Stamped Concrete vs Pavers

[Asher]

I'm doing landscaping this year, and I'm hearing conflicted recommendations for our patio & walkways.

Stamped Concrete (with rebar & foundation anchoring)
Pros
Cheaper
Won't sink

Cons
Doesn't look quite as nice
Can crack, which is very expensive to get fixed and ruin the look



Pavers/Pave stones
Pros
Looks great
More easily fixed if settling occurs

Cons
Given that it'll be beside the foundation which was only excavated 1.5 years ago, there's likely to be settling
More expensive



I am leaning towards pave stones.

Thoughts?

[Krill]

Suggestion: Gravel. In a few years you can remove hte gravel and pave over after the land has had more time to set.

[Asher]

Feels pretty ghetto to be hanging out on gravel with a beer though.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Pavers. The fact that you expect settlement means you'll be ****ed with stamped concrete, as you will have differential settlement and see cracking. If you don't have soil analisys reports and know the grading and dirtwork details for your site, assume you'll see significant settlement and expansion, especially after a few wet/dry cycles over the years.

[Alexander's Horse]

at last Asher saves the day with a useful thread - go for pavers man, they are more robust and versatile, you pour a slab and that's it, it's there forever, like it or not

[Hauldren Collider]

I agree that pave stones look much better.

[Snotty]

1.5 years seems a long time to me, but then Im only a rookie in the soil stability business.

From an aesthetic point of view I would rate paving over stamped concrete. Even when that concrete style is very well done, it still screams artificial to my eye. If youre buying to rent the property out then the concrete will still give a solid first impression to prospective tenants.

If the worst comes to the worst paving can be pulled up, the ground releveled and recompacted, and then your paving replaced. As long as your paving remains unpointed, as in your picture above, then you can reuse your expensive and stylish paving once again. From the man on the ground its a ballache to put that stuff back together, but its better for you than having to replace all of your concrete.

[-Jrabbit]

Hi Asher, hope you're well. Go with the pavers, and the acceptance that some occasional maintenance is required to keep everything looking its best.

[Alexander's Horse]

what he said, stamped concrete can look painfully fake after a while, then you have pave over it

[Snotty]

A lot of places round here are being rebuilt with exposed aggregate for driveways and patios. Its smooth so walking on it in bare feet is perfectly acceptable, and it doesnt have the artificial look of the stamped concrete.

Whether its popular here because its cheap, easy, or uses local materials I simply dont know. What I do know is that it can be stylish in the right setting. I dont have any great views of the back patio as thats not what I was working on. The lighter foreground is washed rounds, or shingle, but it sets the hardscaping off nicely in my opinion

[Patroklos]

What do you have planted around it, specifically trees?

[Asher]

Nothing yet. It'll all be done at once.

[Alexander's Horse]

pebbles or gravel suck, they get in your house, your car, pretty much any crack, and weeding them is a pain unless you are prepared to use pesticides, those plastic sheets they put under start to show after a while, you get nasty injuries from them even when smooth, children can choke on them

but very fine loam or sand can be good

[DaShi]

And he means "any crack."

[Alexander's Horse]

so Asher might like it, lol