Most guides on how to lay pavers diy cover the same sequence: excavate, compact, lay a sub-base, screed sand, set your pavers. That sequence is correct. Most guides skip the question that determines whether it works for your site. Lay pavers over reactive clay without accounting for movement and you’ll have a cracked surface inside two wet seasons. Get the drainage fall wrong and water backs up against your house. Miss the council trigger for your area and you’re undoing finished work. Sub-base preparation is where most projects fail, and what your sub-base needs depends on what your soil is doing. This guide covers that assessment before it gets to the sequence.
Before you start
Three things will determine whether your paving lasts or fails: soil type, drainage fall, and whether you need council approval. Sort these out before you price materials or book time off work.
Soil type. Dig a test hole 300mm deep in the area you plan to pave. If the subsoil is dark, sticky and smells like a clay dam, that is exactly what you are on. Reactive clay expands when it absorbs moisture and shrinks when it dries, and pavers on a standard compacted base over reactive clay will shift, lift and crack inside a couple of wet seasons. On clay you need a deeper engineered sub-base, more robust edge restraints, or both. Sandy soils and stable loam are more forgiving, but they still need proper compaction.
Drainage. Every paved surface needs a fall away from any adjoining structure. For anyone planning to lay pavers as a DIY job, this is the calculation that most guides gloss over. You need a minimum 1:100 gradient draining away from the house. Work out where the water goes before you set a single paver. Back-pitching toward the foundation causes damp wall problems that will cost far more to fix than getting the fall right from the start.
Council approvals. In most states, impervious paving beyond a threshold area (often around 10 square metres) triggers a stormwater management requirement or a development application. The threshold varies by council. Check before you start, not after you have laid the last course.
Excavation
Dig out 200mm below your finished paving level. That is the standard depth for most residential paving jobs on stable soil: 100mm of compacted base, 30mm of bedding sand, and the paver itself on top. Measure down from your string lines and dig to that mark.
On reactive clay, add another 50mm to your excavation. Clay moves with moisture and it will push your base around. The extra depth gives you room for a thicker sub-base and a geotextile membrane underneath, which keeps the clay from migrating up into your gravel over time.
Slope the base of your excavation as you dig. The 1:60 fall your finished surface needs has to start at the bottom, not get corrected at the top with extra sand in one corner. Sand is not a levelling compound and should never be used as one.
Once you are at depth, compact the subgrade before you put anything on top of it. Hire a plate compactor for this — a hand tamper is not adequate for anything bigger than a garden stepping-stone path. Bunnings recommends compacting in layers if your excavation is deep, which becomes relevant on clay sites where you are going to 250mm.
Remove any soft spots, roots, or organic material you expose. Fill them with compactable road base, not soil.
Road base and compaction
Road base is the layer that determines whether your paving lasts twenty years or starts rocking in two. Get this wrong and nothing else matters.
You want a minimum of 75mm of compacted road base for a pedestrian path. For a driveway or area that will take vehicle traffic, that goes up to 100mm minimum. These are not conservative estimates — they are the numbers that account for Australian ground movement, particularly on clay soils that shift with moisture changes.
Buy crusher dust or crushed rock road base, not general fill. The angular particles lock together under compaction in a way that rounded gravel or sandy fill simply cannot. Spread it in layers no deeper than 75mm at a time and compact each layer before adding the next. A plate compactor is the right tool here — the same one you used on the subgrade. Make two passes over each layer, the second at 90 degrees to the first.
Cement Australia recommends checking that your compacted base is firm and unyielding underfoot before proceeding — if you can indent it noticeably with your boot heel, it needs more compaction or the material is wrong.
The finished road base surface should be smooth and consistent. Any high or low spots here will translate directly into uneven pavers. Use a long straight edge or a laser level to check it before you move on. Fix it now; fixing it after the bedding sand is down is messy and time-consuming.
Bedding sand and laying the pavers
The bedding sand layer sits between your compacted road base and the pavers. It is not structural; it is a levelling bed. Use coarse washed sand or chip sand, not fine beach sand or plasterer’s sand. Fine sand compresses unevenly and washes out over time. Depth is 30mm, no more. Thicker bedding sand is less stable, not more forgiving.
Set up screed rails along the edges of your area at finished height. Lengths of 25mm electrical conduit work well. Pull a long straight edge across them to level the sand in sections you can reach without stepping on the screeded surface. Miss a footprint in screeded sand and you cannot fix it once the pavers go down.
Start laying from a straight edge, a wall or a string line, and work outward. Set each paver down, do not slide it. Sliding drags sand and leaves a low spot under the paver. Tap each one level with a rubber mallet and check against adjacent pavers as you go. Keep joint spacing consistent at 2 to 3mm so the kiln-dried sand beds in properly when you finish.
