Rust stains on a balcony at Town Beach or Flynns Beach, a hollow-sounding slab edge by the Hastings, a footing cracking on a Lake Cathie slope. We cut back to clean steel, treat it and rebuild, from the North Shore to Wauchope and Laurieton. Tell us what you are seeing and where.
Get a Quote →Concrete cancer happens when the steel reinforcing bars inside a concrete slab, balcony or column start to rust. As the steel corrodes it expands — sometimes to more than double its original size — and that expansion cracks and pushes apart the concrete. Left alone, chunks spall (flake or break away) and the structural strength is compromised.
Port Macquarie's beachside units and holiday apartments, especially those close to Town Beach, Flynns Beach and Lake Cathie, are particularly exposed because salt-laden sea air carries chloride ions that soak into concrete and accelerate corrosion. Buildings from the 1960s to 1980s, before modern cover standards, are the most at risk.
The good news is that concrete cancer is very treatable if caught early. A proper repair removes rusted steel and damaged concrete, treats the remaining steel, rebuilds with structural repair mortar, and finishes with a protective coating system.
Thorough onsite assessment of cracking, rust staining and spalling, including a written report for insurance, strata records or your own planning.
Removal of deteriorated concrete, cleaning and treating exposed reinforcement, and rebuilding with certified structural repair mortars.
Membrane and coating systems applied after repair to keep moisture and salt out of the concrete, slowing future corrosion.
Larger-scale remediation for strata buildings — balcony slab repairs, staged works, and reporting for owners corporations.
Salt soaks into concrete and rusts the reinforcing steel, and the rust swells until the concrete cracks and breaks away. Sea spray is the obvious source, but not the only one. Port Macquarie-Hastings Council's coastal hazards fact sheet names three estuaries in the council area: the Hastings River, the Camden Haven and Lake Cathie–Lake Innes, which drains to the sea through Cathie Creek. The council's tidal inundation fact sheet says some estuary-foreshore residents get nuisance flooding from tides, and gives the North Shore as an example. It warns that saltwater will move further inland through waterways and groundwater as sea levels rise, and lists corrosion of below-ground infrastructure among the impacts.
The ground matters too. A 2022 report for the council says erosion of Lighthouse Beach beside Illaroo Road, Lake Cathie, has exposed coffee rock and damaged access stairs and stormwater outlets. It cites a 2010 assessment that placed 16 dwellings, mainly along Illaroo Road, in a zone of reduced foundation capacity. The coastal hazards fact sheet also records landslips after heavy rain in March 2021 behind the Town Beach car park and at South Oxley Beach. A crack caused by movement is not concrete cancer, and a patch over it can open up again.
The ABS counted 3,343 occupied flats or apartments in the council area at the 2021 Census, fewer than one in ten of its occupied private dwellings. Concrete cancer attacks a house slab edge, carport beam or retaining wall just as it does a strata balcony, so enquiries about houses are welcome too.
Enquiries are welcome from Port Macquarie, Town Beach, Flynns Beach and the North Shore, and from Wauchope, Laurieton, North Haven, Dunbogan, Lake Cathie, Bonny Hills and the rest of the Port Macquarie-Hastings council area. When you enquire, tell us the suburb and whether the concrete faces the surf, sits near the river or the lake, or stands on a slope.
Tell us what you need and where the property is.