Mindarie paving, about 20 km up the coast from Landsdale
Mindarie is one of the further suburbs we service regularly, about 20 km north west of IBP Paving's Landsdale base. It is worth the drive because the work suits us: the homes built around the marina from 1988 through the 2000s are now at the age where driveways sink, pool surrounds lift and builders' soakwells silt up, and the ground and the salt air both reward a contractor who prepares properly. We relay and replace brick, stone and travertine paving and install soakwells, with over 20 years of experience and a lifetime workmanship warranty.
A suburb built on quarried limestone
The City of Wanneroo's own landscape descriptions list Mindarie under two dune systems: Quindalup, the young white shell sand at the foreshore, and Spearwood, the yellower sand inland that sits on Tamala Limestone. That limestone was worked in the early 1900s and a set of lime kilns was still operating in 1932. For us the history is a practical warning. On many lots the rock is shallow enough to meet a soakwell excavation or a retaining wall footing, so we probe with a bar before we quote, and where caprock is close we either break it out or swap one deep unit for two shallow ones. The sand above drains very quickly, which is good news once the units are in.
Mindarie also has large bushland reserves and tall coastal dunes inside its boundary. Homes against those reserves are best served by non combustible paving between the house and the bush edge, which is also the lowest maintenance surface for leaf litter and sand drift.
Source: City of Wanneroo landscape and soil descriptions (Quindalup and Spearwood dune systems, Mindarie listed under both).
Mid life relays on the 1990s and 2000s homes
The estate that grew around Mindarie Marina from 1988 is now 25 to 35 years old. The paving laid with those houses was mostly 50 or 60 mm concrete pavers on a sand bed with little or no base under the driveway, and that is why the wheel tracks have dipped and the edges have crept.
- Lift and relay of the original driveway on a compacted limestone base, reusing sound pavers and replacing broken ones.
- Sunken section repairs beside soakwell lids and along the garage apron, where the first soakwell has silted or collapsed.
- Pool surround rebuilds in travertine or dense wet cast stone, with new coping and falls set away from the pool.
Wanneroo's soakwell setback rule and the crossover spec
Runoff in the City of Wanneroo has to stay within the lot; the City's stormwater sheet calls this a statutory obligation under common law and the Local Government Act 1995 and names soakwells and spoon drains as the usual answer. The rule that trips up narrow Mindarie lots is about where a soakwell can go.
"As a general guide the setbacks for soakwells should be a minimum of the width of the soakwell away from buildings and boundaries, providing that the width is greater or equal to the depth of the soakwell." The same sheet states that soakwells are not recommended where there are narrow clearances between buildings and boundaries, as there would not be sufficient drainage area, and that its sizing table assumes normal rainfall, with overflow possible depending on soil type such as clay or limestone.
Source: City of Wanneroo, Stormwater Runoff Information Sheet.
That limestone caveat is written for places like Mindarie. Where rock reduces the soil around a unit we upsize from the table rather than trust the nominal figure. The sizing table, the downpipe spacing rule and the City's engineering specification are set out on our City of Wanneroo soakwell requirements page.
At the street, Wanneroo's brick paved crossover sheet calls for 60 mm heavy duty rectangular or square pavers on a 20 to 40 mm sand bed over at least 100 mm of crushed limestone, with edge restraints 250 mm wide and 80 mm deep, a width of 3.0 to 6.0 m at the property line, 1.0 m clear of the neighbour's boundary and 7.5 m from a street corner. Only new materials are accepted, a crossover must sit 1.5 m from a City tree, and Council may contribute toward a first crossover if you apply in writing within six months of building it.
Source: City of Wanneroo, Information Sheet, Crossover Brick Paved, Residential (July 2025); City Tree Policy (December 2024).
Salt air on the marina side
No part of Mindarie is more than about 1.5 km from the water and the streets around the marina are within a few hundred metres. In the masonry durability classes that is the severe marine band for the first kilometre from a surf coast and marine behind it, and severe marine calls for exposure grade clay units. Those classes describe bricks, and no Perth supplier publishes a salt grade for pavers, so we work to the brick rule: exposure grade clay or dense wet cast concrete, washed bedding sand so salt is not imported in the base, sand swept joints, and a penetrating sealer once the paving has cured. The groundwater under the foreshore streets is tidal and slightly saline, another reason to keep bedding sand clean. Resealing intervals and salt stain removal are covered on our sealing and cleaning page, and a correctly sized soakwell keeps salty runoff from pooling on the surface.
Source: Midland Brick and Think Brick, Brick Durability factsheet (August 2025).
Quinns Rocks, Clarkson and the suburbs around the marina
Quinns Rocks, immediately north and on the same shell sand, is covered by this page; its 1960s townsite blocks and 1990s infill give us the same relay and replacement work. Clarkson is directly inland, Butler is a few minutes north and Currambine and Joondalup are south down Marmion Avenue, with Kinross and Burns Beach between. All are on the areas we service page.
