If you like the look of traditional brick patios, you can find concrete bricks that look like old fashioned red house bricks but are much more reasonably priced. These concrete pavers can be used to create patterns that give patios a very formal, but attractive, design. Herringbone, basket weave, and running bond are the most common brick patio patterns. You can also find gray concrete bricks.

Larger pavers made from concrete are also readily available. These pavers make patio construction a quick and easy task, since one paver is often the size of eight standard bricks. However, these pavers can be prone to cracking and are not quite as sturdy as the smaller concrete pavers. You can buy large pavers in several different colors. Often, homeowners install these pavers in a checkerboard design. However, a solid red, tan, or gray patio is also attractive.

Interlocking patio pavers are a newer type of patio material. These pavers are available in a range of neutral colors. Their unique interlocking design creates a strong patio that is less prone to shifting and heaving than patios made with traditional pavers.

Before installing a patio, you may want to check with your local planning commission to be sure you do not need special permission. Be sure to consider your final patio location carefully. A patio that is close to the kitchen is ideal, since you will be able to have easy access to cold drinks and food. However, some people prefer to create a secluded patio out in the garden area so that they can relax in the tranquil setting.

Once you decide on a location, you will need to level the area. Then, you will need to spread several inches of crushed stone as a foundation. On top of this, you will need to spread several inches of sand. Then, you will need to lay the pavers, using mortar or sand between them.

Before you use your new patio, be sure you protect it properly. Paver sealing fluid will keep too much moisture from seeping into the pavers and will help prevent them from cracking. Sealers also will help your patio repel stains.

With proper installation and maintenance, you will be able to enjoy your new patio for years to come.

While large concrete pavers are a bit too fragile to handle the weight of an automobile and may crack shortly after the driveway is installed, standard sized concrete pavers are a bit stronger. You can use these pavers to create attractive patterns on your driveway, such as the Herringbone, the basket weave, or the running bond. In fact, since concrete pavers come in several colors, you can even create a checkerboard effect.

Brick pavers are another common material used for making driveways. Since bricks or cobblestones were actually used to create driveways before concrete and asphalt became common, using brick pavers helps you give your property a more historic appearance. Brick pavers can be laid in the same variety of patterns as concrete pavers.

However, brick or concrete pavers tend to heave and shift during weather extremes. To avoid having half of the driveway’s bricks jutting up in the air by spring, you will need to install the pavers correctly. You may want to hire a bricklayer to do the job, since it is very time consuming. Dig down at least fifteen centimeters and spread a layer of crushed stone. Be sure to compact the layer of stone. On top of the stone, spread a layer of sand, which will also need to be compacted. This solid base will provide a level surface to lay the bricks as well as helping to prevent heaving. If one or two pavers do still heave up, you can remove them, re-level the base, and place them back into position.

Interlocking pavers are a newer choice for driveway use. These pavers are made to withstand quite a lot of wear and tear. In addition, they are less likely to shift and heave than standard pavers, since the pavers hold themselves together. They automatically create an attractive pattern as they interlock. You can buy interlocking pavers in a range of colors, although red or dark grey are the most common choices. Even though these pavers are less likely to heave than bricks during the winter, you will still need to provide a proper base for them before beginning installation.

No matter which type of paver you choose for your driveway, be sure to use a sealing fluid. If oil, gasoline, or other materials fall on unsealed pavers, it is virtually impossible to get the stains out. Sealing the pavers makes removing stains easier.

What has all that got to do with your new patio floor or garden path? While the ancient Romans used crushed limestone as a basis for their roads, limestone has come to the surface in a big way in the last two centuries. Limestone paving materials are among the most popular natural stones used in creating outdoor paths and floors, taking their place alongside slate and sandstone. Limestone has a long history of use in construction. It was a popular choice for civic construction from the mid-1800s through the mid-1900s, and many railway stations and banks are faced with limestone and have floors and stairways made of limestone.

