Combine aesthetics and durability in your new driveway
A sensibly designed driveway always draws attention when someone shows up at your home. It makes a good impression of your property and its uniqueness, while enhancing your front yard and lawn at the same time. Architects and homeowners are looking for new alternatives to create an impressive first impression due to the stellar characteristics that a driveway can provide to your property.
Outlining and styling front units has proven to be a great addition to any property. The materials used to lay the driveway also play an important role in the process, telling the story of a driveway by bringing aesthetics into play.
All of these value additions bring grandeur to your property by letting nature in as well. Recently, the owners have been experimenting with the materials used in the driveway, such as gravel, crushed stone, concrete, and asphalt.
These materials have been good choices for years, but a modern home needs a strong, versatile, and flexible driveway. It should be able to handle even the extreme wear and tear of any off-road vehicle you or your friends might own and still go strong.
Serpentine is an option that comes to mind when it comes to sturdiness, versatility, and flexibility. It provides you with all these features plus the neutral texture it inherits. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that “what marble is to kitchen countertops, serpentine is to driveways.” Not only does it promise longevity, which is quintessential for a driveway, but it also offers a welcoming feel and visual appeal to approach your property. Serpentine is a natural stone formed at extreme depths in the ocean. Magma escaping through cracks in the ocean floor at temperatures above 500°C cools rapidly to produce this deep green stone. It is found plain or with a distinctive strong white or light green vein pattern, and gives a neutral gray tone appearance to your exterior finishes when dry.
Chemically, serpentine is a magnesium silicate based stone. This makes it more resistant to acids and abrasion than calcite based stones/minerals like marble. Serpentine also contains small amounts of metallic compounds, which cause brilliant reflections that give it a vibrant appearance unlike other stones.
Physically, it is a high-density, high-hardness material, with a near-zero moisture absorption rate, which is a desirable aspect for outdoor applications. As a surface material, it has greater resistance to acids, more hardness, and less porosity compared to most types of granite. These properties, along with its high flexural strength, make the coil an excellent choice for exterior applications. Serpentine can be used for swimming pools, driveways, cladding, BBQ counters, etc., in a variety of semi-polished and rough finishes such as sandblasted, bush hammered, honed, etc.
