In my area there is Landscape Depot, they sell flagstone pavers (link) and they have an in ground display. The flagstone paver website is very nice and there are a lot of pictures to look at and get ideas. Unfortunately, the paver I picked was not in Landscape Depot's in ground display and when I wanted some samples to put next to my house they told me the minimum order was a 1.5 ton pallet which is about $300 for 110 square feet of pavers. Ordering $2000 of pavers (8 pallets) based on catalog / internet pictures is risky because they will for sure look different when they arrive at your house. So no dice once again with Landscape Depot.
Anyway when I had talked with the dump truck driver he had mentioned a company named Coastal an old castle company in Orlando (link). They are a dealer for Belgard pavers. I looked into them and found out that they too have an in ground display. I made the hour drive and their display was better than Landscape Depot's dispaly because they had numbers on the pavers that could be looked up on a guide to tell people what the pavers were. Also the pavers and the colors I was interested in were on display. They had about 60 paver installations on display some of which are shown below.
I was also able to get a few samples of the colors I was interested in (but not the size) free of charge. So I ended up with two aragon, two harvest blend and two chestnut pavers. They had quite a big yard with alot of pavers in stock as can be seen in the pics below.
I took these pavers home and realized there was an issue. First the colors I picked would be slightly different for each paver block. This is on purpose and adds variation to the pavers in the driveway and it makes the driveway look nicer. But my small sample was not big enough to see this variation and how it would look. I took pictures of the displays I had seen so I looked at those and then encountered my second problem. I was using a $20 phone with a terrible camera. The colors were in no way what I saw with my eyes. A display that looked magnificent with my eyes looked like an ordinary sidewalk in the pictures. That was the last straw with the phone I had and I bought a better phone that has a better camera that very day. I was not particularly impressed with the paver colors I had selected and was wishing I had picked up an amaretto color as well.
I decided to investigate Lowes and they actually had pavers that were not on their website. They had Belgard Trinity Pavers (amaretto), Country Manor pavers (sand /tan) and Providence pavers (harvest blend). The trinity pavers had three different sizes and a beveled edge. The other pavers had a textured surface that mimics slate. I bought 6 samples of all three varieties and tried them up against the house.
Shown below is the country manor pavers.
Then the Trinity (on the left) looks like a non tumbled paver and Providence pavers (on the right) are shown below
One thing I noticed when fiddling with the pavers is the pattern has a big influence on how the pavers look. Concentrating on the trinity pavers here are a few patterns to look at that may not be fully complete patterns due to the limited number of samples. Below is a T pattern or half an I pattern.
Next we have a running board pattern.
This pattern reminds me of the Ashler pattern
Out of all these pavers I have sampled there are a few things that I like. I like the beveled edge on the Trinity pavers and I also like the larger size. The beveled edges provide and accent and when I look at paver driveways with pavers that have flush edges it is not as pleasing to the eye, The biggest paver in the trinity series is 9.8" by "14.7". To me the larger size looks better and I dislike driveways with too much detail. Also, although I have the garage to work on my car in, the larger pavers will offer less resistance to rolling my jack around and the beveled edge will be less prone to chipping.
Anyway, after fiddling around with paver colors I realized that maybe I should select a house color scheme. I would hate to put pavers in and find out that later on the house paint color I want does not match the pavers I installed. To help with this I went driving around some of the neighborhoods and found the houses with grey/silver roofs with paver driveways. Here are a few pics of some very nice color schemes.
The picture shows a greenish/blueish house with tan/white/charcoal pavers
Then we have the light yellow house with tan/white/charcol pavers
Then there is the grey house with the more grayish pavers
And the white house with grayish pavers
Then there is the brownish/green green house
The greenish/blueish house is a little dark but I think that is my favorite especially since the paver driveway looks exceptionally nice.
Anyway, another way of going about it is to use a picture of the house and then import it into the Belgard paver driveway visualizer at this link They allow you to put in various pavers, paver colors and patterns. Since I hadn't picked the color of the house yet I decided to take my picture and experiment with different colors in the Valspar painting tool at this link.
In the tool I can select different colors from a large color palette for the house exterior. However, my picture has a lot of shadows so that it is difficult to use the tool to paint the exterior nicely. It was splotchy.
I decided to abandon the Valspar tool and use the software I bought a long time ago known as chief architect home designer (which can be purchased at this link). Before I started the two permits I developed a 3D model of my vision for the house in this program. To get an idea of what can be done in home designer see this 3D animation I made of the house at this link.
Home designer allows me to change the colors of the house in the model and take screen shots which I then import into the Belgard paver driveway tool. Here are some results starting with a picture of the house and a simulated paver driveway and then continuing on with the screenshot pictures from home designer imported into the paver driveway drawing tool.
At this point I am getting a better understanding of what looks good but don't know the actual color of the house and pavers I will choose.
Some basic concepts that I understand and am working with are that sometimes there cane be too much of one color. If the roof, house color and driveway is all the same color then it will not look good. I am considering the fact that the lawn will be green and that a green house of the same color would probably be too much green.
Another point is that to break up color schemes it is good idea to mix light colors with darker colors. Like pavers that are sand/tan color would work better with a darker colored house and harvest blend colors (darker) work better with light colored houses.
Another point is that only certain colors work with grey roofs. I think a grey roof is actually kind of a tough color to work with. But that's what I have and there are some good options nevertheless. But on the other hand if you look at my garage from the road the grey roof is pretty well hidden.
Anyway, the amount of things to consider for paver selection is turning out to be quite enormous. This only means that it will take me longer to come up with what I want to to do. I am definitely forming some opinions though and am in no rush. I am of the opinion that it is better to do the job right rather than rush it and be unhappy with the result. To see what paver I decided on check out my next blog.
Until next time,
Happy Building,
The Dr.
No comments:
Post a Comment