While the interior of your home is beautifully curated, how it looks outside is the first thing people notice. Most paving solutions look impressive at first but given time, they start cracking, fading, and even growing weeds. Some surfaces can also be a health hazard.
But have you tried rubber paving? Old tires are beneficial in turning outdoors into lasting beauty.
Rubber paving is safe, flexible, eco-friendly, and requires low maintenance. Its cost is friendlier than that of concrete or asphalt from installation because of inexpensive materials. Still, you can apply rubber paving over several surfaces. Rubber paving has a long-lasting lifespan of over 20 years.
With many benefits, let’s see the guide below with rubber paving reviews. Read on.
Table of Contents
Top-Rated Rubber Paving Reviews
What Is Rubber Paving?
It’s no surprise that rubber paving is gaining more popularity as the new paving solution. Homeowners are overlooking the concrete and asphalt solutions that have been in existence for a longer time. Now, they are opting for this new method for a better outdoor appearance.
So, what exactly is this rubber paving?
Rubber paving is an economical way to renovate your damaged sidewalks, driveway, and patios. It is a product of old recycled tires shredded into granules and mixed with a durable polyurethane binder to form a wet-pour mixture.
You can apply the mixture directly over your existing surface to fill in the cracks. This way, it creates an even, attractive, and unique-looking surface.
Aside from spreading the wet pour, you can install rubber paver tiles to suit your needs and preferences. The good thing is that rubber paving comes in a wide range of colors for your preferred pick.
Benefits of Using Rubber Paving
Rubber paving has several benefits as a modern solution to other outdated surfacing methods. Here’s why you should consider resurfacing your hideous outdoors with rubber paving.
- Cost-Effective
Rubber surfacing provides a comfortable chance to give your home a fresh and beautiful look without breaking the bank. Old tires are easy to access as most people don’t know what to do with them hence dumping them in landfills.
Aside from saving on the materials, the installation is also convenient. First, the installation process is effortless, which saves you time. Also, you can make the application without the need to hire heavy labor. Well, as long as your compound is not so big and you have enough time.
- Durable
Several factors contribute to the durability of rubber paving.
For starters, rubber paving stands up to the weather. When it comes to the outdoors, you want to use a long-lasting material.
It expands and contracts quickly because rubber paving is flexible, adapting to weather changes. This makes it impossible to crack or break easily during extreme temperatures.
Also, ice during winter rarely builds up on rubber paving. Even if it does, the rubber provides better traction than concrete hence safer. Salting the ice is not a worry because it does not affect the rubber. So, your pavement maintains a fresh look.
Additionally, rubber paving doesn’t dent. When under so much pressure and force, the rubber may bend but maintain its strength.
- Customizable
Every homeowner has a distinct style and personality that they want to show in their home. A great surfacing material should offer a variety of options for customizing. You want a material that makes your outdoor blend display an attractive nature.
Rubber paving is a customizable solution for your patios, driveways, and sidewalks. It has a diverse range of colors, making it easy to find a desirable choice. Black, red, beige, maroon, gray, green; you name it!
Some homeowners want a natural appearance, while others don’t mind a sophisticated approach. Also, as noted above, you can have your rubber paving as tiles or just the usual wet-pour-like concrete.
Still, you can design the rubber paving with different shades for a more stylish look.
- Increased Home Value
If you intend to sell your home, an outdoor with cracked concrete paving affects your selling price. As the norm, homebuyers try bringing down the cost by using any disadvantage your home has.
But, the case is different with rubber paving. It eliminates all the worries and concerns in terms of aesthetics and safety. Your home retains a new look even after years of using rubber paving.
Still, in case of any repairs needed, the cost is affordable. Rubber paving is your strong selling point.
- Safe and Eco-Friendly
As a family person, you’ve got to have a place where your kids can play and relax. Usually, the grass is a good idea, but the damage can pierce the heart.
Most importantly, you want a safe place that causes no injuries to your children. Rubber paving is soft. Therefore, your children get a softer landing when they fall, thus no cuts, bruises, or fractures.
