Paving in Embleton at a glance
Embleton is a small residential suburb of around 3,600 people, about 12 km from IBP Paving's base in Landsdale. We pave driveways, courtyards and garden paths in clay and concrete pavers, limestone and travertine, relay paving that has sunk or spread, and install soakwells to the City of Bayswater's formula. The work is backed by a lifetime workmanship warranty and over 20 years in the paving trade.
Deep white sand and a water table well below the soakwells
Embleton lies on the Bassendean Dunes, a landscape of low hills built from heavily leached white to grey sand. For paving that sand is easy to work: it digs cleanly, compacts well under a limestone base and does not shrink or swell with the seasons the way clay does. The main thing it needs is containment, so we finish every edge with a concrete haunch or restraint to stop the outer pavers drifting.
For drainage, the sand and the depth to groundwater work together. Groundwater here is generally about 10 m below the surface, and there is no named wetland inside the suburb, so a standard soakwell sits a long way above the water table and empties quickly after a storm. The coast is about 15 km west, so salt spray does not come into paver choice.
Bayswater's rules for runoff, crossovers and verges
The City of Bayswater expects stormwater to be dealt with on the property, with every downpipe going to soakwells of adequate combined volume. It sets that volume with a single multiplier.
Total impervious area in square metres x 0.0125 = required soakwell volume in cubic metres, equal to holding 12.5 mm of rain on site. Roofs, paving, driveways and patios are all impervious.
So a pair of semi-detached homes, each with 140 square metres of roof and 50 square metres of paving, needs about 2.4 cubic metres of storage per side. Our soakwells page covers the units we use, and soakwell requirements in Perth sets Bayswater beside other councils.
For the crossover, you need the City's approval before any work begins, and the construction follows its specifications. One standard crossover per lot attracts a subsidy under the City's fees schedule, and that covers replacing an old bitumen crossover with concrete or brick paving; bitumen itself is neither maintained nor subsidised. If a footpath is built later it takes priority, in plain grey concrete, and the City may cut through decorative finishes like exposed aggregate to lay it.
The verge has its own limits. Brick paving up to 30 per cent of it, not counting the driveway and path, is deemed to comply when paired with trees that will shade the paved part, while going above 30 per cent means the stormwater effect has to be considered, and added soakwells can earn a concession. Synthetic lawn is not permitted, raised beds are capped at 0.35 m high with a 0.5 m setback from paths, crossovers and street trees, and street trees must be kept unless the City agrees in writing. Work near them follows AS 4970-2009.
Source: City of Bayswater, Clearance of Subdivision Conditions Information Sheet; Crossovers Policy; Street Verges Policy.
Detached homes, semi-detached pairs and the Tonkin Highway line
At the 2016 census Embleton had 1,140 occupied dwellings, of which 996 were detached houses and 129 semi-detached. Build dates for most of the housing are not well recorded, but it is likely to be mostly established stock, and that tends to mean paving at the age where a relay or replacement is due. For the detached homes the usual jobs are a new or relaid driveway, a rear courtyard and a side path to the bins. For the semi-detached pairs it is often a shared surface, where matching levels and paver colour across the boundary matters as much as the paving itself.
Tonkin Highway was cut through the suburb in the early 1980s, so Embleton is split by a major road. The road does not change the ground or the council rules on either side, so the same sand, soakwell formula and verge limits apply to homes east and west of it.
Around Broun Park and the wave pool
Embleton's best known landmark is Bayswater Waves on Broun Avenue, an aquatic centre begun in 1972 that holds WA's only wave pool. It sits next to Broun Park and the City owned 9 hole Embleton Golf Course, which give that end of the suburb its open, green feel. From here our crews also cover Morley to the north, Bedford to the west, and Bayswater, Maylands and Inglewood to the south; the full list is on areas we service.
