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	Choosing Brick & Block Paving

Introduction Concrete or Clay?  - Stone Blocks   Choosing colour  - Multi or Mono?   Style  - Standard Blocks  - Tumbled  - Decorative  - Special Apps   Choosing Shape   Pattern & texture

 

Introduction Back in the 1980s, when Block Paving first really took off in the UK and Ireland, choice of blocks was relatively simple, amounting to little more than opting for clay bricks or concrete blocks and then picking from a handful of colour variations. However, as the market has grown and become more sophisticated, and as manufacturing technology has developed, so the choice of bricks and blocks has, like Alice, grown and grown and grown until we are today faced with over 1200 different pavers in Britain alone.

So, how do you choose the right paver for your project? This page is intended to guide users, designers, contractors and homeowners through the bewildering array of pavers that are available to them. Certain types of blocks are made by more than one manufacturer - for example, the typical reddy-black rectangular paver that is seen almost everywhere is a British Standard Block, or derivative thereof, and is churned out by over half a dozen of the biggest paving manufacturers in the land.

Similarly, if one manufacturer has a new design that seem to be grabbing a slice of the market, it's never very long before the other manufacturers have their own version on sale, often offering a size or colour variation that was not available in the original product.

Concrete or clay? The first choice to be made is between clay bricks or concrete blocks. The pros and cons of each are listed below...

Concrete Relatively cheap Plenty of shapes to choose from Textured blocks available Highly accurate sizes Wide choice of block depths, from 40mm to 100mm or more Colours fade over time Aggregate can become exposed over time Should last at least 20 years

Clay Prices usually slightly higher than concrete, depending on colour Extremely hardwearing Natural colour will not fade Patterned pavers available Prone to mosses Size tolerance is quite variable due to firing process Mostly square or rectangular Damned hard to cut More limited choice of block depths Will probably outlast all of us, and our children, and probably their children as well! More on Clay Pavers...

 

A word or two regarding stone block paving The popularity of imported stone paving has been the outstanding success in the paving industry over the past decade, and what started with stone flags has been consistently developed as stone suppliers looked to expand the advantage handed to them by the shockingly low cost of stone from Asia, Africa, South America and other "Developing Nations", as they are now called. (Has the old "Third World" been abolished in a fit of political correctness?)

One product area that is strongly expected to see real growth is the provision of Natural Stone Block Paving: dimensionally accurate blocks of selected stone that are laid in exactly the same way as the more familiar concrete and/or clay pavers. A "Product Study" featuring a leading brand of stone block paving is available on this page.

Choosing Colour The most immediately apparent attribute of block or brick paving is colour. There's no definitive guide to choosing the most suitable colour scheme for any given project; it's a decision made after considering the effect of environment and surroundings, the interplay of light and shade, and, most importantly, personal taste. What one person may consider to be a fantastic colour scheme may induce retching and migraine headaches in another.
Consider the immediate surroundings - if you have a buff-toned Cotswold stone cottage, will a red block look right? If it's a car-park surrounded by Accrington Red Stock bricks, would Staffordshire Blue be the best choice? The key to choosing a successful colour scheme for paving relies on finding a complementary palette, rather than an exact match or a stark contrast. Consider again the buff-toned Cotswold Cottage – while a pillar-box red is patently not a good choice, a near-identical buff would be a poor choice as the stone and the paving would overwhelm the eye, neither achieving the interest they deserve, the two merging into one amorphous whole. However, if a lighter brown or soft orange or marigold colour scheme was to be used, it would create a differentiation between the paving and the walling, with each component being defined as separate and distinct, but without clashing. Choose a colour scheme that blends with its environment; buildings, walls, gardens, landscapes, townscapes, rural vistas or urban bustle, all these factors and more combine to create a sensation of appropriateness. The paving should fit in with its environment, because there's little chance of being able to force the environment suit the paving. Look around the local area. What other colour schemes have been used on pavements? Do they look good or are they awful? Are they sympathetic to the property they serve or do they stand out like the proverbial sore thumb? And don't just look at other block or brick pavements – look at flags or slabs, look at the roads and footpaths, look at walls, windows, look at natural features such as rock outcrops, ponds and lakes, fields and moorlands. The clues are there, in front of you – it's just a matter of training your eye to spot them.	Is red the best choice? Or would Marigold be better? Or should it be buff?
With dark surroundings, a lighter toned pavement may be the contrast that works, but be aware that lighter colours show up stains and tyre marks much more so than darker colours. With light coloured settings, a darker colour choice for the paving may well be ample contrast. And for those who can't decide one way or t'other, there's always grey.