Limestone paving tiles and stones is durable underfoot, but is soft enough to cut easily with saws and hand tools. The natural striations and coloring variances can be enhanced by the cutting and finishing methods, making limestone paving materials a versatile and beautiful stone for building. Limestone is quarried throughout Europe, the United States, India and China. Because of its prevalence in 18th and 19th century building, some of the most beautiful varieties found as reclaimed paving stones and stone materials – much of it unique as it was quarried locally in small quarries that only supplied the stone for one or two projects.

Part of the reason for the popularity of limestone is the ease with which it can be cut and shaped. Because of that ease, it’s often used as kerbing and edging for other stones. Limestone is available as larger blocks, slabs and strips that can be used for steps and slab flooring, or in setts and cobbles for patterned and cobbled walkways.

For an idea of how lovely and versatile limestone paving and tiles can be, imagine the subtle, understated drama of a circular pattern of blue limestone paving cobbles filled with black sand, or the striking visual impression of a border of inky black limestone cobbles around a mosaic floor of small white limestone paving cubes. Because limestone can take and retain a high polish, it’s a popular choice for lower traffic areas where a mirror-like sheen is desired.

Limestone does require a bit more care than other stone paving products, especially if it has a polished finish. The organic calcium composition makes it vulnerable to acid rain which can stain and dissolve it. If acid rain is a concern in your area, your limestone patio will benefit from an awning to protect it.

Limestone paving sets can also be used to create walkways and retaining walls that are as beautiful as they are functional. Because the stone is easy to work, you can often have manufacturers custom cut limestone for specific accents in the shape of pillars, kerbstones and raised or patterned borders and edgings.

Unlike a wood deck or back patio floor that will wear in a few years, a well-crafted patio floor of natural stone is a work of art that will not only withstand the elements for decades, it will only grow more beautiful with the passage of time and weather. By suiting the design of your patio to the house, you’ll add an architectural accent that will easily recover its cost over the years.

Old Riven paving stones are one of the most popular lines of patio and paving stones from Bradstone, a maker of patio stones and products. Introduced in 2003, the line is available in four colors – autumn gold, autumn bronze, autumn cotswold and autumn silver – and three sizes – 350 mm, 450 mm and 600 mm. In addition, Bradstone makes available a 2400 mm Old Riven stone circle that includes all the stones that you need to create a stunning stone circle accent for your patio. The addition of a corner accessory pack includes all you need to finish a squared patio with a circular center.

The surface of Old Riven paving stone is textured to resemble riven stone with the characteristic fissures and appearance of hewn and weathered stone. Whether you choose to create a monotone design that makes use of one or more sizes for a uniform, modern look to you new patio, or mix and match colors in a random pattern patio, your new outdoor space will have a time-weathered look that makes it feel as if it has always been – and always will be.

Perhaps, though, you’re in the market for a smaller accent. Old Riven paving stone is a perfect choice for such accents as a paved corner with a fire pit in your back yard, or a stone path that winds among raised beds of herbs in your back garden. The curved stones of a stone circle can be picked out to create curved walkways that lead up to the house – or out to an open verandah for al fresco dining and relaxation. The colors of Old Riven are designed to complement each other if you should choose to lay a patchwork random pattern walkway or patio.

Old Riven patio paving stones are only one of the dozens of paving products that can be used to create a natural, warm outdoor living space that will add value and interest to your home. For a complete listing of colors, styles and designs available in stone, look to your local pavior who can explain your options and choices and help you design a stone path or patio that is the perfect accent for your home.

Many of the railway sleepers in use today are reclaimed from railroad beds throughout the world. The lots of timbers tend to be of uniform thicknesses, since they were originally cut to meet exacting standards of railway building. Years of exposure to the elements have weathered the wood, turning the utilitarian timbers into a subtly beautiful building material. Generally made of hardwoods – oak, beech or azobe, reclaimed timbers are solid, long lasting and full of character – and, to quote one designer – are as easy to work with as a set of child’s building blocks.

