Suggestions on material for 3000 sq ft patio?

[Larry_Van_Horn]

Folks,
The discussion about the deck material made me think that you all might have a suggestion here. I need to put in about 3000 sq ft of "patio" around part of my pond and behind the beach. Given the size of the area I need to do I am sensitive to cost per sq ft. Most of the pavers and blocks I see at home depot figure out to be about $2 per sq ft. What I am wondering is whether there are any other options that are more cost effective? Stamped concrete? Make my own cobblestone surface by puring concrete and filling with a bunch of my round fieldstones? Just wondering what you all have done?
Thanks,
Larry

 

[DAP]

Larry, it would be easier to make a realistic suggestion if you supplied some context.

Can you post a diagram or a pic of the work site environment?

I'm making the assumption that you have an aesthetic requirement and a low expenditure requirment too.

I have a couple of spots I would LOVE to put down some belgian block. Belgian block ALWAYS looks good. As such it is priced accordingly. Some of these same spots also look good with salvage bricks however. Much cheaper and the aesthetic works in certain places. Thats why the pic - it would provide some context.

Also .. FYI someone who owned my property poured some walkways with concrete and then set large flat fieldstone pieces (18" diameter) into the pour. His idea was well intentioned, but they sunk somewhat into the wet pour and continually create puddles in the walkway.

Another note, a friend of mine has a built in pool apprx. 50X25 and it is surrounded with pavers. This inground pool was built on a mound. The pavers are always loose, uneven and look poorly. Frost heaves, groundhogs, ice and heat make this a re-do sometime in the near future for him.

 

[Larry_Van_Horn]

Thanks Doug,
I will take a pic tonight.
Larry

 

[boustany]

Concrete will crack, but you can control where it cracks somewhat. I was surprised to find out I could buy better pavers from the vendor (in this case unilock) cheaper than at Home Depot, probably because the vendor sells by the pallet.

The big advantage of pavers is that they 'float', and if they sink down you can level them up again.

In Europe they have complete streets in pavers and they hold up pretty well to auto and bus traffic.

 

[Charlie_in_TX]

Stamped concrete. I recently had about 2500 sq ft put in my back patio/pool area. The new stuff was $6.50 a ft. Overlay was $5.50. For comparision, agraget (sp?, the stuff with smooth pebbles on the top) was $3.50 a ft and concrete was closer to $2.75 a ft. This is in an area were day labor is cheap and they all do concrete.

If you are going to do the labor yourself, concrete can be done for about $1.00 per ft up, depending how much steel you put in.

 

[RobS]

Larry, I just did a small patio on the cheap and quick. It's out by our swingset and the kids EasySet pool. 12 X 12 and I used 16" X 16" patio blocks from Menards. About $1 per square foot. Not the look I want up near the house but for a more remote place it's fine. They have a decent selection of colors/patterns to choose from. I set them on pea gravel as that's what I had on hand. Covered that with landscape fabric to keep the sand from falling through. Used plastic edging and swept sand in the cracks. Took less than a day for the whole shootin' match /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[avorancher]

Depends a lot on the looks you want. I went with a colored and tumbled (antique) paver for several patios around the house. The total cost was around $2.20/sq. ft. not counting labor. In this area, plain concrete runs around $3 to $4/sq. ft. for a similarly sized project and I couldn't have done it myself.

Looking back on the project... it wasn't really that hard to do ourselves and looks great. It took 18 pallets of pavers, so my tractor came in handy as a giant wheelbarrow to bring them around the house to the back.

Three new pairs of leather gloves and quite a few hot soaking baths should be added to the total cost.

The picture was taken before they were filled and compacted.