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The Ultimate Guide to Pavers
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Pavers are individual pieces of natural stone or brick that interlock together to create a level, uniform, and beautiful hardscape area. Pavers come in an endless supply of materials, colors, and textures making them a fun and versatile choice for your exterior design.
Your choice of pavers sets the aesthetic tone of your outdoor living area. Follow our handy guide to choose the material and style best suited to your hardscape project.
Why Pavers?
When creating large hardscaped areas, pavers are held up as the more desirable alternative to poured concrete slabs. While concrete has its place, there are many reasons to consider pavers for your outdoor living area instead.
Sound Investment
If you only consider upfront costs, hardscape pavers are more costly than concrete slabs. However, poured concrete ends up costing more over time than pavers. Concrete is susceptible to large-scale cracking, making it difficult to repair or replace. Pavers, however, cover a smaller area with each brick, making them easier to maintain and replace.
Value
Pavers are an ideal choice for homeowners looking to invest in the value of their home because they cost less to maintain over time than concrete. Buyers know that pavers last forever and prefer them due to easier maintenance and lower repair costs. Pavers also create a beautiful first impression, adding overall aesthetic value to your home.
Durability
Pavers are hands-down the most durable choice for hardscaping projects. Pavers are up to four times more durable than concrete (consider the 2000 psi of concrete vs. 8000 psi of some pavers) making them less likely to crack and warp with heavy use over time.
Aesthetics
Simply put: pavers are pretty. They come in endless varieties of material, shape, and color. Plus, you can add even more visual interest with different tiling patterns. You can use the color, shape, and tiling pattern of hardscape pavers to express any kind of design aesthetic from sumptuous Roman villa to classic Colonial American. Another bonus? The rougher surfaces of many pavers don’t register tire marks the way many other materials do, making them great for use in heavily trafficked areas of your project.
Flexibility
Pavers are the most flexible choice for your hardscape project. While they take a bit more time to prepare and install upfront, they don’t require any additional curing time which means your design is ready to use right away. Future design choices can be accommodated without digging up the entire existing design.
Climate
We wouldn’t live anywhere else, but the climate in Gainesville, FL can be a challenge. Pavers are flexible and adjust to changes in the ground much better than other materials. Concrete splits and cracks easily with excessive moisture or when the earth beneath it moves. With the frequent shifts in the ground in Alachua County, pavers are often a better long-term choice that avoids costly repairs in the future.
Types of Hardscape Pavers
Travertine Pavers
Nothing adds classic beauty to your home like travertine stone pavers. Travertine pavers add an extra layer of sumptuousness and sophistication to any outdoor living design. In addition to being drop-dead gorgeous, travertine pavers are some of the longest-lasting paving materials available. Heavily favored by the Romans in their architectural feats, you only need to look at the Coliseum if you have doubts about the durability and timelessness of travertine.
In addition to impressive staying power, travertine has a soft appearance that makes it well suited to sunlit areas like pool decks, patios, and lanais. Travertine is a quarried porous limestone that has the look of warm marble. Travertine pavers are especially heat resistant, making them a surprisingly cool and comfortable choice around the pool.
Attributes:
- Create an upscale, gleaming look with panache.
- Add visual interest and last significantly longer than decorative tile.
- A large selection of different colors, finishing options, and sealants make travertine pavers a versatile design choice.
- Long-lasting and heat resistant, ideally suited for outdoor use in the heat of Gainesville, FL.
- Need to be sealed regularly to maintain their clean and polished look.
Bluestone Pavers
Bluestone pavers are a perennial favorite for outdoor design projects, especially patios, pool decks, and walkways. “Bluestone” refers to the deep blue hue of sandstone mined in the ancient Catskill delta of upstate New York.
Bluestone pavers are well-loved by designers and homeowners for the elusive soft-yet-hard quality they emanate. The rough texture of bluestone gives it good traction in the rain, while also feeling soft and inviting enough to soak up the sun on.
Attributes:
- Excellent choice for large-scale outdoor living like patios and decks because it doesn’t discolor over time.
- Easily machined into different sized and shaped slabs, making it flexible to work with and well suited to custom architectural details.
- Doesn’t need to be sealed, saving on maintenance costs and can be easily cleaned with natural products like diluted vinegar.
- Can achieve both sleek and modern or traditional looks easily.
Clay Brick Pavers
As a building material, clay brick has certainly stood the test of time. It is versatile, beautiful, and easy to maintain. Clay brick pavers are no exception and offer both the traditional and elegance of Colonial Americana and the style and strength of masonry clay.
Clay brick pavers are made from high-quality ceramic shale and fired at temperatures up to 2,000 degrees F. Exposure to extreme temperatures in a kiln makes clay bricks especially strong and durable. The result is a tough, heat and water-resistant paving product with oodles of traditional appeal.
Attributes:
- Can be sealed to protect against wear and fading, or forego sealing for a desirable weathered look.
- Bricks can be laid in an endless variety of patterns that dramatically change the look and feel of the material.
- Easy to maintain with periodic power washing.
- Cost-effective choice relative to bluestone or travertine pavers. They can often be salvaged and reused in great service of design.
Concrete Pavers
Interlocking concrete pavers offer the best of all worlds. They are extremely durable, come in a large variety of colors, textures, and materials, are cost-effective, and can provide the modern industrial look of poured concrete without the costly maintenance and risk.
Concrete pavers can be colored and shaped to look like stone or brick pavers, or they can simply be allowed to let their concrete flag fly proudly. The wide-ranging selection of concrete pavers will astound you.
Attributes:
- Offer the most price and style options of any hardscaping material.
Can achieve the smooth industrial look of poured concrete without the associated cost and risks. - Easy to repair and maintain over time.
- Excellent choices anywhere outdoor flooring is needed such as walkways, driveways, decks, and patios.