Cobblestone Pavers – 10 Benefits to Use in Driveway
Mar 28, 2023
Cobblestones are one of the oldest pavement materials, dating back to the Roman era. Plain fields, rock quarries, and water bodies all contributed to creating these landscape stones. Cobblestone pavers are small stones of various shapes and sizes that can be used to pave pathways and driveways.
They are usually spherical and tiny in appearance. These stone bricks are long-lasting, robust, and can provide an atmosphere and aesthetic appeal that a gravel, concrete, or asphalt driveway cannot. They are also an environmentally friendly solution to construct your new driveway.
What is Cobblestone Paving?
Cobblestones are naturally crushed and shaped stones. Most of the cobbles are available in riverbed or seabed areas, along with boulders, pebbles, and gravel. They are gently riven with rounded edges. However, after centuries, the concept of cobblestones has significantly changed. Square or rectangular pieces of stones like Granite Setts are known as cobblestones among the new generation. These stones are acquired from natural stone quarries.
Many homeowners use manufactured cobblestones for outdoor applications in their gardens, driveways, etc. Such stones are made from clay or concrete. As they are manufactured, these stones are in regular shapes and have neat and clean edges. It is a different story, but today our focus is natural stone pavers known as cobblestones across the globe.
Why Should Cobblestone Be a Choice for Your Driveway Paving Project?
One question may spur your mind about why cobblestone should be preferred for constructing paths and driveways. The following factors can help you get real insights into the advantages of this stone.
Aesthetic Appeal
Driveway and front-approaching walking paths are a matter of curb appeal. Natural stones are adorned with natural beauty and are aesthetically pleasing when you have invested enough in them. Of course, cobblestones pavers made from natural stones will ultimately increase your property’s reselling values, and the driveway is a significant component of it.
Easy to Install
Being small square or rectangular stone pieces, cobblestones are easy to lay. Set in a mortar or lay dry in a paver base; you have two options. As cobblestone installation is labor-intensive but not rocket science, you can go for the DIY way with adequate preparation. If you are looking for complex designs and patterns in your driveway, you must hire an expert contractor or stonemason.
Tons of Design Opportunity
Apart from granite and basalt, local stones are also used as cobblestone pavers with proper cutting and preparation for ready-to-use kits.
Thereby, you can have enough design options considering layout patterns, textures, colors, and other variants of stone design & properties. World of Stones USA has a huge inventory of cobblestones pavers and natural stones pavers to make your selection.
Affordable Options Available
We have a wide range of cobble stone options to meet your budgetary constraints. Indeed, high-quality granites are costly to lay as driveway cobblestone pavers. However, basalt, sandstone, and local natural stones are cheaper options for your cobblestone driveway project.
Durability
Natural stones are the most durable materials among all driveway construction options. They are sturdy and can withstand high foot and vehicle traffic. So, cobblestone pavers can also stay strong against various external and internal elements because of their high flexural strength. If a proper care and maintenance program is in place, cobblestone pavers are hardly spalled on its top surface. It can last for centuries, and many streets in the USA are obvious evidence of the same.
Load Bearing Material with Flexibility
Cobblestone pavers are natural materials with high load-bearing capacity. If installed properly, it can easily bear the load of heavy vehicles. Moreover, if laid as a dry paver base, it has flexibility in terms of grout space to expand or move slightly in the case of direct heavyweight or pressure on the top surfaces.
Weather Resistance
When cobblestones driveways are laid with a dry paver base option, it provides good permeability for water. It also cuts intensive icing on the surfaces by absorbing the excess water. It has open joints or grouts, which are also protecting it from heavy wind storms or sand storms.
Such permeability allows cold and heat to dissipate beneath the surface easily and save excessive cooling or heating as well as provide resistance to a freeze-thaw cycle.
Stain Resistance
The majority of natural cobblestones have made from siliceous types of stones like granite, sandstone, and bluestone varieties. Against calcareous stones, cobblestones are pH proof and stain-resistant against frequent spills and drain of hazardous chemicals in your exteriors like oil or fuel leakage from vehicles moving or standing on them.
Easy to Clean
In most cases, natural rainfalls are enough to wash your cobblestone drive paths. However, water cleaning in one or two months is proving enough to keep natural stones clean and fresh.
You can apply mild detergents or washing solutions to properly wash your cobblestone driveway without any heavy expense on it.
Easy to Replace
Cobblestones were used to lay a small stone piece. It means that if any piece is found defective by a crack or break occurrence, you can easily replace that particular piece only. However, this is only true for mortar base or dry laying. It becomes a lengthy and expensive process against cement-concrete or asphalt base driveways.
Conclusion
Suppose you were inclined to have professional guidance. Moreover, professional help for your next cobblestone paver project, World of Stones USA, is the best destination to obtain the right consulting services. It also can provide you with other contacts in your areas to ease your project.