All About Paving Brick
So, how do you choose the right paver for your project? This guide is intended to assist users, designers, contractors and homeowners through the bewildering array of pavers that are available to them. Although this is meant to educate on both clay and concrete pavers, Darboy Stone & Brick offers only clay pavers, simply because of the durability and longevity of it over concrete.
So...
Should you choose clay or concrete pavers?
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Choosing Color The most immediately apparent attribute of paving brick is color. There's no definitive guide to choosing the most suitable color 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 color scheme might not agree with another.
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.
Choose a color scheme that blends with its environment - buildings, walls, gardens, or landscapes-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. |
Multicolored or Monotone? By definition, a monotone brick is a paver consisting of a single, uniform color. It may be red or any other shade.. A multicolor brick is then, obviously, a brick with more than one color. It might be a blend of two, three or more colors. There may be varying amounts of each within a single brick or there may be roughly constant ratios of colors.
When choosing a paver for a project, the difference between monotone and multicolors is essential. A multicolored 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 any other stain for that matter. On a multicolored pavement, that same stain would be completely lost in the multitude of hues and tones.
So, why use monotones at all if they are so unforgiving? They give contrast and definition, emphasize patterning, or fulfil a role within a larger color scheme that may involve other buildings or landscapes. |
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Chamfered or Not?
The vast majority of standard paving bricks 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 centered 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.
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.
