Ask five Perth homeowners and you get five answers, but the shortlist is short, and a council has already written it down. The City of Stirling’s residential crossover guidelines (revision 6 January 2023) name the surfaces it will accept: clay or concrete pavers rated for heavy duty vehicular traffic, plain grey pre-mix concrete, colour incorporated concrete, flagstone, and — subject to AS 1379 — liquid limestone and exposed aggregate. Asphalt is not on that list.
Well Laid Paving Perth lays the segmental options — clay and concrete pavers — across the Perth metro area. We remove old concrete driveways; we do not pour them, so read the poured sections below as comparison, not sales pitch. What we do and how we build it: brick driveway paving in Perth.
Clay pavers or concrete pavers?
Both are segmental paving, both are laid the same way, and the real difference is what each is made of and which standard it is held to. The City of Stirling’s technical specifications for residential brick paved crossover (revised 6 January 2023) require clay units to conform to AS/NZS 4455 and AS/NZS 4456 and to be heavy duty bricks suitable for commercial traffic; concrete units must comply with the Concrete Masonry Association of Australia’s MA20 specification.
Thickness is where the two documents that govern a Perth driveway part company. The Concrete Masonry Association of Australia’s Guide to Specifying (MA57, December 2010) sets 40 mm as the minimum unit thickness for a residential driveway carrying light vehicles, reproducing Table 2.8 of AS/NZS 4455.2. The City of Wanneroo is stricter where it counts: its brick paved residential crossover sheet (correct as of July 2025) requires a minimum 60 mm heavy duty paver over a minimum 100 mm of crushed limestone. Well Laid Paving Perth lays 60 mm across the whole driveway, not just the verge.
The visible difference between the two is where the colour comes from. A clay paver is fired, and the colour is the fired clay body itself. A concrete paver is cast, and the colour is oxide pigment in the mix. Neither of the standards above regulates appearance — AS/NZS 4456 is the methods of test standard for masonry units — so colour retention is a question for the manufacturer’s data sheet, not the council specification.
Liquid limestone and exposed aggregate on a Perth crossover
Both are poured concrete products and Perth councils treat them as concrete. The City of Stirling’s residential crossover guidelines (revision 6 January 2023) permit liquid limestone and exposed aggregate subject to AS 1379, the Australian standard for the specification and supply of concrete — the same standard Stirling applies to plain grey pre-mix. Exposed aggregate is that same poured concrete with the surface paste washed back to expose the stone.
That reference also tells you what you are buying structurally. AS 1379 governs how concrete is specified and supplied, so the compliance paperwork travels with the supplier’s docket, and what arrives is one continuous slab — a different thing from several thousand individual units, and one that fails and gets repaired differently.
Do not read Stirling’s list across to your own council. The City of Wanneroo document we work to is specifically a brick paved residential crossover sheet (correct as of July 2025) — it sets the paver, sub-base, edge restraint and joint gaps, and does not speak for poured surfaces. Ask the City before you order concrete. Council by council: what your council requires for a crossover.
Why asphalt is not a real option for a Perth driveway
Because in at least one Perth council you cannot get it across the crossover. Asphalt is not permitted for residential crossovers under the City of Stirling’s crossover guidelines (revision 6 January 2023), and the crossover is the strip between your boundary and the kerb that every car drives over. Seal your own land in asphalt and the verge still has to be something else: two surfaces, one joint at the boundary.
Loose gravel has the same problem in shorter form. It appears nowhere on Stirling’s permitted materials list (revision 6 January 2023), and Stirling requires the finished crossover to sit 30 mm higher than the road surface at the gutter — a level an unbound material will not hold once cars turn onto it.
Perth driveway surfaces compared
These are the six surfaces a Perth homeowner is realistically quoted on. The table compares what each one is, what the City of Stirling’s residential crossover guidelines (revision 6 January 2023) permit on the verge strip, and how a damaged area is put right once the driveway is down and in use.
| Surface | What it is | Stirling residential crossover | Repairing a damaged area |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clay pavers | Fired clay units; colour in the body | Permitted — heavy duty vehicular traffic | Lift the affected units, fix the base, relay |
| Concrete pavers | Cast concrete units; oxide pigment in the mix | Permitted — heavy duty vehicular traffic | Lift the affected units, fix the base, relay |
| Poured concrete | One slab; plain grey pre-mix or colour incorporated | Permitted — AS 1379 | Saw cut the section out and re-pour |
| Exposed aggregate | Poured slab, surface paste washed back | Permitted subject to AS 1379 | Saw cut the section out and re-pour |
| Liquid limestone | Poured limestone aggregate concrete slab | Permitted subject to AS 1379 | Saw cut the section out and re-pour |
| Asphalt | Bitumen bound sheet over a base | Not permitted | Patch or resheet |
Council specifications checked: August 2026.
