Farm Concrete on the Tablelands: Dairy Slabs, Machinery Pads and Rural Driveways

Farm concrete carries machinery, trucks and years of daily work, on Tablelands ground that moves in the wet and dries hard in October. Crest pours dairy and milking shed slabs, machinery and packing shed floors, tank pads and long rural driveways from Malanda to Walkamin, with the base, joints and drainage set for your ground before the truck turns up.

Farm work is a big part of what we pour

Shane lives five minutes from the Malanda Dairy Centre. A lot of Crest's work is out in the paddocks rather than in town, from a hobby shed slab to a full machinery pad on a dairy property.

The jobs change with the country. Around Malanda it is dairy shed and machinery slabs. Down at Millaa Millaa it is dairy and milking shed slabs, plus rural house slabs and pads. Out at Walkamin it is large machinery and packing shed slabs, long rural driveways with truck access, and tank pads. Around Tolga it is rural driveways, culvert crossings and workshop slabs.

What farm concrete has to cope with

A house driveway sees the family car. A farm slab sees machinery. That changes how much care goes into the parts nobody sees once it is poured.

The ground matters as much as the load. Malanda's red volcanic soil moves in the wet if it is not prepped right. Out past Walkamin the ground dries hard and cracks easily. Millaa Millaa gets the rain, and a slab or driveway down there has to be built for serious wet-season ground. Shane knows the difference between those soils because he pours on all of them.

So every farm slab is specced for wet-season drainage and dry-season expansion, and the mix, the base and the joints are matched to the block it sits on.

What to sort before a farm pour

A few things make a farm job go smoothly. Sort these before Shane comes out and the quote is quicker and closer to the final job:

• What the slab will carry. A hobby-farm shed, a machinery pad or a packing shed floor are three different jobs. Tell us what drives or sits on it.
• The size and the spot. Rough measurements are fine. Peg the corners if you can.
• Access for the truck and pump. Long gravel tracks, gates, culverts and soft ground in the wet all decide how the pour gets done.
• Where the water goes. On a farm the slab, the shed roof and the paddock around it all shed water. The fall needs to send it somewhere useful.
• Any plans. If an engineer or shed supplier has drawn up the slab, send the plans through.

What we do on every farm slab

Farm slabs get the same care as a house slab out the front. On every one we handle:

• a free on-site visit and quote
• set-out and formwork
• reinforcement, mesh or rebar to spec
• the correct concrete mix for the job
• vibration and proper finishing
• control joints cut at the right time
• cure and clean-up

We also schedule around the weather. The wet season hits hard up here and tropical heat asks a lot of a slab, so the pour date is set realistically, not squeezed in.

Driveways that take a truck

A rural driveway is a long run of concrete over ground that changes along the way. On rolling country like Peeramon, the grade and the cross-drainage get planned in so the driveway does not pond after a downpour. At Millaa Millaa we design the base, fall and joint pattern around the rainfall so water runs off, not under. That is the difference between concrete that lasts 30 years and concrete that lifts in three.

Out at Walkamin, long rural driveways with truck access are one of the most common jobs we do. Around Tolga, rural driveways and culvert crossings are regular work too.

Frequently asked questions