Hi All, seeking a sense/ taste check please.
London terrace. I’m redoing my garden and part of that is putting a patio outside my back kitchen/extension. 5.5m wide (same width as house), 2.5m long.
I’m considering putting a line of white rocks between the house and the patio, maybe 20mm. Patio will be white/offwhite porcelain. Similar to the pic (from google), but ignore the stuff on the right of the red line. The patio will slope away from the house to the lawn, so the rocks aren’t really for drainage just purely aesthetic.
So, good idea or awful?
Thanks in advance.
by theotheraccount_123
8 Comments
The problem is these never stay white. In two years time they’ll be coated in a mix of grime and possibly algae. You can’t just jet wash them as you just blast the stones everywhere. I’d avoid and go for something more natural or easy to clean.
I did white and they went green. Maybe something light but not white
White looks shit.
We have “Cotswold chippings” looks good, down for 5 years now and same colour.
I have had similar pebbles around the house for a couple of years. They have discoloured a bit with algae and pigeon mess. However, they recover immediately when I clean the patio in the spring with a dilute sodium hypochlorite. So if you are prepared to a bit of maintenance they can look great. But if you want something you can ignore after installation then maybe something darker would be better.
As others have said, it won’t stay white unless you work at it – also, weeds like dandelions love to seed on top of gravel and make life difficult.
Funnily enough, I walked past a house today that had new white stones and my first thought was “that looks really tacky”. Natural colours always look better imo
As everything in the garden, it all depends how much work you want to put in. I’ve got a list of things I want to do in my garden, top of which is sitting in the sun with a gin and tonic. Making gravel white again would be way down the bottom somewhere.
If it’s the kind of job you might enjoy, then go for it. If not, I would explore other options. The gaps between my paving slabs are about 100 mm and I intentionally planted “mind your own business” to fill in. It doesn’t mind if it gets stepped on and self seeds everywhere. I do occasionally have to pull out some if it’s overtaking in the wrong area but apart from that it’s maintenance free.
Do porcelain tiles work on a slope? Don’t they need a flat surface?