OK, please can someone talk me through the pros and cons of different patio stones?

[GardenNewbie]

I've sat all morning googling and reading reviews on here and have:

Limestone - Stains easily

Indian Sandstone - cheaper than limestone, stains easily, need to look at samples as very patch quality

Slate - dark colours look dirty (guess that goes for all dark stones), slippery when wet.

I am no closer to deciding, aarrgghh !

Thanks

you missed out concrete slabs

Flat, smooth, strong, frostproof.

Not many colours.

incidentally, I went for Indian sandstone with an orange paving brick surround.

this is not a pic of mine, but I used it as a model. My house also is buff brick.

My sister put down granite slabs on the driveway. Looks great and low maintenance. I don't think they are sealed.

www.mandarinstone.com/products/_/968/granite-tiles

Ah Piglet. My dh assumed we'd have concrete slabs. Is it just my pretension that thinks we should have stone? I assumed stone lasts longer / looks better?

not to my knowledge.

Is it for an ornament, or for walking on?

My slabs were on offer and cheaper than concrete. I assume they are not top quality.

For walking on. Just a regular patio. I rather like the modern linear slabs (whether concrete or stone) like the attached.

I have a very red brick house (1970s so not lovely and mellow, just very red!) so I am guessing I need to go either white (ish) or grey?

Sorry, I'm clueless!

Bricks - very hard wearing, huge array of colours and if you get a specialist to lay them a huge choice of designs. Ours have been down 20+ years and Re still fine. Can easily be cleaned and if they get stained e.g. Oil on the drive can easily lift out and replace the damaged ones.

yes, bricks can be very attractive. They need a firm, deep, consolidated base, most installers will use MoT grade because it is widely available, certified quality for use in road-building (hence MoT). Ants like to dig out sand and grit.

The bricks have to be paviours. They are specially dense, strong and hard and expensive. Ordinary house bricks will crack and spall due to water penetration and frost damage.