Also, rubber is non-slip. The children can run around as much as they want with any shoe and fear no falls.
Well, choosing to recycle the old tires is an eco-friendly approach. Rubber is not biodegradable, making it fill up the landfills for a long time. But turning these old tires into valuable and beautiful paving saves the environment.
Drawbacks of Rubber Paving
On the flip side, rubber paving also has drawbacks. Here are a few of them.
- Flammable
Naturally, rubber is highly flammable. A slight source of the fire can burn the rubber paving quickly. Worse still, it burns hotter and forms dark and smelly smoke that pollutes the air for a prolonged time.
The high-rate burning of rubber is risky as it can make nearby assets catch fire. It would be horrible if the fire starts or spreads to the kid’s playground, risking their lives.
- Toxic
Even though recycling old tires is an excellent environmental approach, it has cons. These old tires consist of harmful chemicals and traces of metal that are harmful to the soil.
So, when you use rubber paving, the toxicity of the chemicals and metal seeps into the ground. This affects the growth of the close desirable plants. The effect can stunt growth or even kill the plants.
- Fades
For people living in hot areas, constant exposure to sunlight negatively impacts rubber paving.
Like clothes, darker shades of rubber fade noticeably under direct and prolonged exposure to sunlight. Therefore, it would be best to keep off or balance the dark with lighter shades. This ensures a new and beautiful look of your rubber paving. Besides, the weather is unpredictable!
Care and Maintenance Tips
It doesn’t matter if you have rubber paving on your entire surface or use it on a specific section. The only trick to lasting rubber paving beauty is providing it with the care it needs. Luckily, it’s just minimal.
- Sweep or Wash Regularly
Like any other surface, it would help not allow dirt and dust to gather on your rubber paving. First, it’s unsightly. The appearance of your rubber paving looks dull and dirty, making it lose its aesthetic appeal.
Secondly, accumulated dirt takes much effort and time to clean up. The truth is people have the least time to spend doing general cleanings lately.
Therefore, the frequent simple sweeps and wash from the garden hose help. They are easy and quick to do.
- Clean Any Stains
Rubber paving is more stain-proof as compared to concrete. But, it can still get some stains that need removing. For example, tire marks, oil spills, and spilled paint can mark the surface.
Fortunately, using water and soap to scrub removes any stains and marks. Because rubber does not retain water, you don’t have to worry about drying it after washing.
Preferably, clean your rubber paving on a sunny day, and the sun does the drying for you.
- Remove Snow and Ice with a Shovel
With rubber paving, there’s no worrying about snow build-up. Even in winter, it’s straightforward to care for the rubber paving.
Ideally, using a plastic shovel to clear the snow doesn’t mark the rubber. Better still, you can opt to use a snowblower as long as it has plastic edges.
- Don’t’ Clean With Acid-Based Products
Acid discolors or damages rubber. Besides, there’s no need to use such harsh products since rubber cleans effortlessly.
However, if you need to use a cleaner, ensure it is acid-free. But generally, soap and water make a simple and effective combination.
- Don’t Pressure Wash on Highest Setting
If you plan to deep clean your outdoors, a pressure washer does the trick.
Rubber paving is resilient to pressure and force. But, it would help to avoid using high settings on the pressure washer. Because most people don’t know how to control the pressure, they damage the rubber paving.
Therefore, use the low-pressure setting, which is easy to control and safer on the rubber surface.
Final Take
Does your outdoors make you happy? Well, if it’s not rubber paving, then there’s no satisfaction!
Rubber paving reviews above on the cost, benefits, drawbacks, care and maintenance provide the homeowner with a better surfacing solution.
It is an ideal choice to repave your outdoor spaces like the sidewalk, driveway, playground, patios, and even the stairs. Rest assured of its strength, durability not to mention aesthetics. Above all, it’s cost-effective, making you save a lot since you don’t have to buy any expensive materials and labor.
When it comes to your outdoors, go rubber!
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