A brick driveway stays flat because of four things, and three of them are buried before the first paver goes down: a compacted sub-grade, a base course, correctly graded bedding sand and a cemented edge around the full perimeter. Well Laid Paving Perth builds every driveway in that order. This is the method behind our brick driveway paving in Perth, specification by specification.
Flexible pavement: why a brick driveway is not a slab
A brick driveway carries a car through interlock, not as a slab. The load spreads sideways through thousands of tight joints and down into the base, so the pavement flexes with the ground instead of cracking across it. Midland Brick’s Crossover Guide (version DEC23) recommends every brick pavement carrying vehicles sit on a compacted sub-base — inside the property boundary as well as on the verge.
That principle decides everything else on this page. Nothing in a brick driveway gains strength by curing, which is why the City of Stirling’s technical specification for residential brick paved crossovers (revised 6 January 2023) puts compaction before any traffic load rather than setting a curing period.
The order a brick driveway is built in
Eight steps, and skipping any one of them shows up within a couple of Perth summers. Excavate, compact the sub-grade, lay and compact the base, form the cemented edges, screed the bedding sand, lay and cut in the pavers, compact the pavement, then fill the joints and compact again. Stirling’s technical specification (revised 6 January 2023) requires compaction to follow laying as closely as possible.
- Excavate to depth and remove the old surface.
- Compact the sub-grade.
- Lay and compact the base course.
- Form the cemented edge restraints around the full perimeter.
- Screed the bedding sand to an even depth.
- Lay the pavers and cut in the closures.
- Compact the pavement over plywood.
- Fill the joints with sand and compact again.
On a replacement, step one is lifting the old pavers, because what failed is nearly always underneath them. Spoil is a real line in the job, not an afterthought: Stirling’s technical specification (revised 6 January 2023) makes the property owner responsible for disposal of all spoil material offsite. If the crossover is in the job it needs a permit before any of this starts — council by council, what your council requires for a crossover.
How thick do driveway pavers need to be?
Sixty millimetres, from the garage to the kerb. The Concrete Masonry Association of Australia’s Guide to Specifying (MA57, December 2010) sets 40 mm as the minimum work size for a residential driveway carrying light vehicles, reproducing Table 2.8 of AS/NZS 4455.2. The City of Wanneroo’s brick paved residential crossover sheet (correct as of July 2025) is stricter on the crossover: a minimum 60 mm heavy duty unit.
Thickness is not the only unit specification that matters. Stirling’s technical specification for residential brick paved crossovers (revised 6 January 2023) requires clay paving units to conform to AS/NZS 4455 and AS/NZS 4456 and to be heavy duty bricks suitable for commercial traffic, and concrete units to comply with the Concrete Masonry Association of Australia’s MA20 specification. A 40 mm patio paver moved onto a driveway meets neither, and it chips at the edges under a turning wheel.
The base: sub-grade compaction and 100 mm of crushed limestone
The base is the driveway. Stirling’s technical specification (revised 6 January 2023) requires a 100 mm base course of crushed limestone or road base laid over a sub-grade compacted to not less than seven blows per 300 mm on a standard Perth penetrometer. Wanneroo’s crossover sheet (correct as of July 2025) sets the same minimum 100 mm of crushed limestone or rock base.
Note that Stirling specifies a test result, not just a depth — seven blows per 300 mm is measured on site, so how much compaction the ground needs depends on what the ground is. That varies across the Perth metro area, which is why the dig on a limestone block is not the dig on grey sand or on clay near the Swan: what’s under your paving in this part of Perth.
Which bedding sand goes under driveway pavers?
Well graded sand, 20–40 mm thick before compaction, and not bricklayer’s sand. Wanneroo’s residential crossover sheet (correct as of July 2025) specifies bedding sand at 20–40 mm pre-compacted depth, well graded, passing a 5 mm sieve and non-plastic, and states plainly that bricklayer’s sand and single sized dune sands are not suitable. Stirling’s technical specification (revised 6 January 2023) is tighter again: a 4.75 mm sieve, 30 mm compacted.
The reason both councils cap the depth is that bedding sand is a levelling course, not structure. Laid too deep it keeps consolidating under the wheel tracks and the surface dishes, no matter how good the pavers are. Joint sand is a different material again: Wanneroo requires it finer than the bedding sand, with a nominal maximum particle size of 2 mm and free of salts and contaminants.