There are literally hundreds of ways to incorporate new or reclaimed railway sleepers into your outdoor designs. Railways sleepers can be used to create raised beds, hold back gravel in terraced steps, build decking or create tree houses or other constructions. The only real limit to working with railway sleepers is the creativity of the builder. Most railway sleepers come in 6-8 foot lengths, making them the perfect size for use as is, or to cut down. The natural weathered wood blends in with brick, stone and plants to become a part of the surroundings. They can be used for projects as varied as coffee tables and outdoor benches, wooden lintels and carved bowls.

Railway sleepers are heavy duty, but the perfect material for the backyard do-it-yourselfer. The wood is precut and aged, so a friend or two and a weekend of work can totally transform your backyard into a lush garden with raised beds and terraced steps. Though most projects using railway sleepers lay the timbers flat on the ground, it’s possible to create stunning visual effects with a little creativity. Sawn to different heights and stood on end, a railway sleeper can provide a sculptural accent in the center of a rock garden, or a striking retaining wall for a raised bed of mint or other herbs. A single eight foot timber can be cut to create planter benches or small tables – for indoors or out. Cut and laid along a gravel bed, railway sleepers can become a path or walkway through a landscaped garden or serve as a retaining wall for a series of graduated garden beds.

If you do decide to create your own project using railway sleepers, keep in mind that the timbers are heavy, and use safety precautions. A stack of railway sleepers can weigh several tons. If you are building with sleepers, don’t trust to simple stacking. Be sure to use heavy duty bolts to secure the railway sleepers in place. While building, be sure to wear gloves and work with a partner to avoid injuries from lifting the weighty wood on your own.

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock – rock that is composed of small grains of minerals cemented together with felspathic or calcareous natural cement. It forms in layers that split and are cut easily, making it an ideal building material for many uses. One of the more popular is for patio paving and sandstone paving walkways.

Sandstone paving blocks, slabs, cubes and setts are available from many manufacturers and importers. One of the fastest growing areas of the sandstone market is the importation of Indian sandstone paving stones. The amazing variety of colors ranges from pale gold to deepest black, and includes beige, yellow, jade, rose, red and pink. The patterns can be so subtle that the stone appears to be a solid color, or vividly streaked and striped.

Because of the variety of sizes and colors available, sandstone is eminently suited to creating unique and beautiful designs. If you plan a sandstone paving stone patio or path that uses a standard width of paving stone, such as a coursed pathway, you’re best off using newly quarried and cut sandstone. New sandstone is often available in patio kits, complete with plans and all the stones you need to create a patio of the size stated on the kit. If you prefer a random pattern, or a more weathered look, there’s a great deal of ‘reclaimed’ sandstone available. Reclaimed sandstone paving – whether from old mills or from old roadwork – is often of much more variable dimensions and sizes, but can lend a charming, rustic appearance to even a brand new landscaped home.

If you decide to lay your sandstone paved patio yourself, take a few tips from professional pavers and stoneworkers.

1. Sandstone flags and setts that are less than 25mm thick are more properly called tiles. If you’re working with sandstone paving tiles, plan on setting them in a bed of concrete. Thicker sandstone paving stones do well in a bed of sand at least four inches deep.

2. Plot out your design on paper or with a CAD program before beginning work. It’s far easier to move things around on paper than it is to heft heavy sandstone paving blocks.

3. Never have four corners meeting. When you butt for paving stones corner to corner, you create a visual distraction that detracts from the design – and create a weak point in your patio. Instead, stagger the layout with different size sandstone paving stones.

4. Break up long lines by keeping joints without intersections to less than three meters.

Sandstone is one of the most versatile and beautiful of all paving materials. Whether you choose local quarry sandstone or imported sandstone paving material from India or China, you’ll end up with a patio that is durable, stylish and adds value to your home.

Slate is available in a wide range of colors, from black to green to rose. The stones may be of one mostly smooth color, or a variegated combination of more than one. Particularly stunning are black slate with rose and violet patterning that resemble flower bursts in the natural stone.

