Ideas set in stone

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Paving supplied by Citiscape.

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Using slabs of different sizes is a popular trend (Image Stone Concepts).

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Large slab path paving (Image supplied by Stone Gallery).

The ground beneath your feet is often the first thing you notice on arriving at a location, so getting it right is critical. COD looks at how to pave the way for success.

Whether it's for the walkway to a shopping mall, the pathway in a resort, or the poolside area of a luxury hotel, selecting the right paving is crucial to the success of a semi-public development.

The material must play a dual role: it must be both attractive enough to complement its surroundings, as well as hard wearing enough to prove a good investment for the owner of a development.

Potentially, however, one of the biggest problems for regional designers could be deciding which material to use.

There is a myriad of paving options on the market from natural materials such as granite, slate and sandstone to concrete products such as pre-cast.

Natural stones such as sandstone and slate tend to be more popular for semi-public developments such as hotels, suppliers say.

Sandstone is considered one of the most beautiful stones on the market, but it can prove less hard wearing than some other materials as it is typically very soft, says Annie Hayes, managing partner of Dubai-based supplier Stone Concepts.

It is also a very porous stone, which means that unless it is laid well and sealed from top to bottom it can experience leakage, she adds.

Another popular natural alternative is granite, which being a hard stone is well suited for outdoor use, particularly for large projects, where developers are less likely to be deterred by its high cost.

Granite is considered another attractive stone due to its various crystal formations that enable it to have different finishes.

"With granite, within one expanse of a large paving area, you can have it polished which is high shine, you can have it honed which is a matte polish.

You can have all these different finishes in the same colour to create a pattern or effect that you would never be able to get with sandstone," she says.

Natural vs. concrete

Natural stone is more expensive than concrete, but for many customers the extra cost is justified by the product, states Vishal Lakhani, director of Stone Gallery.

"Although stone paving is considerably more expensive than the concrete alternatives, or the increasingly popular block paving, it does have a cachet that no other form of paving can offer," he says.

"It has an indefinite life-span and a high re-sale value should it ever need to be replaced. Special shapes can be cut to order, and special finishes applied to the new paving. Many of the paving manufacturers are also able to supply matching or complementary hardscaping items, such as steps, plinths, copings, seating," he adds.

Paving products are currently experiencing huge demand in the region on the back of the large number of construction projects on the go in the region.

Total spend on paving stones, ornamental stones and decking for developments is set to exceed US$57.2 million by 2010 in Dubai, according to the organisers of trade show Garden + Landscaping.

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