Pool paving in Perth, laid wet by a two-man crew who do nothing else. Every paver goes down on a full bed of mortar over a compacted base, which is the reason a surround stays flat instead of sinking, rocking or spreading.
Get a price on your surround
Tell us the job and we will come back with a real number, not a range.
Full mortar bed
Every paver bedded and grouted, never sanded
A two-man crew
The person who quotes it is the person who lays it
Two Rocks to Mandurah
The whole Perth coastal corridor
Two of these carry most of the work, the pool surround and the coping. The rest is the same wet bed under a driveway, an alfresco, or a slab of failed dry lay we are pulling up and doing again.
The surround takes more punishment than any other paving on a property. It is wet most of the summer, it moves with the sand underneath it, and it is walked on barefoot by people who notice every lipped edge.
Laying it wet means the whole underside of each paver is supported. Nothing is bridging a void, so nothing drops when the ground settles.
Coping is the piece everybody touches and everybody looks at, and it is where a cheap job announces itself first. A curve laid with straight units opens wedge-shaped joints that never close up again.
We cut coping to the radius piece by piece, tapering each unit so the joints stay even the whole way round.
Large-format porcelain and natural stone, bedded and based to carry a car rather than to look right on day one.
Inside floor level carried out through the door, so the room does not stop at the threshold and the step does not become a trip.
Lifting paving that has sunk, rocked or spread, correcting the base, and relaying it wet. About half of what we do.
Dry lay is quicker on the day and cheaper to quote. That is the whole of its case, and it is why so much of it gets sold in Perth.
Around a pool, on sand, in a climate that swings between soaking and bone dry, it is the wrong method. We know because roughly half our work is taking it back up.
| Wet layWhat we do | Dry lay | |
|---|---|---|
| How the paver is bedded | Wet layFull wet mortar bed across the whole underside | Dry layLoose sand, screeded flat |
| When the ground moves | Wet layThe paving moves as one piece | Dry layIndividual pavers drop and rock |
| Joints | Wet layGrouted solid | Dry laySand that washes out and blows away |
| Around a curved pool | Wet layCut to the radius, joints stay even | Dry layStraight units forced around the curve |
| Weeds and ants | Wet layNothing to colonise | Dry laySand joints are an invitation |
| What usually goes wrong | Wet layNothing we have had to go back for | Dry laySinking and lipping within a couple of seasons |
Five families, one method. Which one suits depends on glare, heat underfoot, whether the pool is salt or chlorine, and what the house is already made of.
The classic pool stone, and the one most Perth pools end up in for good reason. It stays noticeably cooler underfoot than darker stone and it grips well when wet.
Available tumbled for a softer edge or honed and filled for a flatter, more contemporary surface.
Dimensionally exact and effectively non-absorbent, which is why it holds a tight joint and shrugs off salt and sunscreen.
It suits large formats and modern homes, and it needs a good installer because porcelain shows every millimetre of a lippy edge.
Irregular flagstones cut and fitted on site, so no two jobs are the same. It is the most labour-intensive thing we lay and the most rewarding to get right.
Joint width and stone selection are the whole craft here. Done badly it looks like a broken footpath.
Granite, bluestone and limestone, each with a different answer for glare, heat and grip.
Limestone reads soft and local. Bluestone goes dark and dramatic and gets hotter, so we will tell you where not to use it.
Riven texture with real grip when wet, in warm tones that suit older Perth homes and red brick.
It is a forgiving stone underfoot and a good middle ground on cost.
Tell us three things and we will tell you what we would lay and what we would avoid.
Each of these has its own page on what it is good at and where it fails. Compare all four paving materials, including limestone.
$180per m²
That is to supply and lay, on a prepared base, and it is the same rate from Two Rocks to Mandurah.
That is a rate, not a quote. Four things move the final figure and it is worth knowing which before you compare anybody's price.
Jobs run from a single pool surround up to a full backyard. We do not quote patch repairs.
Estimate
Pool Paving Perth
Pool surrounds, coping and alfresco paving. Two Rocks to Mandurah.
A published rate, not a quote, and not a document issued to anybody. What the job actually costs depends on the four things above, and we work those out on site.
Water has to leave the paving. That is decided before a single paver is laid, not patched afterwards.
Every paver is bedded into wet mortar across its whole underside. No voids, nothing to rock, nothing for water to sit in.
Coping is cut to follow the pool, tapered piece by piece. Forcing straight units around a radius is what opens joints.
Joints filled properly so sand cannot wash out, ants cannot get under it, and the surface stays one piece.
It is the same two of us on every job, start to finish. More on how we work.
We work the coastal corridor from Two Rocks and Currambine in the north down to Mandurah in the south, and inland across the metro.
If you are outside that and the job is worth the travel, ask anyway.
On the edge of that and not sure? Send us your suburb and a photo of the area and we will tell you either way.
If yours is not here, ask it and we will answer straight.
Ask us yours
A two-man crew who have never done anything else, so the person who answers is the person who would lay it.
(08) 6186 7478Get a quote
Measurements, a photo of the area and the material you have in mind is enough for a real number rather than a range.
If what you are after is not what we do, we will tell you that too.