Choosing Pavers

Concrete pavers are suited for heavy traffic driveways, paths, and borders. Clay paving is suited for pathways, entertainment areas and swimming pool surrounds. Crazy paving is a puzzle of stones designed to create a special touch to the standard garden paving.

Clay Pavers

Clay pavers are made from clay in differed rectangle sizes and colours. The clay is folded over and over again, pressed in a shape and burned in a kiln at a very high temperature. Because clay pavers are fired, the pores are closed, which makes them highly stain resistant. Clay pavers are more likely to chip and crack than concrete pavers, so are less suited to driveway paving.

Clay pavers are more likely to keep their colour, because it’s a natural product. The main disadvantage is the limitation of colours.

Concrete Pavers

Concrete pavers are available in greater variety in sizes and shapes than clay pavers, such as circles, triangles, squares rectangles and so on. Concrete pavers are more suitable for heavy traffic conditions like driveway paving and usually a bit cheaper than clay pavers.

Sealing the pavers, will create an invisible barrier and is recommended for all concrete pavers, because they are more porous than clay pavers. This will help removing any spills, stains and fading in colour over the years.

An advantage over clay pavers, is the broad range of colours available. Colours are mixed with white cement and pigments during manufacturing.

Slate Paving and Natural Masonry

Natural Masonry pavers are a product, cut to a precise size and shape, from a natural stone such as limestone, slate, sandstone, blue stone or granite. The most popular is slate, consisting of layers of stones, compressed on top of each other and easy to split.

Slate composed of clay, quartz and shale, allows a custom individual design, with great natural colours and contrasts, from sandstone to grey, browns, and reds. Natural slate is available in "random" which means a natural shape, or tiles, cut to specific dimensions.  Random slate pieces are often used in a crazy paving patterns for garden paving and entertainment areas.

Slate is available from 12 mm to 35 mm thick. Different varieties of Slate provide different colours, sizes and thickness.

Read more about paving patterns, Crazy Paving, or general driveway and garden paving information.