One nice feature of patios is that you have a wide range of materials to choose from, including slate, concrete, brick, and other natural stones. While all of them make great choices, each has its own unique pros and cons that should be considered when planning your patio.
Slate patios: Slate is elegant, durable, and can add a formal touch to your patio. They weather well and are impervious to water, frost, and snow. The only real maintenance issue you’ll face will likely be with weeds.
As far as cost, slate itself is typically more expensive than concrete or brick, but the installation is usually simple and inexpensive, especially if you’re using irregular pieces of slate in an informal patio setting.
Concrete patios: Concrete is very versatile and can come in an endless variety of colors and textures, as well as patterned stamped concrete that closely resembles brick. As far as maintenance, cracking is an issue, as well as related concerns such as pooling water.
Concrete is the cheapest of the common patio materials, although stamped concrete can become expensive based on how intricate the design is.
Brick Patios: Brick pavers come in many different sizes, shapes, and colors and are quite durable under any conditions and, like slate, you’ll usually only face secondary maintenance issues such as battling with weeds and grass.
Brick is usually the costliest material to use in a patio. While the pavers themselves are fairly inexpensive, their small size and placement in different patterns usually increases the labor costs to the point that brick is the most expensive option for patio construction, per square foot.
