Helena Valley paving, taken on by arrangement
If you are searching for paving in Helena Valley, IBP Paving is based in Landsdale, about 21 km away in a straight line. That is outside our everyday run, so we take Helena Valley work by arrangement and ask for the job details first: the address, rough sizes and a few photos. With those we can say quickly whether the job suits and book a site visit. We lay clay and concrete pavers, limestone and other natural stone, build driveways and crossovers and install drainage, with over 20 years in the trade and a lifetime workmanship warranty.
Rural driveways and six estates
Helena Valley is two suburbs in one. Many of its houses are rural, and alongside them are six residential estates, one of which has its own shopping centre. The paving each part asks for is different.
On the rural lots the main job is a long driveway running from the road to the house and sheds, usually with room to turn a trailer. Those runs need a deeper compacted base than a suburban drive, edge restraints that will not creep on a slope, and falls that send water to the garden rather than along the drive. In the estates the work is closer to what we do across the suburbs: original driveways that have settled at the wheel tracks and want a lift and relay on a recompacted base, and new paving for an alfresco or side path.
What the Shire of Mundaring asks of crossovers and verges
Helena Valley is in the Shire of Mundaring, and the Shire's published rules that touch paving are about the crossover, the verge and the trees on it.
Every crossover needs Shire approval before it is built or changed, and an application fee is paid when you lodge. Crossovers are built to the Shire's specification in concrete, asphalt or brick paving. A brick paved crossover uses solid clay bricks at least 60 mm thick in herringbone on 30 mm of bedding sand, with no second hand or reject bricks and a grade of at least 2 percent. The first crossover to a property built to standard can receive a dollar for dollar Shire contribution up to the cap in the annual fees and charges, with more where culverts are required.
Verge improvements need a sketch plan and Shire approval before work starts, and bush verges must be protected. Verge trees grow on Crown land and are managed by the Shire; a resident may remove a non indigenous verge tree only after receiving a letter of authorisation.
Source: Shire of Mundaring, Crossover Requirements and Specifications for Construction of Vehicle Crossovers (Brick Paved) web pages; Verge Maintenance and Verge Trees web pages.
For drainage on the lot itself we size soakwells to the roof and paved area and to what the ground does when we test it. Our Perth soakwell requirements page sets out how the different councils approach on site stormwater.
Sand, loam and clay at the mouth of the valley
The soils here are typical of the eastern edge of the coastal plain, ranging from sand to loam and clay and from neutral to moderately acid. On a sandy estate block a soakwell usually drains well. On a clay lot the same soakwell can sit full for days, so we dig a test hole and time it before quoting a size. Where infiltration is poor we spread the volume across wider, shallower units or take water to a grated drain and pipe it to a suitable point on the lot.
Clay also changes the base. We cut deeper, lay more crushed limestone or road base and compact it in layers, because a thin base on clay moves with every wet winter. The coast is around 27 km west, so salt is no concern for paver choice.
Parts of the suburb, mainly the rural lots below the scarp, can fall inside bushfire prone mapping, so check your address on the DFES map. Close to the house we favour non combustible surfaces such as clay pavers, concrete pavers and stone over mulch or timber edging.
Where the Helena River meets the plain
Helena Valley sits at the centre of the Helena River catchment, right where the valley opens out from the hills onto the plain. The ground nearest the river is likely to hold a shallower water table. On those low lots we keep soakwell bases well clear of the wet season level and give driveways a positive fall away from the house. Drummond Gardens, in the suburb, takes its name from the botanist James Drummond.
Suburbs around Helena Valley
Helena Valley adjoins Bellevue, Koongamia and Greenmount to the north, with Darlington up the hill to the east and Gooseberry Hill and Maida Vale to the south. Jobs in those suburbs are taken on the same way. See areas we service for the full list.
