Whether you are renovating your existing patio or considering building one in your new home, the paving stones you’ll use will have a critical effect on how the final product will look. The right thing to do in order to know what’s best for your patio is to check some online blogs or get professional’s advice. Now you’re here, which means you hitting two birds with one stone: you’re reading a blog on the internet, and the blog is reviewed and edited by Calum himself! A man who’s been helping his dad builds patios ever since he was 12! So, don’t miss this shot, and let Calum help you choose the right paving.
Roughly speaking, three factors should be taken into consideration when choosing the right paving stones for your home. These three factors are met, you’d find yourself with fewer options, but they’d be certainly the best ones for you. These factors are:
● Budget: probably the most crucial factor is how much you can afford. The cost equation should include the initial cost & the long-term maintenance and updates. You should also take into account the surface you want to cover with the pavers.
● Purpose: Your options are also limited by the reason why you’re purchasing the pavers. Are you building your home from scratch, making improvements to an existing patio, maybe revamping a driveway, or redesigning the whole thing? You certainly get extra more liberty when you’re building the patio from scratch or redesigning your landscape, but updating or adding a feature should be limited to options that fit the already-used stones around your property.
● Style of Your Home: you definitely don’t want to use rustic cobbles and flagstones in a modern house. And vice versa; bluestones and porcelain will look awkwardly alienated in a traditional house.
Now it’s time to take a look at the best 5 paving stones for your patio that are available in the market. Each variety may have tens of sub-varieties with a slight difference in colour -and composition too sometimes-. But generally speaking, bluestone is a bluestone!
● Ceramic: commonly used to create high end look & feel, ceramic tiles are definitely upon the top 5 ultra-modern paving stone tiles you can ever think of. When polished, the surface of the ceramic exposes its outstanding & natural beauty features. It’s also very strong and hard-wearing with very little maintenance. But, it’s also pretty expensive! The average ceramic tile cost when installed is initiated at £85/m².
● Bluestone: with no less modernity than their former companion, bluestones are one of the finest pavers you can ever consider for your modern patio! Regardless of their low maintenance, bluestones are easier to modify & install, and they come at a slightly lower price compared to other modern varieties: £65 to £75 per m².
● Crazy Paving: this group of pavers overlaps between modernity & tradition. The unpredictable pattern these pavers take to get along with one another is crazy; crazy paving! With a fairly low final cost of around £40/m², these pavers can fit smoothly in both: traditional & modern homes.
● Flagstone: not so different than crazy paving since they both follow the same crazy patterns, flagstones are less modern than the former type & their ability to absorb and preserve moisture means more algae, and therefore high maintenance. This justifies their very low installation cost: about £32/1m².
● Brick Pavers: if you want cheap, low maintenance, and traditional options, head to brick pavers. Don’t confuse cheap & traditional with aestheticism and beauty. In fact, brick pavers allow a wide range of possibilities for creative people to come up with wildly artistic displays. With a final cost lower than £20/m², brick pavers are a great choice for traditional options.
Cheshire Life Landscapers offer more alternative pavers & ideas such as Stone Flag, Indian stone, Crazy Paving, Gravel, Resin Bound, State flags, and also Tarmac and Printed Concrete. Yes, we got all of that and we can some really creative stuff! James can work closely with you and our list of happy clients is growing faster every day, and you can join them with a simple click here.