Hillarys paving: pool surrounds and coastal grade pavers
Hillarys is the busiest of the coastal suburbs IBP Paving serves, with about 11,200 people on lots that were gazetted in 1971 and fully built out by the mid-1990s. It is about 11.4 km from our base in Landsdale along Hepburn Avenue. The suburb has been well off since the 1980s and its paving reflects that: pool surrounds in stone, wide driveways, alfresco areas that have been enlarged more than once. Those surfaces are now 25 to 50 years old and the salt has had its way with many of them, so replacement in a paver that can stand the coast is the main job. We have been doing it for over 20 years and warrant our workmanship for life.
Efflorescence and salt within two kilometres of the ocean
Every lot in Hillarys is within about 2 km of the water and the western half is within 1 km. The sea breeze carries salt onto paving every afternoon in summer, and the first sign is the white bloom of efflorescence; after enough years on a soft paver it becomes crusting and spalling.
Under the brick industry's durability classification, land within 1 km of a surf coast is "Severe Marine" and requires exposure grade units, which lose less than 0.4 g in 40 salt cycles; land 1 to 10 km from a surf coast is "Marine" and requires general purpose grade, less than 0.4 g in 15 cycles. The classification is written for clay masonry rather than pavers, and no paver supplier publishes an equivalent grade.
Source: Midland Brick and Think Brick, Brick Durability factsheet (August 2025); AS/NZS 4456.10.
We translate that into a specification: exposure grade clay or dense wet-cast concrete pavers west of Marmion Avenue and general purpose grade east of it, bedded on washed sand so the joints are not salted from day one, with sand swept joints that let moisture out and a penetrating sealer applied after curing. Sealing needs renewing; our sealing and cleaning page covers how often and what it costs in Perth.
Soakwells in Hillarys: the width setback and the six sizes
The City of Joondalup's residential soakwells page is the rule book here. It puts the obligation on the owner to confine runoff within the lot under common law and the Local Government Act 1995, allows roughly one downpipe for every 15 square metres of roof no more than 12 metres apart, and lists six common concrete soakwell sizes between 180 and 3,100 litres, with the roof area each drains under normal rainfall. The rule that shapes a Hillarys installation is the setback: each soakwell should be at least its own width from buildings and boundaries, and the City says soakwells are not recommended where clearances are narrow. On lots that have been extended to the side boundaries the only space left is under the driveway, so we fit trafficable lids. The complete sheet is summarised on our City of Joondalup soakwell requirements page.
Source: City of Joondalup, Residential soakwells (stormwater runoff) web page.
Dune sand at the foreshore, limestone inland
Hillarys keeps its large foreshore dunes and their remnant vegetation, and those dunes are Quindalup sand: white, limey, made of shell, and so free draining that a soakwell in it empties almost as fast as it fills. Behind the dunes the ground is older Spearwood sand over Tamala Limestone, and a deep excavation can meet rock. The Groundwater Atlas puts the saltwater wedge no more than about 250 metres inland, so on most lots the groundwater is fresh and well below soakwell depth. The dune reserves are also a bushfire interface for the houses that back onto them, and a non combustible band of brick or stone paving against those elevations is a low maintenance choice. The only base preparation problem in Hillarys is wind blown sand working into a joint before the paving is finished, which is why we sweep and compact joint sand the same day.
Pools, alfresco and 1980s driveways
Pool surrounds are the signature Hillarys job, most often in travertine or a dense limestone with bullnose coping, with the salt grade and slip rating chosen for a coastal pool. Driveways from the 1980s split two ways: where the clay pavers are sound and only the sand has gone we relay them, and where salt has eaten the surface we do a replacement in coastal grade units. Kallaroo, the smaller 1970s suburb immediately north between Hillarys and Mullaloo, is served from this page and gets the same specification.
Nearby suburbs
Hillarys has Sorrento to the south, Mullaloo to the north beyond Kallaroo, and Padbury and Duncraig inland to the east. See areas we service.
