Courtyard paving for enclosed spaces
A courtyard is enclosed by walls or by the house itself, which means two things decide the job before any paver is chosen: where the water goes, and how the materials get in. IBP Paving, Landsdale based with over 20 years in Perth, fully licensed and backed by a lifetime workmanship warranty on the work we lay, paves courtyards in narrow lot new builds, strata and apartment ground floors, character homes and infill blocks. It sits within our brick paving service and our wider Perth paving work.
In our service area that means the narrow two storey lots in Banksia Grove's newer precincts, the rebuilt and strata stock in Scarborough, and the infill subdivisions in Morley and Dianella. For a quote, request a free site measure or call 0449 020 336.
Making a small Perth courtyard feel bigger
Large format pavers with fewer joints make a small courtyard read as one surface and feel larger; light colours keep it brighter and cooler. Run the long side of the paver along the longest dimension of the space. Stack bond or stretcher bond suits large format concrete, though it needs very consistent units because every joint lines up.
Character homes are the exception. Behind a pre 1950s house, 230 x 115 clay pavers in basketweave or herringbone sit with the period and the brickwork, and they fit through the narrow side access those homes usually have.
Materials in one line each: concrete and clay pavers are on the brick paving page; limestone gives a cool, local look; crazy paving works as a feature floor. Whatever the paver, keep a planting bed or a tree well in the plan so the courtyard is not all hard surface; it looks better and it gives rain somewhere to go.
Drainage inside four walls
In a walled courtyard the water has nowhere to run, so the paving must fall to a grated drain at the low point, and that drain needs a soakwell or another approved outlet on your lot. Perth councils require stormwater to be kept on site, and paving cannot discharge onto a neighbour's land or the verge.
On Perth sand a correctly sized soakwell under or beside the courtyard usually solves it, because the sand drains fast. Near the coast, in Spearwood sand over Tamala limestone, the caprock can be shallow and excavation can hit rock, so we check before we quote a soakwell. We size and install soakwells ourselves and cover drainage for paved areas in detail.
Where the courtyard meets the house, the paving still needs the 1:60 to 1:80 fall away from the wall and a finished level below the internal floor.
Source: City of Joondalup and City of Wanneroo stormwater guidance on containing runoff within the lot; City of Wanneroo, Setting the Scene (Swan Coastal Plain dune systems).
Access: how we work in tight sites
Most courtyards have no machine access. Pavers, sand and spoil are carried by hand through the house or a side gate, which is why courtyards are quoted per job rather than per square metre. We protect floors and door frames on the route, stage materials on the verge only where the council allows it (the City of Wanneroo, for example, requires approval for anything placed on the verge during works), and plan any sand cement bedding for steps so it is poured in one visit.
Strata and apartment courtyards add body corporate approval and access windows; see our commercial and strata paving page.
Source: City of Wanneroo, Verge Licence information sheet (December 2020).
Cost and which page you need
As indicative Perth industry ranges, not IBP's price list, published 2026 cost guides put concrete pavers at $75 to $110 per square metre supplied and laid, clay at $130 to $210 and limestone at $80 to $160. Courtyards usually sit above the per square metre range because of hand access, the number of cuts and the drain, so we quote per job after a site visit. Current bands are in our Perth paving cost guide.
Source: Perth Pavers 2026 material comparison. Indicative Perth industry ranges only.
A covered alfresco or open patio is on patio and alfresco paving; a pool courtyard is on pool paving; a courtyard floor that has sunk is a sunken paving repair. We pave courtyards in Banksia Grove, Scarborough, Joondalup, Morley, Dianella and across the northern suburbs. See all areas we service.