Color isn’t the only variation available in slate. There’s a wide variety of surface textures available, thanks to modern techniques that can be used to affect the appearance and surface of the slate stones. Slate may be hammered, honed, polished, sand-blasted, sawed or flamed. Among the available textures are:

• split face – the roughest cut, the bare face of the slate after it has been split
• Saw-cut – a rough surface that shows the marks of the saw
• Sand-blasted – the stone is dampened then fired with an acetylene torch. The result is fissures and color changes to the stone.
• honed – the surface is sanded smooth, but not polished. Honed surfaces show wear more than rough surfaces, but not so much as polished ones.
• Polished – brought to a mirror like sheen by abrasives and sanding. Polished stone isn’t recommended for patio surfaces where regular use puts a great deal of wear and tear on the finish.

Slate is relatively soft compared to other stones, and cuts easily with a circular saw, making it an ideal stone to work with for patios and stone edgings. Because of this ease, it’s possible to use slate paving stones for intricately pieced patterns like circles and starbursts, though it makes a beautiful and simple floor when laid in a plain square pattern, or a crazy pattern.

Slate is suitable for a do-it-yourself project if one can manage heavy lifting and cutting. The work is meticulous, and requires the construction of a form to hold a bed of sand into which the slates will be set. Slate can also be set into a concrete base, but most experts recommend that concrete setting be left to the experts as it requires quick working and fitting to set the stones in place before the concrete dries.

Slate is quarried in the UK, but may also be imported from China or India. Indian slate in particular comes in a wide choice of colors. Experts warn, though, to watch the quality of slate carefully. Slate used for patio floors, walkways and steps should be at least 2 inches thick, and have a chamfered edge that slopes inward from the top down to help set the stone properly and keep the setting material from washing out in the rain.

Terracotta literally means ‘cooked earth’ – and that’s exactly what it is. Terracotta tile is made of clay that is shaped and then fired at temperatures up to 1100 degrees C. The final color of the terracotta tile is dependent on the composition of the clay used to make it, and can range from a warm bisque color that is characteristically French, to the deep, rich carmine often found in Mexican haciendas.

The porous, unglazed surface of terracotta tile makes it an excellent choice for areas where you want a non-slip surface like around the pool. Most manufactures cater to this by offering specialty terracotta tile shaped for use as rounded pool edging and textured stair treads. Though the unglazed surface can be prone to stains, a good surface finish will minimize that tendency. Once finished, caring for terracotta tile isn’t difficult at all – sweep frequently to avoid grit that can mar the tile.

Besides the range of colors available, terracotta can be found in many different sizes and shapes. It trims and cuts easily with glazer’s tools, so it’s easy to create unique patterns on walls and floors by fitting rectangular, square, octagonal and hexagonal tiles together. Traditional square tiles are still the most popular, but modern designers have introduced terracotta tile to a variety of new patterns and layouts that can create striking contrasts and highlights. A terracotta tile floor is more than just safety conscious. When you combine it with finished ceramic tile in borders or as highlights, the end result is a stylish, modern look that lifts terracotta tile out of the realm of ‘rustic charm’ and into the big leagues of style and elegance.

In short, terracotta tile is durable and stylish. The non-porous slip-resistant finish makes it a popular style for floors and walkways around swimming pools. The warm tones of natural terracotta file blend easily with any decor, offering Old World charm and beauty.

Here are some tips on caring for terracotta file:

• Select the right terracotta file for your project.
• Seal the terracotta tiles with a high quality surface sealant to protect against staining and breakage.
• Sweep often to prevent build ups of grit and dirt that mar the surface.
• Efflorescence is caused by the exposure of the terracotta tile to sunlight and oxygen. Clean affected tiles and treat the area with an effervescence sealant.

These days, yorkstone paving is as popular as ever in both new construction and restoration. The quarries are still being worked to provide new yorkstone, but a great deal of the yorkstone paving that’s on the market today has been reclaimed from old roads and mills. The historic stone is as versatile, useful and beautiful now as it was then.

