How & Where To Use Crazy Paving?

We can just imagine what you’re thinking.

Crazy paving?!

What even is that?

So first, let’s take a look at what crazy paving is, what types of homes it suits best and subsequently how to best lay crazy paving and best practices for sealing and grouting.

WHAT IS CRAZY PAVING?

Basically Crazy Paving is exactly what it sounds like!

It’s stones that have been assembled on the floor in a crazy-look with irregular shaped stones of small, medium and large-sized pieces.

Crazy pavers are also known as flagstones or flagging stones.

Usually flagging stones refer to stones that have a natural split finish on the top as well as the bottom. As such, these can have inconsistent variations of thickness.

The most popular flagstone pavers are Sydney Sandstone. These can be sourced in many random shapes or more random squared/rectangular shapes.

Crazy paving stones are also available in many other materials, like Bluestone Crazy Paving, Slate Crazy Paving,  Quartz Crazy Paving and Porphyry Crazy Paving.

With its multi-purpose functions, crazy paving can be used for driveways, patios, courtyards, around fire-pits and in many other spaces.

WHAT STYLE HOME DOES CRAZY PAVING SUIT?

Crazy paving and it’s unique “randomness” works naturally in retro-styled homes and inspires a pleasant retro feel.

Being a versatile material, it also works well in modern settings, creating beautiful terraces and entertaining areas.

As it is easy to use and install, you can also create seamless and organic spaces that will complete home with contemporary or mid-century designs as well.

Many homeowners and designers also strategically use crazy pavers with accessories like dichondra plants. This is an awesome combination in the modern landscaping industry and helps create a truly beautiful balance between land and plants.

HOW TO LAY CRAZY PAVING?

If you are planning to lay crazy paving stones in a foot traffic area that has concrete slab, and the crazy paving stones are 20mm in thickness, you need to use a flexible glue to adhere them on to a concrete slab. If you don’t have a slab, you need a compacted road base and sand-cement mix and lay them on web bed but this way your stones need to be 30mm or more in thickness.

The type of glue you use depends entirely on the traffic of the area where you’ll be installing the pavers. For example, a vehicle traffic area like a carport and driveway requires a very different glue to a foot traffic area like a footpath.

Prior to gluing the stones, we recommend laying at least 3 square metres on the floor to get a good idea of the shapes and visual design that you will be working with. Then you need to mix the shapes and colours of the natural stones to make them as “crazy” as possible.

There are only two major rules you should follow. 

Rule number one: 

Do your best to create consistent gaps between the pavers.

For example, if you decided on a 20mm gap between the pavers, do not exceed a 30mm gap and also ensure that your gaps are not less than 10mm in width.

Rule number two: 

Do not line the paving pieces consistently with each other.

The goal is to maintain an organic and unstructured look and feel. As such, the pavers should not be aligned to create any straight lines. Aim to lay them in a free-form manner.

 

HOW TO SEAL CRAZY PAVING?

Prior to grouting crazy paving pavers with split finishes, you must pre-seal them. We recommend pre-sealing your crazy paving with Aqua Mix – Pro Block.

We recommend this product because it will help you easily clean off any grout haze or leftover grout from the surface. This way you’ll be able to keep the job tidy and clean, without hindering your installation process.

Once you finish grouting the crazy pavers, you need to apply a top sealer. This helps protect the stone, increase its longevity and allow for easier maintenance.

At Armstone we recommend using Aqua Mix – Sealers Choice Gold, a water-based penetrating sealer that also contains a micro-band formula and a low VOC rating.

We also recommend re-sealing outdoor exposed areas every 8 years with our recommended sealer.

WHAT IS THE RECOMMENDED GROUT FOR CRAZY PAVING?

At Armstone we recommend using Ardex WJ50 grout for crazy paving, which has a lot of colours to choose and most importantly they have polymer in it which doesnt let your grout to shrink and give you crack joints.

To avoid possible shrinking issues, Ardex WJ50 is ideal to use in joints that range from 3mm to 50mm in width.

It is recommended to combine the Ardex WJ50 grout with the Ardex Grout Booster.

The Ardex Grout Booster is a water-based, synthetic polymer grout additive that has been created to be used specifically with cement-based grouts. It improves the grout’s adhesion strength, flexibility and resistance.

The product is available in a range of colours and added benefits include improved colour consistency and excellent workability.

If you have any questions or want to find out more, contact the team at Armstone on 1300 560 560.

Our experts would love to help you.