Renovating a mid-century house to look old? Use cobblestones or pavers
What if you could “pave paradise” and put up a sustainable parking lot on your property? While repurposed wood or upcycled old bricks can be used to make unique and sustainable driveways and walkways, scavenging isn’t always an option. So people are turning to new ways to install permeable pavement or “pavers” around pools, parking lots, and backyard patios.
Pavers are known as different things around the world: flagstones, cobblestones, or paving stones.
As the price of wood has soared sky high and people start rethinking the problems with asphalt and concrete, permeable pavement solutions –– in blocks, tiles and plastic grids –– have become more popular among the world’s leaders in sustainable thinking.
The latest trend in pavement solution is permeable pavement. Thinking of an outdoor pizza oven for the kids? Permeable pavement is built with watershed and drainage in mind. Allowing drainage reduces flooding and helps maintain a healthy, flourishing garden.
Concrete Pavers Outperform Other Materials
When it comes to durability, permeable pavement and porcelain pavement tiling lasts longer too. These solutions won’t crack or form potholes. Permeable pavement can last almost as long as you own your property. And it’s not messy like granite.
Four times stronger than poured concrete, pavers are highly durable and have a life expectancy of fifty or more years. While concrete pavers withstand the incessant freeze-thaw fluctuations without cracking, they are virtually maintenance-free. As a versatile material, concrete pavers are the ideal choice for patio, pool deck, outdoor kitchen, fire pit, walkway, and driveways.
Pavers age well. Think of ancient cobblestone roads in small villages in Ireland and Scotland, or Medieval villages in Italy. Pavers are like tin roofs: they just last the lifetime and more of the home.
They are eco friendly over tar
Pavers can be made with natural materials and stone, making sure that tar and other unsustainable materials you might use like asphalt and tar won’t linger near your garden, kids and pets.
Coal tar driveway sealers and asphalt emulsions off-gas at the rime of application and over time they deteriorate, cracking and flaking over time to produce dust-like particles containing dangerous DNA-damaging materials that spread to the soil, the air, and water supplies.
Pavers can be made to be porous and it’s all about how they are laid: they can be placed with wider spaces than normal to increase runoff and drainage and if spaced wide apart can leave room for small cactuses, plants and small wildlife to roam, while providing a solid stable surface for your vehicle. Wide spaces doen’t mean that the weeds need to move in: the right selection or small, local plants can help you keep your driveway or path eco and functional for your lifetime and beyond.
Author: Karin Kloosterman
Karin Kloosterman is an award-winning journalist, innovation strategist, and founder of Green Prophet, one of the Middle East’s pioneering sustainability platforms. She has ranked in the Top 10 of Verizon innovation competitions, participated in NASA-linked challenges, and spoken worldwide on climate, food security, and future resilience. With an IoT technology patent, features in Canada’s National Post, and leadership inside teams building next-generation agricultural and planetary systems — including Mars-farming concepts — Karin operates at the intersection of storytelling, science, and systems change. She doesn’t report on the future – she helps design it. Reach out directly to [email protected]
