Sandstone, porcelain or concrete: choosing paving

None is simply better. They differ in what you will be doing to keep them looking right in ten years.

Concrete

Manufactured, the cheapest per square metre, available in a wide range of finishes including convincing riven and textured surfaces. Consistent in size, which makes it quicker to lay. Pigments can fade with sun exposure over years, and cheaper products can look repetitive because the moulds repeat across a pack.

Natural stone

Sandstone, limestone, slate and granite. Genuine variation in colour and texture, and no two slabs identical. Porous to varying degrees, which means they take up moisture, can stain, and support algae in shaded damp positions. Sealing helps and is a maintenance task rather than a one-off. Thickness often varies slab to slab, so laying takes longer.

Porcelain

Fired to a very low porosity, so it resists staining, frost and algae, and holds its colour. Dimensionally precise, giving very consistent joints. It costs more to buy and more to lay: it needs cutting with the right blade and equipment, and outdoor porcelain is normally laid on a full mortar bed with a slurry primer on the back of each slab, without which slabs come loose.

Practical points

Surface texture matters more than material for slipperiness, particularly in shade. Look at a sample wet, outdoors, at the property, because paving looks different in a showroom. Order enough for cutting waste and a few spares from the same batch, because colour varies between batches and matching later is difficult.