the administrative fund is a question for your strata manager, not for us.

How do you seal a driveway without blocking residents in?

We stage it. On most Central Coast unit blocks and villa complexes we seal in halves so one lane stays open, or we take the visitor bays and the ramp separately from the main run. Residents need to be off the sealed section for 24 hours before foot traffic and 48 to 72 hours before driving on it, so we plan the sequence with the committee, give written notice for the noticeboard and work weekends where it causes less disruption.

Is a sealed strata ramp a slip risk?

It can be, and it is the thing we push hardest on. Strata ramps are steep, often shaded and always wet after rain, and a glossy sealer on one is a genuine public liability exposure for the owners corporation. Any decorative or wet-look coat we put on a ramp carries an anti-slip additive targeting a P4 or P5 wet pendulum classification under AS 4586, tested in service against AS 4663. On a shaded ramp we will often recommend a matte penetrating seal instead, which does not change the grip at all.

What does sealing a strata driveway cost on the Central Coast?

The rates are the same as residential, $6 to $11 per square metre for a penetrating seal on plain concrete, and $10 to $16 per square metre on the ramp section where a slip additive is blended through the seal. Larger areas sit at the lower end of the band because setup is a smaller share of the job. A 420 square metre common driveway and visitor bay area typically lands between $2,900 and $4,800 including the pressure clean, degrease and a slip-rated ramp.