 

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Multicoloured or Monotone? Basic definitions – a monotone block is a block consisting of a single, uniform colour. It may be red; it may be charcoal; it may have some silly arty-farty name that means nothing to nobody, such as “midnight” – the key factor is that it is one, single, pure colour.
A multi-colour 'brindle' block	A multicolour is, obviously, a block with more than one colour. It might be a blend of two, three or more colours. There may be varying amounts of each colour within a single block or there may be roughly constant ratios of colours. One thing is fairly certain though – it will probably have some fairly meaningless name dreamt up by a bored office wallah with delusions of grandeur.

Take, for instance, the colour referred to as 'Brindle' – what colour springs to mind when you hear 'Brindle'? My big crossword-solving dictionary defines Brindle as “having spots or streaks”. One of the witches in Macbeth tells her fellow hags that “thrice the brindled cat hath mewed” (I knew all that Shakespeare would come in useful, one day!) So: how come, in most cases, a brindle paver is a reddy-greyey mish-mash? Yet some manufacturers incorporate buff or light brown into a brindle; some 'brindles' are a dirty red while others have definite red and black splotches of colour. Could a brown and blue paver be described as Brindle?

When choosing a paver for a project, the difference between monotone and multicolours is essential. A multicoloured paver blends better with its surroundings. A monotone is pure and sharp, but shows up even the slightest stain. An all-red pavement will look marvellous until it gets a single oil stain, and then, every time you look at the paving, your eye will zoom in on that one, single, solitary oil-stain, or bird-dropping, or tyre-mark. On a multicoloured pavement, that same stain would be completely lost in the multitude of hues and tones.

A multi-brown block helps hide smaller oil and gum stains on this pavement in a busy town centre

So, why use monotones at all if they are so unforgiving? Well, they give contrast, they give definition, they emphasise patterning, they fulfil a role within a larger colour scheme that may involve the adjacent buildings, or they provide blandness. Some people actually prefer an all-charcoal driveway because, they claim, it looks like tarmac – why not have bloody tarmac then???

The ever-popular Brindle & Charcoal colour-scheme - in the wet!

One of the most popular colour schemes chosen for residential block paved driveways blends the best characteristics of both monotones and multicolours. The Brindle and Charcoal Classic – a brindle body with a charcoal soldier edging course. The brindle gives depth and interest and richness while hiding the odd stain or two, and the charcoal provides a frame, a solid definition that boldly states “This is the edge” – the best of both worlds.

Choosing Style Consider the immediate surroundings - would a modern, chamfered block paver look right with a 17th century cottage? Would a tumbled antique-style block be the best choice a petrol station forecourt? For a pavement to fit in with its environment, some consideration must be given to the styling. Blocks and bricks can be sorted into one of four very loose style categories. They can be…. Standard rectangular Olde Worlde Tumbled Decorative Special Applications	Styles of Pavers: Standard - Tumbled Decorative - Special Apps
Standard Blocks Standard rectangular blocks and bricks are by far the most popular choice. They are relatively cheap, can be laid in a reasonable range of patterns and work well in most scenarios. The most common brick has a length to width ratio of 2:1, but there are a few variations. A 3:1 ratio can add interest, while a 3:2 plan takes away some of the 'brickiness' of these pavings.
Standard rectangular blocks 2:1 ratio in basketweave - 3:1 ratio basketweave - 4:1 stretcher bond - Random sized clays

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	Chamfered or not? The vast majority of the standard blocks have chamfered edges. This detail isn't created solely to emphasise the jointing or individuality of the bricks – there's a sound engineering principle involved.
	A solid 90° vertex is actually a weak point within the block as a whole. If two adjacent blocks are compressed together with the load centred on the interface between the two, then the force is borne by that upper vertex. This pressure exerted within the blocks is no longer a wholly compressive force; part of the force becomes tensile, and it is well known that bricks and blocks, fired clay, stone and concrete are superb materials in compression, but are much weaker in tension.
	The result is that the upper vertex of the blocks is cracked, or, as we call it in the trade “spalled”, and the appearance of the block is ruined. The additions of a small chamfer, however, eliminates this problem more or less completely, which is why chamfered edges are a common detail on blocks and brick pavers, on small element paving and on certain other stone/concrete/fired-clay construction materials.

	However, all this clever engineering theory doesn't mean very much to the average pedestrian or motorist, unless they are battling against the crud and detritus that accumulates in the chamfered joints, or they are trying to push a fully-laden shopping trolley across a block pavement. Some of the manufacturers have identified this problem and manufacture blocks with minimal chamfers or no chamfer at all.
	The use of these blocks is usually restricted to those areas that are unlikely to experience heavy loads or vehicular traffic and therefore avoid the conditions that lead to spalling of the block surface.

