For a longer lasting project, we do recommend masonry type of work, due to several reasons;
All joints and base of our stone masonry walkways, patio or balconies are with Portland cement, washed sand and epoxy mixture. Therefore no need for WEEDING and no periodic maintenance. Portland cement is used for extra strength, epoxy for elasticity, strength and adhesion.
We use Natural Stone on Horizontal surface rather than concrete man made products, due to the fact that stone shows less chemical reaction versus man made concrete product. Man made concrete product has a shorter life span due to wear and tear, it looses finer particles from the wet cast as result aggregates will be exposed in less than five years. Where as Natural Stone is uniform and resistance to our weather condition and after all the wear and tear is uniform and no aggregates to show.
To our experience Natural Stone covering is five times longer lasting than pre-fabricated man made product, like some imitation of natural stone. Do not allow contractors to use masonry mix bags that are made for brick walls on residential facing of the house. Pre mix masonry sand mixes are usually about 15MPa where as Portland mixture with epoxy is 35 to 40Mpa.
We carry approximately 10 different type of Natural stone with several colors, which are much more suitable for pool area, or patios and balconies, rather than Interlocking paving stone which has several disadvantages over natural stone.