Paving for Courtyard

[Diablo]

Hi ... I want to update the court yard in front of our townhouse & need some advice. The town house is a two storey & of limestone construction, the courtyard is approximately 16 sqm is currently paved with limestone pavers. They were not laid professionally & are not sealed, so I am constantly having to clean them & use white sand to fill in the gaps. I have attached 2 photos that may help. The path leading to the front door is red brick, the pavers, of course are white (dirty). The inside decor of the house is contemporary. I really would appreciate your advice as this court yard is the 'window' to our house

[Julie-Ann]

Hi

A few questions Diablo

Is this an area which has people walking on the paving often?

A you looking for a smooth or textured finish?

What sort of colours are you interested in?

Are you also replacing the red brick path?

Get back to me with the answers so that I can make sure I suggest just the right thing for you.;)

Thanks

[Diablo]

Hi Thank you for your response

The area in question has minimum (very)walk traffic
We are looking for a smooth finish
Colour is not definite ... but perhaps in a grey or charcoal
Unfortunately Body Corporate by-laws would not allow the removal of the red path ... unless we could get the neighbouring town house to do so & that is VERY unlikely

Hope this helps

[Julie-Ann]

Hi

If you are looking for a smooth finish the limestone pavers or poured paving probably won't suit you.

How about travertine? Travertine is a very durable product - it was used in ancient times in Italy. Travertine comes in 3 different finishes honed (non reflective and doesn't show dust), brushed ( a natural finish) or polished (this may be too slippery when wet). Honed probably is what you are after.

A brick paver can lay them for you. And they can be laid on sand.

One company that sells them in your area is Mataka in Morley. Their travertine is 400mm x 400mm x 30mm thick. Their prices are around $75/sqm + gst. Absolute Stone in Osborne Park also sell them for $95/sqm +gst. If you check google or the yellow pages I am sure their would be others.

Let me know what you think of travertine. If it isn't what you want we can look for something else.

Thanks

[Diablo]

Thank you for that information. We will check out Travertine over the weekend

[Diablo]

Hi ... just to let you know that we have looked at the Travertine & are quite impressed, it does look perfect for us. We will visit some display areas in the next few days & have someone coming to quote on the job. One question ... as the stone is 'natural' is the stone pattern vary or is it consistent?

Thank you

[Julie-Ann]

Hi Diablo

I'm glad you liked it. I think it looks very elegant.

Being a natural product like granite the pattern through it and the amount of area that can be filled varies with each paver. This is the beauty of nature.

You do have to seal them every 4 years or so. But they are worth it.

Let me know what you choose.

Thanks

[Diablo]

Just thought I would give you an update on the Court Yard Decor project. I have learnt more about pavers in the past 2 wks than I knew for the previous (many) years of my life ... but at the end of the day I am even more determined to use Travertine! We have contacted at least 10 paving contractors with a response from 4. 2 didn't do Travertine, 1 had never heard of it, 1 gave a quote & we quite liked him. We have spoke to numerous paver retailers & visited at least 6. It is so interesting how some of them talk about Travertine on their web sites but when you talk to them ... they don't do it! Some are difficult to contact so I figured our money could go some where else.Then we visited one of the companies you recommended originally ... a guy called Ashley at Absolute Stone was wonderful & so knew his stuff. we found the paver we loved & then referred us to a paver other Absolute Stone clients have successfully used. sounded good on the phone & he is due to come & see us this afternoon ... so fingers crossed & stand by for the next episode.

[Julie-Ann]

Sometimes getting the quote is the hardest part of the project.
Personally, I become an expert at nagging.

I look to hearing the result
Good luck

[Diablo]

Well ... we have a quote that we liked & accepted. Now we wait for November when ... in a perfect world ... we will want it to happen, but it also depends on the paver to have 3 days to spare. He seems certain he can fit it in early in the month so we will live in hope. Interesting thing, after all the research & associated difficulties into what product we would like ... seems the company we liked the most (Absolute Stone) gets their product from Mataka Stone, a company we couldn't ever get hold of. So here's hoping that the end result will be as we imagine it & I'm sure it will.

Thank you so much for your advice, it was a huge benefit to us!