Patios and driveways are the first noticeable things when someone visits you. A beautifully done driveway acts like an added star to your home. It is better if we make driveways and patios during the construction of home. Well, it is difficult to choose the material, design, shape and color of the materials which can be used to make a driveway. Though, natural stone driveways are trendy and popular.
However, constructing the driveway during the home construction is helpful as you can figure out how to match the material, design and color with home. The choice also depends on the budget of your construction project. Following I will be discussing about two of the common materials that are used to make driveways – natural stone vs. concrete stone.
Concrete Stone: Concrete stone is extremely strong, and almost impossible to break easily. The material is traditionally used to make patios, pool area, garden fencing and outdoor kitchen constructions. It is also used to make driveways as it can easily bear the weight of light motor vehicles and occasionally heavy vehicles. It can be cut in any shape and fixed as driveway and by putting some small size concrete stones around the big ones would give your home an authentic look.
Color flexibility is at its best here, available in varies shades of grey, brown, and red and in white color also. Concrete stones carry flex feature, they can get hardest and may rise a bit up during the winters and in summers they settle themselves back to the place where they were originally placed. This stone is expensive than other stones as it requires grading, shaping, backfilling rubbing and installation cost is also higher than usual. But your landscape would be safe with concrete stones as they can survive longer in extreme weathers too.
Natural Stone: The driveways made of natural stone are often look beautiful, well they really are. Natural stone is considered as a beautiful looking stone yet sufficiently strengthened and durable. It can be slate, limestone or flagstone etc. It is ideally used to make patios and driveways. It is available in different natural colors which makes its looks unique and earthy.
The choice may vary between plain-topped stone or rough and irregular surface and shapes. Natural stones are often carry shades of orange and black color as this stone has high value of iron.
It can be cut in blocks and fixed systematically and in patterns. Some people prefer irregular shapes along with unfinished surface to keep it extreme natural. The expense in installing this depends on the size of slopes, shapes, accessibility and some essential factors of project. They are likely to lose their color due to sunlight and removing of snow or ice may damage the stone.
Both the stones are equally strong and commonly used. After all it comes to their application process. You’d need to hire a qualified, skilled and experienced team of labors to get a durable driveway no matter made up of concrete stone or natural stone.