Driveway Paving Guide: What You Need to Know Before You Start
Replacing or installing a driveway is one of the most impactful home improvement projects you can do — it changes the look of your entire property from the street. Get it right and it will last 20 to 30 years. Get it wrong and you'll be fixing it in three. Here's everything you need to know.
Step 1: Understand What Makes a Driveway Last
A driveway carries the weight of vehicles every day, often through rain, heat and cold cycles. The paving bricks themselves are almost never the cause of failure — it's what's underneath them. A driveway fails because of:
- Insufficient excavation depth
- Poorly compacted sub-base
- Wrong sand depth or sand type
- No or inadequate edge restraints
- Poor drainage that allows water to saturate the base
A reputable contractor addresses all of these before a single brick is laid. If a contractor is vague about their preparation process, that's a warning sign.
Step 2: Choose the Right Brick
For driveways, you have two main categories:
Clay Bricks (Corobrick)
Fired clay bricks are harder, denser and more durable than cement alternatives. They don't absorb oil as readily, they're colour-stable over decades, and they look better with age. Corobrick's range — Cederberg, Nutmeg, Namaqua, Ironstone — gives you genuine variety of colour while maintaining quality. They cost more upfront but are the better long-term investment for a driveway.
Cement Bricks (Bevel Bond)
The standard bevel-edged cement brick is the most commonly used driveway brick in South Africa. It's reliable, cost-effective, available in a range of colours and perfectly suited to most residential driveways. A well-installed bevel bond driveway will last many years without problems.
Flagstones
Large-format flagstones can be used on driveways but require a particularly solid base given their size. They're more commonly used on patios and pool surrounds. Discuss with your contractor whether flagstones are appropriate for your specific situation.
Step 3: Think About Pattern and Drainage Together
The laying pattern for a driveway isn't just aesthetic — it affects structural performance. Herringbone (45° or 90°) is the recommended pattern for driveways because it creates interlocking between bricks that distributes load and resists spreading. When vehicles drive over herringbone-laid bricks, the pattern helps the surface move together rather than individual bricks shifting independently.
Drainage must be planned before laying begins. Water needs somewhere to go — channel drains, outlets to the street or garden, or a gradient that directs runoff away from the house. Water pooling under paving will undermine the base over time.
Step 4: Edge Restraints Are Not Optional
The perimeter of your driveway needs to be contained with concrete haunching — a concrete fillet that locks the edge bricks in place. Without this, bricks at the edges migrate outward over time, leaving gaps and causing the whole surface to gradually loosen. This is one of the most common sources of driveway failure and one of the most common things skimped on in a cheap job.
What to Expect During Installation
- Excavation — Existing surface and soil removed to the required depth
- Sub-base preparation — Compaction with a plate compactor or roller
- Sand bed — Coarse sand screeded to a consistent depth and level
- Brick laying — Bricks laid to pattern, cut where needed at edges
- Compaction — Plate compactor run over the laid surface to bed bricks in
- Edging — Concrete haunching applied around perimeter and channels
- Jointing sand — Fine sand swept into the joints and compacted again
- Cleanup and inspection
A standard residential driveway typically takes one to three days depending on size and complexity. Concrete edging needs time to cure before the area is used — your contractor will advise on timing.
Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Contractor
- How deep will you excavate?
- What will the sub-base compaction process be?
- What sand depth will be used?
- Is concrete haunching included along all edges?
- How will drainage be addressed?
- Can you show me examples of similar work?
For more guidance, read our article on how to choose a paving contractor.