Why are my pavers sinking?

Check out this recent defect we detected in a recent Building Inspections Perth. I’ve got this undulation going through the pavers that are here. I get asked about this quite a fair bit as to why it looks like a giant ball. It has sort of dented these pavers and the reason it looks like this is because below ground here we’ve got what we call a soakwell. This is where all the plumbing pipes from the down pipes that gets collected on the roof runs down these pipes through these pipes and into soakwells under the pavers. Now what happens is over time we lose compaction on the top of those soakwells as the sand gets washed into the soak well through holes that are in the side and it can sometimes create this paving undulation.

These issues have largely been dealt with in new construction styles where builders use geocloth wrapping around the soakwells but if you wonder “why are my pavers sinking?” – This is almost always your answer.This is this sort of bowl shaped undulation that happens in the pavers quite often. It is a below ground soakwell.