The color of yorkstone depends on the quarries from which it was mined. Depending on the exact makeup of the sediments and ‘glue’, it may be black, gray, brown, reddish or even green. Newly quarried yorkstone is usually available as slabs, setts and cobbles of varying widths and depths to suit any construction projects. Reclaimed yorkstone paving is more often found in odd shapes and broken bits – what paving workers call ‘assorted rubble’. Those bits are most often used in ‘crazy paving’- an alternative to rectangular or patterned paving.

Yorkstone is versatile enough to be used for flagstone patios or steps, either in slabs or setts. Yorkstone setts, cobbles and slabs can be combined into stunning patterns that range from highly structured stone circles to intricately pieced checkerboards and mosaics. Crazy paving is one of the most popular ways of using broken, reclaimed yorkstone. Crazy paving most likely takes its name from the pattern – or lack of one – that the broken yorkstone forms when its laid and mortared in place – akin to a crazy quilt – but there are those who hold that the name comes because it’s a ‘crazy way to lay stone’, or because anyone would be crazy to think that it’s an easy way to make a patio. Any paver will tell you that while the broken stone used in crazy paving costs less, a crazy paved patio or walkway is an intense labor of love and frustration.

Unlike laying a coursed path, where all the yorkstone paving stones are approximately the same thickness and in even sizes, crazy paving uses whatever stone is available. It means that the paver – you, if you’ve decided to do it yourself – must first sort the pieces by approximate size and shape, and then begin to lay the stones in a pattern, making sure that the pieces of yorkstone paving meet as closely as possible. Imagine doing a jigsaw puzzle with pieces that weigh up to a hundred pounds or more.

Yorkstone paving is available from many manufacturers and agents. It’s a durable and beautiful stone that has stood the test of English weather for centuries, and will stand it for years to come in your garden or patio.

The warm creamy tones of Gironde paving are the perfect accent for a romantic garden, as demonstrated by David Domoney (for Better Homes) at the Chelsea Flower Show in May 2003. His garden design featured Gironde paving stones in a semi-circular design leading up to terraced steps that allowed entry into a portico temple. The formal terraced garden design was completed a pair of waterfalls spilling into a central pool.

Your own garden plans may not be so ambitious, but you’ll find that the faint blush that gives weathered, time-worn limestone its warmth will work well as the background for your garden, or as the main accent of your patio floor. The range of sizes available and the ease of working with patio ‘kits’ make laying a standard Gironde patio something that a handy do-it-yourselfer can manage on his own.

Among the most popular products in the Gironde line are the Gironde circle feature pack and the Gironde accessory corner pack. By combining the two, you can easily create a stunning squared patio with a central stone circle. If you’re more ambitious than that even, and dare to step into designing and creating your own patterns, the range of six sizes lend Gironde paving stones to such diverse patterns as simple coursed walks, random patterned walkways and gracefully sweeping European fan patterned patios.

When choosing Gironde paving for your patio, keep in mind a few design tips offered by professional garden designers.

1. Choose colours that harmonise with your house. Gironde is a light paving stone with a warm creamy color. It creates a warm contrast with classic red brick or blush sandstone.

2. Minimize the ’shock value’ of a straight-line contrast at the house line by using landscaping. Planters and low-growing shrubbery can lead the eye naturally from the house’s lines to the patio’s.

3. Keep your colors complementary – and minimal. If you want a pattern for your patio rather than plain slabs of the same size, consider a stone circle or European fans.

4. That said, a contrasting edging can be a dramatic contrast that defines that patio’s space. Rows of Gironde paving slabs separated by a warm sandstone, or edged with gray cobbles can create a unique style statement.

5. When you choose accessories – patio furniture, planters and the like, keep in mind that the light color of Gironde paving will reflect sun and heat. Choose materials and textures that will add to the casual warmth of the flagstone terrace.