Summer landscape remodeling is a fun project that can renew the look of your home. By sprucing up your home’s exterior, you’ll be bringing in an abundance of freshness to your doorstep and a new personality.
Patio renovation, thus, becomes a must. This is the space in your home that’s the perfect relaxation spot where you can hang around with your loved ones, have gatherings, or just lazily enjoy the summer sun. That’s why turning your patio into a cozy retreat is something you should indulge in.
Now comes the real question: when it comes to patio pavement, should you be going with concrete pavers or brick pavers?
To really understand the right choice for you, you must consider a few essential things.
Brick Pavers—the Timeless Building Material
Bricked pavers have been a standard building material for centuries. They’ve been used to build walls, and for paving surfaces like roads, driveways, courtyards, and more. They have that classic elegant appeal that homeowners dig, making them a well-loved choice for patio walkways.
Concrete pavers may be harder and more durable, but classic brick pavers can stand the stress if laid down over a good base that’s maintained often. This is why it’s so important you hire a paver installation service that you trust rather than making it a DIY job. In the end, you’ll see for yourself that there’s nothing as elegant as a patio, walkway, or driveway that’s paved with stone or brick pavers.
Brick pavers are made out of clay that’s cast and heat cured in the shape of a brick. Stone pavers, on the other hand, are cut out from natural stone.
Clay bricks that are used for wall construction are very different from paver bricks. The latter is a smooth, solid block without any gaps or holes. You can also choose from different styles, colors, and textures for brick pavers to fit your home’s look. If you’re a homeowner that loves all things vintage, they’ll have you give your patio a century-old look, and if you’re a modern homeowner, they can keep up that appearance.
Another plus point: if you decide to replace your brick pavement someday, there’s a market for recycled brick pavers you can opt for.
Maintenance
Brick pavers do weather over time due to moisture and UV rays but with proper maintenance, you can make your pavement last for over 25 years.
Ideally, your brick paver patio needs to be washed at least twice a year. You can use a pressure washer for the best results. If you see weeds between the bricks, remove them immediately.
After your pavement is dry, you can pack the joints between pavers with fresh sand. For mortared pavers, repair cracks using fresh mortar and dry completely.
You can ensure a long life for your pavement by sealing the bricks after each wash. Not doing so can lead to bricks that flake and peel over time.
Tip: when you’re sealing your pavement, use a specialized sealing product that’s made for clay bricks like a siloxane-based sealer. This will protect your bricks without changing the way they look. Stay away from glossy-finish sealers because they often result in an irregular, uneven surface.
Concrete Pavers—the Modern Alternative
Apart from brick pavers, concrete pavers are another popular building material choice for walkways, patios, and driveways.
They’re made of sand, concrete, water, and an aggregate (usually gravel), as well as color.
During manufacturing, a dry concrete mix that has sand, gravel, and cement is poured into molds of various sizes and shapes that are compressed and cured.
The result? Super strong pavers that can withstand over 8000 pounds per sq. inch of pressure.
As far as maintenance is concerned, concrete pavers require very little. An occasional hose rinsing or sweeping will do the job. If you do see weeds appear from the surface, you should pull them out. If you see any stains, you can use a concrete cleaner to remove them.
However, know that the smoothness that defines concrete pavers does degrade over time. You can prolong the life of the surface to some extent by regularly applying a sealer.
Sometimes tree roots, settling, or frost can damage a section of your patio. To fix the problem, you can easily remove the damaged pavers and install new ones.
For the best results, you should opt for a paver installation service because a properly installed and maintained paver patio or driveway can last for at least 50 years.
So, Concrete Pavers or Brick Pavers?
Let’s consider some important factors; the end decision is yours:
Durability
You should choose a product that can stand the test of time.
Concrete
Concrete is a durable building material, but cold weather and moisture can cause cracks in it. Since concrete is less dense than pavers, it also absorbs water better. This leads to expansion and contraction when the weather gets very cold.
Brick
On the other than, pavers don’t really crack due to the natural density of stone or clay. This means they don’t allow water to enter the stone.
Drainage
Whenever you’re building pavement, you have to consider the drainage. After all, you don’t want any water to drain toward your home or fill up your driveway.
Concrete
Concrete acts like a sponge when wet, so it absorbs as much moisture as it can. However, once its capacity is full, the water will drain or puddle.
To reduce this, you’ll have to grade your concrete. It’s better to let masonry service providers who offer paver installation services handle this bit so everything is handled smoothly.
Brick
Brick pavers can drain and displace water very well. Since they’re very dense, they don’t hold water at all. Instead, they disperse it through their sand joints.
If you’re installing a brick pavement, ask your masonry service provider to add a few unique features to make them better at drainage.
Repairs
Concrete and brick pavers both need repair at some point. Sometimes, these repairs have to be done below the surface as well. For complex problems that impact the hardscape, you should seek help from professional masonry experts.
Concrete
When the need to repair a concrete paver arises, you’ll have to chip away broken areas and then patch them. This can be done using a mortar mix or an epoxy compound. Unfortunately, your concrete paver won’t look the way it did before. The only solution is to completely break the pavement area to make a new section.
Brick
Brick pavers, on the other hand, are easier to repair than concrete. All you have to do is pull up the paving area that has a problem, adjust the base again, and re-lay the bricks.
Doing so is easy and simple, but without proper accuracy, you can mess up how your brick paver patio looks. So, hire a masonry repair service to make your pavers look the same as they did before.
Application
When you’re thinking about installing pavement on your patio, you’re probably considering its beauty and utility of it.
Concrete
Concrete pavers are stunning. They are polished, glossy, and can be textured like slate, brick, stone, tile, or more. This way, your patio pavement wouldn’t look boring at all, instead, it’d be full of character that’ll give your space an edge.
Even if choose to go with flat, plain pavement, there are tons of ways to make it look beautiful. It’ll still be easy to maintain and spruce up.
Bricks
Brick or stone pavements come in various shapes, colors, and designs. You get a variety of styles and patterns to give it the feel you’re opting for your patio. Each style comes with a unique feel and look.
When it comes to colors, there is a huge selection you can choose from: tan, brown, dark gray, light gray, and red. Combining them also pops and blends the space entirely, giving it a fresh, out-of-the-box feel. Not to mention, the colors of brick pavers don’t lighten over time.
Another plus point: brick pavements, unlike concrete ones, require no cure time. You can walk on them immediately. This means, your patio will be ready for you as soon as you’re done with installing a bricked pavement.
Conclusion
Whether you opt for concrete pavers or brick ones, you should ensure that you get them installed by a qualified masonry service like CF Vice Construction. Your patio is more than aesthetics; it also contributes to the curb appeal of your home in Anthem—so, choose wisely!
Hire Masonry Service Providers in Anthem Today
Give your residential or commercial property an edge with our expert masonry services. Have a look at CF Vice Construction today. We’re masonry block contractors in Anthem that have been providing a range of masonry services, including cinder block installation, quick block masonry repair, artificial turf installation, paver installation for patios and driveways, mailbox installation, gate installation and repair, fireplace installation, and others.
Let our bricklayer and stone veneer experts handle your property’s landscaping.