PAVING THE WAY TO SUCCESS: My Inevitable Title With A Meaningless Subtitle

Author's note: I'll be at my home-away-from-home in Suzhou, China for most of the summer, and depending on how reliable my internet service proves to be, I'll continue my weekly blogs. However, please forgive me if the infrastructure/political events cause me to miss a date here or there. In any event, I wish you all, dear readers, a lovely summer.

If you’ve ever walked down a mossy brick path winding its way through a garden, you know how evocative outdoor paving can be. A well-chosen paving material can enhance both your home’s architecture and your garden’s ambience. 

Scored and colored concrete—simple,
but beautiful.

A good paving material should acquire a patina as it ages.  Also, since soil is constantly swelling and shrinking due to rain and frost, it should also be able to take a little ground movement and still look good.  Here are just a few of the more popular paving materials, and how they can be used:

•  Concrete has been the standard for patios and paths for many years. Yet the great creative opportunities inherent in concrete are seldom exploited.  Because it’s a plastic material, patterns and textures are limited only by your imagination.

One neat trick is simply to score a pattern into the wet concrete, a technique widely used prior to World War II but seldom seen today.  When combined with coloring, scoring can produce a very elegant effect at relatively low cost.

Impressed concrete systems, such as
Bomanite, can be a dead ringer
for actual stone paving.

• More costly is the patented Bomanite system, in which patterns such as cobblestone, brick, or tile are imprinted into suitably colored concrete.  In many cases, the effect is indistinguishable from the real material.  You’ve probably been fooled by Bomanite “cobblestones” in many roadway median strips.    

• Exposed aggregate, in which the fine cement on the surface of the concrete is stripped off to reveal the aggregate beneath, has overcome its shopping-center reputation of the Sixties and is quite popular again. You needn’t use sparkly white rocks for this effect, either; any color or size of aggregate will do.

• For a subtler textured effect, coarse rock salt can be embedded into fresh concrete before troweling. The salt dissolves after a few weeks, leaving a very interesting rye-cracker sort of texture.

Classic brick paving can roll with
the punches. This is a herringbone
pattern with soldier course borders. 

All concrete work should be provided with control joints (strips of redwood or hardboard) at intervals of about twelve feet to allow the sections of paving to move relative to each other.  This reduces cracking in the middle of the surfaces.

•  Brick paving provides almost limitless design possibilities, weathers beautifully, and is reasonably affordable if you provide your own labor. Borders and curbs are easily accomplished in brick. And of course,  varying shades of brick can be laid in patterns to create highly artistic installations.

It’s not necessary to set bricks in mortar, either.  They can simply be laid dry on a sand bed, which allows the paving to accommodate soil settlement and encourages the growth of mosses and lichen between the bricks. Running bond, herringbone and basketweave are just a few of the most common brick paving patterns.

Interlocking pavers have a sharper, more precise look,
and are less likely to settle. 

•  Interlocking concrete pavers, which have long been popular throughout Europe, are now widely available in the U.S.  Although more expensive than poured concrete, they provide an attractive surface which easily accommodates soil movement.  Like bricks, they can be laid dry in a sand bed, making do-it-yourself installation simple. They’re available in many interlocking shapes, and in a range of colors.  A special type, called a grid paver, has openings which grass can grow through, softening the look of the paved surface.