New patio - Porcelain but 'rustic'

ChilliBob

Guys, 

We need to get our patio replaced. We're considering porcelain but can't quite find the right vibe. 

Do you have a porcelain patio? If so, how do you find it?

We like the look of a natural stone - limestone, yorkstone, sandstone etc. However, with a collection of wildlife which likes to leave us 'presents' regularly and two children I feel it will get stained quite badly quite quickly.

Enter porcelain, which doesn't have this problem. 

Our vibe would be rustic, country cottage etc, however, lots of porcelain looks more like the terrace you'd find on a Turkish holiday resort or something! (or a bathroom, of course!).

If porcelain really is so much better for our usage we'll just have to find the most suitable, but, if real world use tells us otherwise, we might be back to square one!

Thoughts much welcome! 

EssexExile

Both neighbours have porcelain patios. On a good day they both look very flash, definitely not rustic! One side the patio was laid by a professional in a few days and always looks nice. Neighbours the other side had their patio laid by a general builder in a few weeks and after rain all the undulations become obvious! We have cheap concrete paving, never looks wonderful and never looks awful.

MikeJXE

Porcelain sounds slippy to me but I have never seen it as far as I know 

ChilliBob

EssexExile said:

Both neighbours have porcelain patios. On a good day they both look very flash, definitely not rustic! One side the patio was laid by a professional in a few days and always looks nice. Neighbours the other side had their patio laid by a general builder in a few weeks and after rain all the undulations become obvious! We have cheap concrete paving, never looks wonderful and never looks awful.

We're in a porcelain sandwich too. Both look alright, a bit bright and too formal for my liking! 

ChilliBob

MikeJXE said:

Porcelain sounds slippy to me but I have never seen it as far as I know 

It's actually alright from that pov as long as you choose the right sort. But yeah glorified bathroom tiles outside sounds like a recipe for disaster, thankfully the slip side of things is pretty much covered! 

Apodemus

ChilliBob said:

...with a collection of wildlife which likes to leave us 'presents' regularly and two children I feel it will get stained quite badly quite quickly.
 

Look on it as developing a patina, rather than getting stained! Or invest in a cheap pressure washer!

John_the_Boy

Neighbour did porcelain slabs, looks lovely but as it is light in colour it gets dirty really fast. He is P/Wing the patio every few weeks to keep it clean. Doesn't help that he is a keen gardener and walks soil everywhere!

ChilliBob

John_the_Boy said:

Neighbour did porcelain slabs, looks lovely but as it is light in colour it gets dirty really fast. He is P/Wing the patio every few weeks to keep it clean. Doesn't help that he is a keen gardener and walks soil everywhere!

Interesting, the theory goes that you don't need to/shouldn't pressure wash porcelain, just mop it essentially, as odd as that sounds.

No doubt ours will get muddy with a 5 year old and (give her time!) a 6 month old.

Something along these lines is probably what we're looking at: https://www.mandarinstone.com/product/wexford-buff-outdoor-porcelain/. But my wife says this firm has some troubling reviews, so, sill seek similar elsewhere. 

spinspiral

yes we had a brown porcelain patio done last summer and are happy.
So far no staining, scratches etc so far despite foxes, squirrels, cats, multiple leaf fall and many barbeques and wont fade in the sun.
Early days but looking good. 
We also had a rustic stone pathway done which I am sure will fade over time.

ChilliBob

Cool, glad it's working out for you. That's an interesting thought, as we will look for a pathway too, but this probably won't be porcelain because of the size of stones I had in mind . Food for thought!

In and we need four retaining walls built too, gulp!

Sending off for samples currently to hopefully put this to bed - we're booked in for mid March so need to commit at some point 

Rdwill

Here's mine. Zelve from Topps. Look as good today as when they were laid 18 months ago. Maintenance free, I just give them a brush every now and then.