How To Pick The Right Paving Stone

We were recently asked the question “how do you pick the right paving stone”?This is a difficult question to answer and there are certainly a multitude of variables that need to be considered when determining the “right” paving stone for your project. Pavestones come in a wide variety of shapes, textures, colors and sizes, and depending on your area, there are usually several pave stone manufacturers to choose from. We have 6 main pave stone manufacturers to choose from in southern California -RCP, Ackerstone, Orco, Angelus, Belgard and Olsen. All of them offer similar but different stone types. You can try to find much more paving stone on http://www.ecvv.com/company/globefaith/index.html.

The most commonly installed paver (for residential use) is the Antique Cobble stone. Antique Cobble pavers give a smooth surfaced look and are typically installed in a 2-stone pattern such as an I-pattern or running bond pattern. They are also the lowest priced stone. Many home owners want something other than concrete that is appealing, durable and will give them a smooth surface for their entertaining areas. This stone meets that criteria.

Moving slightly higher in price brings you into a tumbled paver. The tumbling effect comes from either putting an un-tumbled stone into a tumbler, which rolls the pavers around like they’re in a dryer, or, using a distressing machine to hammer the stones surface to give it a weathered look. These stones are a fantastic option for the recently built or renovated Tuscan style homes that have been flooding southern California’s suburbs. The tumbled appearance gives the stone a rich, authentic look that can highly compliment surrounding landscapes and other hardscapes.

The “Cadillac” stones are your multi-sized, tumbled designer styles. These packages usually include 4 or 5 stone sizes with a tumbled finish. You generally see these stone types installed in estate homes or in large paved areas.

Once you have tackled the task of choosing a texture, color is the next decision to make. Most manufacturers are offering more and more blended color options. These will have a minimum of 2 colors and will have an un-uniformed blended between the two colors (i.e. in a charcoal / brown blend you will see stones that are all charcoal or all brown, and some that have a little or a lot of either color). Solid colors are also available, however, it make sense to me that if you’re installing cobble stones, your intent is to get away from the solid slab look and would prefer to have a stone that looked more natural looking color blend.

Paving stone manufacturers go through numerous testing phases to make sure their products are compliant with ASTM, ICPI and ISO standards. 60mm pavers, used in residential applications are rated at 8,000psi. almost 4 times as strong as poured in place concrete. While the stone strength is impressive, there are still situations that would require the use of a thicker, stronger stone. Depending on your native soil conditions, any paved area that is expecting vehicular traffic in excess of 7,000lbs should require additional base material underneath the pavers, and could possibly require the use of an 80mm paver. These are usually found in commercial applications, however, many homeowners who have a large motor home, septic, trash or moving service driving over their pavers should seriously consider using the thicker stone option.

The final component of finding the right paving stone is to find a good design consultant and a good paving stone installation company. A good design consultant should be able to use the different colors, textures and sizes to compliment the surrounding environments and really use the pavers not as the focal point of the house, but as the picture frame to their residential oasis. Using different patterns in different areas to exaggerate the functionality of those areas can make an impressive impact and really give your project that final touch. Again, it is imperative that you find a quality installation service provider who will do the job right. It won’t matter if you picked out the nicest stone with the most complimentary colors and textures. If the installation is done poorly, it will show and it will not be pretty. You can try to get much more information on http://www.ecvv.com/product_directory/paving.html China manufactuers,china suppliers,china products.

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<a href="http://www.ecvv.com">www.ecvv.com</a> is an innovative and comprehensive business portal in China, dedicated to saving costs for Chinese SMEs to find buyers and export to overseas markets.