What Paving Is Best For Patios
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- What Paving Is Best For Patios
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- 12-01-2022
This article discusses what paving is best for patio? We look at the options available for choosing the right paving for your garden.
If you have either decided you want a brand-new patio on your property or to re-vamp an old one, you may be thinking: What materials are right for me? What is my budget? What style patio do I want? All these questions are great to think about and research further.
Lucky for you, McDonald Landscapers have written the following article that discusses available styles and materials that may suit you and your property.
Choosing the right paving for your garden
Choosing the right paving for your garden and home is an important decision because you will have it for years to come. Read on and consider the following questions.
What do you want to achieve?
Whether your purpose of having paving is to revamp an old patio, add a new alfresco dining area, create a seating area for the summer, or be one with nature, you should think about the impact it is going to have on your garden, house exterior, and surrounding landscape.
Similarly, if you want to stick to a style, which we will also cover later, consider the material's appearance and how it may affect, complement, coordinate, or contrast with your property.
The difference between paving stones and slabs, apart from the spelling, is how different your patio would look if you made it from stones or slabs.
If you want your patio to be the focal point of your garden, choose stones and slabs that attract visitors' eyes with their texture and colours.
On the other hand, stones and slabs can blend in and complement the architecture of your house, depending on the chosen materials and colours.
What is your budget?
Try not to think that you are limiting yourself when considering what budget to stick with. There is a range of materials available for every budget, so remember to do your research.
It is worth considering long-term maintenance and initial installation costs to cover a particularly big area because you may want a material that lasts longer and saves time and money for future landscape projects.
Sometimes cheap materials can lead to further and higher costs in the long term, in which case it is worth paying for better quality material.
You should consider maintenance costs because a lot of traffic and wear-and-tear could age, crack, or damage the material, leading to more expenses.
Furthermore, if you cover an area such as the main pathway, where you need full accessibility, you may wish to spend more money to hire more manpower to get the paving installed quicker.
Additionally, you must consider that your paving will be outside in all weathers, so check that the material you choose can withstand the harsh heat of summer and the cracking cold of winter.
What is the style of your home?
Is your home traditional, rustic, or classic? If that is the case, you should think about cobbled or block paving to match that style.
A red-brick building would suit a similarly coloured natural stone paving, whereas a modern home with cool colours would make a statement with sleek slate paving.
Modern properties tend to look creative, decorative, experimental, or ecologically friendly, meaning that a porcelain paving would look much better than concrete, for example.
Look at the surrounding neighbourhood and consider how similar or different your property looks compared to theirs. Similarly, you could research other options and make your property stand out.
Before making the final decision, it would be wise to use physical or virtual samples to see and try out different options.
Best paving for patios
A patio can uplift your garden and transform it into a space you can appreciate your garden with friends and family.
Choosing the right material for your patio could make it the focal point of your garden. We will discuss budgeting, block paving, concrete paving slabs, natural stone slabs, and porcelain paving to help you decide which is right for you.
Budget Paving for Patios
If you require guidance when it comes to getting patio paving on a budget, look no further. You do not need to limit what materials you purchase if you're shopping on a budget because there are plenty of paving ranges that are both affordable and decorative.
If a paving material has texture, you can create a modern garden and home, as many of the following products can enhance an outdoor space without a shocking price tag.
Additionally, you can save money on installation costs because DIY makes for great weekend and summer projects. The following products are made from concrete or manufactured in moulds, making them have consistent colour, finishes, thickness, and easy to lay yourself.
The most popular domestic material to make a patio with is block pavers. Its reputation for classic, luxurious, and fantastic weathering qualities makes it an ideal material for both traditional and modern styled homes.
You can choose from a range of colours, including charcoal, maroon, pewter, red, and silver. You can also choose from five different sizes to create a unique looking patio that will be the envy of your neighbours. Despite all the colour and size options of block paving, if your first focus is budgeting, it's the affordable material for you.
Concrete paving slabs can also be manufactured in different colours and finishes, even replicating natural stone for a traditional style. You could also style concrete slabs to create a modern patio with contemporary grey dyes and clean-cut lines.
Concrete paving is produced to replicate natural stone and create a more affordable option for people working on a budget. Patios made from concrete can be made from recycled aggregate, moulded to suit a traditional and historical property, and is more economical than quarried sandstone.
Furthermore, it can be protected with a special surface sealant to aid with cleaning and general maintenance. Alternatively, while concrete paving can cost less than natural stone, you can come across concrete products claiming to be premium that is more expensive than natural stone paving. Concrete is better suited to constructing a patio than natural stone, as concrete is more versatile, dense, and durable.
Natural stone paving has a very eye-catching, modern finish that is guaranteed to enhance your garden. You could choose to experiment with different coloured stone paving with two contrasting shades of natural stone for a stark effect between the lighter and darker parts of your modern garden.
Natural stone comes in many types, such as Indian sandstone, natural limestone, and granite paving. Indian sandstone is an ever-popular option, with some sandstone paving exhibiting fossilised plant life. Sandstone is consistently quarried thick and can come in big, small, curved, and straight sizes.
Natural limestone works for both classic and contemporary patios. They exhibit constant colouring between each slab, riven texture for a faint pattern to your patio, and hand fettled edges to create a natural slate appearance. It is worth sealing limestone to prevent weathering from causing the colours to fade and keep it looking as good as new.
River washed limestone provides a riven finish that looks to be aged by water for a contemporary feel to your home.If you want to install a minimalist style to your property, consider constructing a patio out of granite paving.
Granite patio slabs feature an enflamed textured surface and clean-cut edges that could make an attractive backdrop for hard landscaping features like plant pots and ornaments. While natural stone comes in many forms, it is worth considering how long it takes to install natural stone paving for your patio.
Why? Natural stone takes more time to install than other materials, meaning that you may be paying extra for more than one installer to complete their work quicker.
Porcelain is the ultimate hard-wearing material to create a bespoke patio suitable for modern and contemporary property. There are plenty of designer looks that can completely transform your outdoor space and increase the value of a property. It has the most resistance to staining than the previously mentioned materials and is exceptionally strong.
If you want to have porcelain paving on a traditional-styled property, hand-fettled edges to your porcelain pavers can create the same effect as sleek slate slabs. The advantages of having porcelain paving include the fact that the surface absorbs little to no moisture, and algae and moss struggle to grow.
It also means less cleaning is necessary to keep your patio looking polished and perfect. This material just needs the occasional sweep and hose down to maintain it. It can be argued that durability is the real value for money rather than style.
However, it is worth doing your research to make sure you are not paying more for a material that is just as durable as the other. For example, porcelain and natural stone are almost as durable as each other, but the latter is highly porous.
Porcelain is frost-resistant, stain-resistant, and absorbs less than 0.05% of water. This means that porcelain paving will not be damaged by water, and you don't need to pay extra for protective sealants.
Are you asking: What Paving Is Best For My Patio? Seeing the products themselves creates a much better visual for imagining your brand-new patio. Instead of just looking online, we recommend that you look at physical samples of the material you are interested in, aiding in this visualising.
McDonald Landscapers is an established and reputable company in Ayrshire with years of local landscaping experience.
We provide soft and hard landscaping services throughout Ayrshire, Ayr, Prestwick and Braehead. If you have any questions, queries, or expert advice, please do not hesitate to contact us today.