Cemented edge restraints, and why a driveway spreads without them
A cemented edge around the full perimeter is the single thing that stops a driveway spreading, and it is invisible once the job is finished. Wanneroo’s residential crossover sheet (correct as of July 2025) requires a restraining barrier around the full perimeter, 250 mm wide and a minimum 80 mm deep, to prevent lateral movement of the bricks. Well Laid Paving Perth cements the full driveway perimeter to that minimum, not only the crossover.
The mix and the run both matter. Stirling’s technical specification (revised 6 January 2023) calls for 25 MPa concrete with a maximum 10 mm nominal aggregate and no cold joints along the restrained edge — a cold joint being the weak point where one pour stopped and the next started.
Cutting in, closures and the laying pattern
Every driveway needs cutting in where the pavers meet the house, the kerb, a soakwell lid or a curve. Marc Radaic marks the line with a thick tipped permanent marker so the wet saw will not wash it off, then cuts with a diamond tip blade. Stirling’s technical specification (revised 6 January 2023) requires a purpose built brick cutting machine using running water, and no closure unit smaller than 25% of a full paving unit.
Pattern is structural under a car, not decorative. Midland Brick’s Crossover Guide (version DEC23) recommends herringbone at 45° or 90° where vehicles turn and brake, and warns that continuous straight lines through the wearing surface — stretcher bond, stack bond — lose interlock under high wear. Both councils allow 2–4 mm between adjacent bricks; we lay to 2–3 mm. Materials compared: brick, concrete and liquid limestone.
How many compaction passes does a brick driveway need?
Not less than three. Wanneroo’s residential crossover sheet (correct as of July 2025) requires not less than three passes of a vibrating plate compactor, a plate large enough to cover 12 paving units simultaneously, and a minimum 12 mm plywood sheet between the plate and the pavers so the faces are not chipped. Joint sand goes in after that, and the pavement is compacted again.
Timing is part of the specification. Stirling (revised 6 January 2023) requires compaction to proceed as closely as possible to follow laying and before any traffic load, and joint filling sand to be spread as soon as practical after compaction. Whatever is laid on a given day is finished that day. What does need time is the wet cement in the edge restraint, and Marc tells you on site how long to keep vehicles off it — that depends on the mix and the weather.
Why do paved driveways sink, spread or lift — and can it be fixed?
Three failures cover nearly everything Marc Radaic gets called out to look at in Perth, and all three are repairable, because brick paving comes apart and goes back down. Edge spread is the most common by a distance. Sinking is a base problem, not a paver problem. Lifting usually has a tree in it. None of the three is caused by the pavers themselves.
Edge spread
The outer course creeps outward under the weight of vehicles until the joints open, the sand washes out and the pattern loses its lock. The cause is an edge restraint that was never built, or was built too shallow. The repair is to lift the outer courses, form a cemented edge to at least the 250 mm wide by 80 mm deep barrier Wanneroo requires (July 2025), and relay the same pavers.
Sinking
A dish or a rut where the tyres track, usually visible within two summers. It traces back to a sub-grade never compacted anywhere near Stirling’s seven blows per 300 mm (revised 6 January 2023), a base thinner than 100 mm, or bedding sand laid deeper than the 20–40 mm Wanneroo allows. The repair is to lift the affected area, rebuild and recompact the base, screed to the correct sand depth and relay.
Lifting
A hump, almost always near a tree, where roots thicken under the base and push the pavement up. Repair means lifting the area, dealing with the base and relaying, and it is the one failure that can come back if the tree keeps growing. A verge tree is not yours to work around freely: Stirling’s crossover guidelines (revision 6 January 2023) require the application drawing to show verge trees and setbacks from boundary trees and existing infrastructure.
| Failure | What you see | Cause | Repair |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edge spread | Outer courses creeping out, joints open, sand gone | No cemented edge, or one under the 250 mm × 80 mm minimum | Lift the outer courses, cement the edge to specification, relay |
| Sinking | A dish or rut in the wheel tracks | Sub-grade or base under-compacted, or bedding sand too deep | Lift the area, rebuild and recompact the base, relay |
| Lifting | A hump, usually near a tree | Roots thickening under the base | Lift the area, repair the base, relay — council consent for any verge tree |
Get a driveway quote in Perth
Marc Radaic measures and quotes driveways across the Perth metro area, Monday to Friday, 7:00am to 5:00pm, and is on site from the first quote to the last paver. Call 0448 440 229 or get a free driveway quote. Tell us the area in square metres and whether the crossover is part of the job.
What we do and where we have done it: driveway paving in Perth, with finished jobs captioned by suburb in driveway paving photos from recent Perth jobs.