Why herringbone matters where cars turn and brake
Pattern is structural under a vehicle, not decorative. Midland Brick’s Crossover Guide (version DEC23) recommends herringbone at 45° or 90° where cars turn and brake, and warns that continuous straight lines running through the wearing surface — stretcher bond, stack bond — lose interlock under high wear. A brick driveway carries a car through interlock between units rather than as a slab, so the pattern is part of the structure.
The trade-off is cutting. Herringbone at 45° meets every edge at an angle, so it produces a cut at each perimeter unit, and the City of Stirling’s specification (revision 6 January 2023) allows no closure unit smaller than 25% of a full paver — slivers are not a way out. That is more saw work and more waste than a 90° herringbone, which is one reason the same driveway costs differently in two patterns. Which pattern suits your block: driveway design in Perth — width, shape and pattern.
Colour and borders on a Perth driveway
On a driveway Well Laid Paving Perth usually recommends a light field with a darker contrasting border. The border earns its keep twice: it reads as a deliberate edge from the street, and it gives the cut-in course a straight line to finish against. The ranges a Perth buyer meets at a display yard are Midland Brick, Brikmakers, Urbanstone and Austral Bricks (checked August 2026).
Appearance is not a soft consideration here: the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia’s street appeal guidance states that “paving is an effective way to improve the appearance of your home” (reiwa.com.au, checked August 2026), and the driveway is the largest paved surface most Perth houses show the street. Barefoot heat, which rules the fashionable charcoals out on an uncovered alfresco, does not apply on a drive — that is a patio decision: which pavers stay coolest underfoot in Perth.
Repairability: what segmental paving does that a poured driveway cannot
A brick driveway comes apart and goes back down. If one paver breaks or discolours you dig that one out and put a new one in the empty space; you do not replace the whole driveway. A poured surface — concrete, exposed aggregate or liquid limestone — is a single slab, so the smallest honest repair is a saw cut section and a fresh pour from a different batch.
That matters more than it sounds, because the three driveway failures Marc Radaic is called out to in Perth are base failures, not surface failures. Edge spread comes from a perimeter that was never properly cemented, so the outer course creeps outward under vehicle load until the joints open and the sand washes out. Sinking is a dish where the tyres track, from sub-grade or bedding sand that was never right. Lifting usually has a tree root thickening under the base. All three are fixed the same way: lift the affected area, repair what is underneath, relay the same pavers. The full method: how we build a driveway that stays flat.
The honest limit is matching. A paver made a decade ago is not always still in production, so a relay in a discontinued range means sourcing second hand units or lifting spares from a less visible area — work Marc has done before, and what E Robb’s Cottesloe testimonial singles out. A real constraint, and a far smaller one than a cracked slab.
Common questions
Is brick paving cheaper than concrete or liquid limestone?
Well Laid Paving Perth does not publish a rate per square metre, and will not repeat a competitor’s. What can be said is what moves the number on any Perth driveway, whichever surface you pick: the area, access for a bobcat and truck, removal of the existing surface, level changes, whether the crossover is part of the job, and the material itself. Marc Radaic measures all six on site.
Can I use a different surface on the crossover than on the driveway?
The crossover sits on council land and is approved separately, against that council’s own permitted materials list. The City of Stirling’s list (revision 6 January 2023) covers pavers, concrete, exposed aggregate and liquid limestone, but not asphalt. What cannot differ is the level: Well Laid Paving Perth paves drive and crossover with the same crew on the same job, so the run from garage to kerb has no step in it.
What does Well Laid Paving Perth actually lay?
Clay and concrete pavers, laid as segmental paving across the Perth metro area — new driveways, replacements over paving that has sunk or spread, widenings, crossovers and multi-unit sites in Yokine, Guildford, Spearwood, Gosnells and Nollamara. Marc Radaic measures and quotes every one, and we never sub-contract. Removing an old driveway or concrete slab is a priced line on the quote. Recent jobs: driveway paving photos from recent Perth jobs.
Get a quote for your driveway
Marc Radaic measures and quotes driveways across the Perth metro area, Monday to Friday, 7:00am to 5:00pm. Call 0448 440 229 or get a free driveway quote. Tell us the area in square metres, whether the crossover is included, and which surfaces you are weighing up. What we do, and how we build a drive that does not move: brick driveway paving in Perth.