Much attention is placed on selecting the right paver for patios, but the wrong jointing style or color can make or break a patio design. Here we’ll look at how you can make sure you to use jointing to your advantage when deciding on your Hauppauge, NY patio layout.
Dry or wet?
Wet jointing or grout is most commonly used for patios where a solid foundation is available. This provides a solid surface without flexibility, while dry methods of jointing, such as using gravel or sand is more commonly left for driveways and hardscaped surfaces where the pavers are placed without a concrete foundation and where some movement and flexibility is beneficial. However, some stunning effects can be achieved using gravel for patios that are detached from the home. Grave is used to fill thick gaps between pavers used in these kinds of patios, and in so doing provides a striking contrast of both color and texture. Gray gravel and reddish brown sandstone pavers are a good example of color and texture contrasts working together. Grass can also be allowed to grow between pavers laid out in this way for a similar but more organic look.
Color
The color of both dry and wet jointing can make a huge difference on the overall effect of your patio. When deciding on a jointing color, the color of your patio pavers should absolutely be taken into account in order to decide on either a contrasting or complementary color. A contrasting color, such as dark jointing used between white or light golden limestone pavers, is excellent for accentuating the laying pattern of the pavers, the size and shape of the pavers and highlighting their color. However, in uniform arrangements and on smaller patios, this can create a strong grid-like effect that can cause a space to appear smaller than it is. Instead, a complementary color jointing can be chosen. In the previous example, a better color for the grouting would be a light gray that complements the white/light gold without drawing attention to itself.
Thickness
Your landscape professional will be able to tell you the exact range of thickness recommended for the jointing bands of the particular paving material that you have chosen in order to allow for expansion etc, however there is still room to play with and this allows some freedom in achieving a desired visual effect. It goes without saying that thick jointing draws attention to itself and the negative spaces between the pavers, while thinner jointing focuses the attention on the pavers themselves. In the same way that a darker grouting can make a space seem smaller, wider spaces can have the same effect by creating a surface that is broken up by lines. Thinner jointing gaps can create a smoother-looking surface that can appear larger, but may miss out on the effect of visible jointing.
Pattern
The jointing pattern depends on the laying pattern of the pavers. These can be arranged in a uniform grid-like arrangement for a cobblestone look, a more haphazard arrangement of different shapes and sizes for a more random, organic look, an offset brick-lay arrangement or herringbone pattern to name just a few. With the right jointing color, style and thickness, the laying pattern can offer a unique personality to a patio in line with a design theme or as a timeless feature compatible with a wide range of looks.