Leave the cut pavers to the end. Lay every full-size paver first, confirm the pattern works, then measure and cut. You will waste less material and you keep the layout accurate before you pick up the angle grinder.
Haunching, jointing, and finishing
With your full-size pavers laid and checked for level, haunching locks the edges in place. Mix a stiff mortar (one part cement to four parts sand) and bed it against the outer pavers and any cut edges. Keep it off the paver face. This is what stops the border creeping outward under foot traffic over time, and it is worth doing properly before you touch the joints.
Jointing comes next. Kiln-dried jointing sand is what most DIYers use for how to lay pavers, and it works well if you apply it correctly. Tip a bag across the dry surface and sweep it diagonally across the joints with a stiff broom. Work it in two or three passes rather than one heavy pour. The sand needs to fill the joint fully, not sit on top. Cement Australia recommends a light plate compactor pass after the first fill to help the sand settle before you top up.
Once the joints are packed, blow or brush off the excess and give the surface a light water mist to set the sand. Check joints again after 48 hours and top up any that have dropped. Do not hose the surface hard at this stage or you will wash the sand straight back out. The job looks finished before the jointing sand has cured, and that is exactly when people get impatient and ruin it.
Sealing and long-term maintenance
Sealing is optional, but for concrete pavers in Australian conditions it is worth doing. UV exposure and surface staining are hard on concrete; a penetrating sealer extends the life of the surface and helps lock the jointing sand in place. Wait at least 28 days after laying before you apply any sealer. The sand needs to be fully cured and the pavers need to be dry. Cement Australia recommends a penetrating concrete sealer applied in two thin coats rather than one heavy one. Reapply every three to five years, or when water stops beading on the surface.
Ongoing maintenance is straightforward. Top up jointing sand each spring, especially after a wet winter. Check for pavers that have settled or rocked; a rocking paver means the bedding sand has moved and the fix is simple while it is just one or two units. Leave it too long and you will have a problem across a wider area.
General information only. This article is for general informational purposes. Building, renovation, and garden projects may be subject to local council approvals, permits, and Australian building regulations that vary by state and territory. Always check your local requirements before commencing work. Some work, including electrical, gas, structural, and plumbing, must be carried out by a licensed professional under Australian law. When in doubt, consult a licensed tradesperson.
Closing / key takeaways
Laying pavers is a realistic weekend project for most homeowners. The job is not complicated. What trips people up is consistently the same thing: rushing the groundwork.
Get these right and the rest follows:
- Sub-base depth matches your soil. Clay needs more depth and a drainage layer. Sandy soil is more forgiving.
- Drainage fall is non-negotiable. Minimum 1:100 away from any structure.
- Compact in layers, not all at once.
- Joint sand sealed properly keeps weeds out and the surface stable.
Cement Australia’s paving guide is a solid reference to keep beside you on the day.
Do the preparation properly and the paving is the easy part.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need council approval to lay pavers?
It depends on what you are paving and where. A small garden path or backyard entertaining area generally does not need approval. Paving that changes drainage patterns, sits close to a boundary, affects a flood overlay, or forms part of a driveway crossing a kerb is a different matter. Some councils also have requirements around impervious surface coverage on a block, especially in areas with stormwater management overlays. Check with your local council before you start, not after. A quick phone call or a look at their planning portal usually gives you a clear answer. Skipping this step and needing to pull work up later is an expensive lesson.
How deep does the sub-base need to be?
For pedestrian paving, a compacted sub-base of 100mm granular material (road base or crushed rock) under a 30mm bedding sand layer is the standard starting point. For a driveway or any area taking vehicle loads, go to 150mm of compacted sub-base minimum. Those numbers assume decent soil conditions. If you are on reactive clay, you need to go deeper and potentially use a geotextile fabric to separate the clay from your sub-base, otherwise the clay movement will work its way up and you will see it in the finished surface within a couple of winters. Do not scrimp on this part.
What drainage fall do I need and how do I measure it?
The standard fall for paved areas is 1 in 100, which is 10mm of drop for every metre of run. That is enough to move water without being noticeable underfoot. Falls toward a boundary fence, a neighbour's property, or back toward a structure are all problems. Water needs somewhere to go, ideally into a garden bed, a drain, or a permeable strip at the edge of the paving. You measure it with a long spirit level and a tape measure, or better yet, a laser level if you have access to one. Get this wrong and you will have pooling water every time it rains.
Can I lay pavers over existing concrete?
Sometimes, but not often, and not without checking a few things first. If the concrete is solid, level, and well-drained, you can bed pavers directly onto it using a mortar or tile adhesive rather than a sand bed. The problem is that most old residential concrete slabs were not laid with enough fall, crack over time, and have edges that will put your finished paving surface too high relative to doors, thresholds, or stormwater drains. Check the finished height carefully before you commit. If the slab is cracked, heaving, or poorly drained, you are usually better off breaking it out than trying to pave over it.
