When it comes to adding beauty, elegance, and charm to your Bergen County, NJ, walkways, nothing beats natural stone’s design potential. Stone is a durable landscaping material that comes in many color variations and textures, sure to give any walkway a luxurious touch. If you are exploring hardscape options and want to enhance the design of your landscape, here are the best natural stones for your walkways:
Bluestone
Because of its wide color options and beautiful, natural look that effortlessly blends with the surroundings, bluestone is a homeowner’s favorite. Bluestone can be found in a uniformly blue color, or in shades that lean towards light grey, charcoal and green.
The beauty of the stone is widely compatible with landscape elements made of wood, brick, concrete, and stone. Bluestone can be laid dry and wet. As with any natural stone, consider hiring a contractor or mason that is experienced and knowledgeable about the process. If installed properly, this highly durable natural stone can last for decades.
Bluestone has a beautiful texture and comes in different shapes and sizes. It is ideal for adding a handsome, formal elegance to outdoor spaces.
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Limestone
Limestone’s wide range of colors, including white, blue, red, beige, gray, and green come from the minerals that are a part of its composition. This natural stone has an incredibly fine grain and lightly textured surface that offers a luxurious look and feel. Another major draw factor of limestone is that it’s unlikely to get too cold in the winter or too hot in the summer.
Limestone is available in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and surface finishes, which makes it a versatile and attractive natural stone.
Flagstone
Because of its resistance to environmental factors and low maintenance requirements, flagstone is one of the most commonly used natural stones for outdoor construction. Flagstone is known for its color variations throughout a single stone which give it a natural beauty. The colors depend on the source of the stone, with the most commonly found shades being red, pink, peach, beige, and chocolate. Flagstone can be also found in white, blue, gold, and green. Homeowners also embrace it as a material for their walkways because of its natural non-slip surface. This versatile stone can be used to create any pattern, shape, and design, and accentuate your hardscaping features.
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Granite
This tough, resilient paving stone, available in both cut stone and irregular shapes, is a popular material for walkways mainly because of its strength. Granite is an extremely durable, reusable natural stone that requires minimum maintenance and does not crack or split. Because of its heaviness, it is recommended for homeowners to hire a contractor for installation, as granite is relatively difficult to work. Its color variations include shades of pink, red, white, honey yellow, green, orange, tan, deep charcoal to black.
Vermont Slate
A unique soft texture and wide color palette make slate stand out as a popular natural stone used for walkways. Vermont slate can be found in different shades of gray, green, purple, black, and red. Its rich colors and shades age with time, increasing the diversity of color in the landscape. Slate is a strong, durable stone, most suitable for cold climates because of its great frost resistance and natural non-slip surface. This heavy natural stone is shaped into relatively flat pieces, doesn’t stain easily, and can be maintained with a gentle pressure washing.
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Image courtesy of Rosetta Hardscapes