 

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Olde Worlde Tumbled Standard block and brick pavers are not suitable for all paving projects. The public perception of standard pavers is that they are 'modern', and, as such, aren't really the sort of paving that would be used on older or 'character' properties, or for paving schemes in historic towns. The designers appreciate the manifold benefits of flexible block paving, but the blocks themselves just don't suit the environment.
And so, the olde worlde looking "Tumbled Block' was developed. Most of these started off as attempts to recreate the traditional setts of yesteryear, and while some may have passed as such to a blind man on a galloping horse, many of the earliest attempts were, to be brutally frank, bloody awful.
Eventually, the manufacturers realised that rather than trying to create convincing replicas of the traditional setts, they could capture the spirit of those setts with a simple product that shared their most essential characteristics – soft, organic, muted colours, and a variety of plan sizes. And to further enhance the non-uniform appearance of these new products, they could be deliberately maltreated – have the corners bashed off, and the odd bit of spalling here and there, just as hand-tooled setts would have.

"Drivesett" by Marshalls

So, the blocks are created in the same way as standard blocks, in moulds, from a specifically designed concrete containing earthy-toned dyes. After pressing, they're allowed to cure, and once of sufficient strength, they are 'tumbled'. This usually involves putting the cured blocks into the equivalent of a huge concrete mixer and churning them round and round so that they bash against the sides, and each other, taking off all the neat, manufactured edges and corners to finally emerge battered, bruised and looking slightly worse for wear.

However, once they've been laid, and the dust and detritus from the tumbling process has been washed away by the rain, the finished effect is stunning. They actually look 'old', as though they have been there for years. They're not cheesy attempts to mimic natural stone setts, but they have a character of their own that is reminiscent of those rapidly-disappearing sett-paved streets.

"Priory" by RMC/Cemex	"Woburn" by Charcon	"Tegula" by Marshalls
Naturally, the extra processing and extended production time bumps up the price of these products compared to the standard pavers, but it's a premium many end users are willing to pay if it gives them all the benefits of a modern, modular, low-maintenance and easily installed paving plus the look and period charm of a bygone age that never really existed.		"Chelsea Setts" by RMC/Cemex

 

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Decorative Pavers This is a bit of a catch-all category for those pavers that do not fall into one of the above categories. It includes the intricate and non-standard shapes, those blocks that mimic stone setts, and the patterned and textured pavers, which are discussed below.

 

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Special Applications This category includes blocks that are normally used for non-residential paving projects.
- Colour-top blocks used to create yellow lines or reflective traffic markings - Heavy-duty exceptional load bearing systems - Sealed systems for industrial/chemical applications - Permeable paving systems - Machine-laid paving systems		Yellow reflector blocks to form parking lines
Heavy duty 'Port Paving'	Sealed Forecourt Paving	Machine-laid blocks

Choosing Shape For some, the idea of a rectangular block isn't exactly inspiring. After all, rectangles have been around since Roman times, or even longer – surely human ingenuity has come up with something more up-to-date. They want something different, something a bit out of the ordinary, something you don't see on every street.
Many geometric shapes lend themselves to modular paving, but rectangles are the simplest to manufacture, to package, to palletise and ship to sites and Builders' Merchants throughout the land, and so the paving market has been dominated by rectangles literally since the year dot.

But, as the market for block paving becomes more and more sophisticated, so the demand for new, exciting, innovative products has grown, and the leading manufacturers spend a lot of time, effort and money trying to come up with the fabled 'Next Big Thing'.

We've had hexagons for many years, and there are pentagons, octagons, parallelograms, fans, keyhole-shapes, X-shapes, W-shapes, shapes based on completely baffling mathematical oddities and quite a few shapes that defy definition. As mould technology and production techniques continue to evolve, you can be sure that ever stranger and more wonderful shapes will make their debut on the block paved stage.

Tallis by TopPave	Tallis with squares	Penta by TopPave
Agora by RMC	Fanfare by RMC	Ionica by RMC
Spania by Marshalls	Figuera by Marshalls (discontinued)	Veta by Marshalls (discontinued)

 

Choose Texture or Pattern The manufacturers allow us to choose from a kaleidoscope of colour, we can choose blocks that would seem to come from a future or a previous age, and we can choose almost any shape imaginable, so what else can be tweaked in the eternal search for something different? Texture and pattern! The technology exists to imprint patterns into the surface of pavers, or to treat the surface to create an original or interesting alternative texture to the usual pressed-mould concrete or dragwire clay.
Shot textured pavers	Clay stable pavers	Exposed aggregate paver
Care is needed in choosing a textured or patterned paver. Unless the planned pavement is going to be rigorously maintained or will be self-cleansing, much of the intricate detail can rapidly disappear beneath a crust of moss and/or detritus. What looks like a wonderful idea on the designer's drawing board can have a relatively short useful lifespan out there in the real world. Recessed patterning fills up with dust and detritus, coarse textures are more attractive to vegetation than the standard, smoother pavers, and exposed aggregates are not always appreciated for what they are.		Clay Star Pavers
There's no doubt that these decorative pavers have their uses, but their market is limited and in many cases, more attractive paving schemes can be designed using simpler, cheaper pavers.