Liquid limestone versus poured concrete - advice appreciated

Hi, we are doing up our front garden. The area is app 180 m2. We are removing most of our lawn.

Can someone please give me pros and cons for liquid limestone versus poured concrete.

We would like to have as little maintenance as possible. The car port area is included in the 180 m2 area.

Thanks

Concrete:
- Cheaper
- Less porous (but still porous so should be sealed to prevent stains). If you do get stains, you should wash it off as if you leave grease/etc for a while, it will seep through eventually unless you get the sealer which is similar to when they paint concrete.
- Can be coloured/polished/exposed aggregate/etc, usually more colour options than limestone as more companies deal with it, this adds to the cost though, without it though it'll just look like a foot path.
- Unless you do massive amounts of embedded stenciling (eg. making it look like pavers with texture) it will look like concrete, however once again, it'll cost more to do stenciling
- Council will give you money for putting this on the crossover

Limestone:
- More expensive
- More porous so needs to be sealed. Check with the company you use on the type of sealer to use. The one we have was applied a couple of weeks after it was poured (poured during winter so took longer to set), then we're at the one year mark where we just need to spray it down with high spressure spray, chuck pool chlorine on any remaining stains, do another spray with sealer and then that should be it for life. So not too much maintanence. If you do get stains though, you should wash it off as if you leave grease/etc for a while, it'll still seep through eventually.
- Less colour options but it can be coloured, polished and exposed aggregate can be used as well. If you leave it natural though it's the colour of a limestone block and the standard stenciling they do is the giant paver effect which we have. Most people add a little yellow and because this is a standard request, it doesn't cost too much more. Also, naturally, it still looks more like limestone as it's more porous, it's not as dense as concrete. So you can leave it natural and not pay more to make it look nicer than concrete (unless you like the concrete look).
- Apparently it's cooler under the feet. Concrete does have a higher specific heat capacity, but theoretically, with all the holes in the limestone, it stays cooler in the summer for longer. We have it and I can walk barefoot on it all year round, even when Perth had the weeks of 40 degrees. I can't say if concrete will be the same though.
- Councils usually don't give you money for putting this on the crossover as it's more expensive as they don't want the cost of repairing it when doing things like footpath repairs.

Strength-wise they are about the same as they lay the thickness to suit the application. You have to be careful with the edges though, you should have ramps (even if you make it yourself) for wheeling anything over the edge, as putting pressure on the edges will cause them to crack off. It's best to get it laid in cooler weather to prevent surface cracking, if you do it in hotter weather, my Uncle usually recommends smaller stencil sizes for summer jobs to encourage surface cracks along the joins. Both with end up with cracks due to heating and cooling. Both require proper drainage as water can't seep through like with paving. Both you shouldn't get weeds anywhere except for between the cracks which hopefully occur through the joins. Use a reputable place as they are more likely to place the joins in a location where the cracks would occur.

Personally, I love our limestone and will stick with that, or if I didn't I would definitely try something difference with the concrete, I woudn't use natural concrete. Near my parents a beautiful big house was built and then they laid a natural concrete driveway and it just looked awful with the house. Very plain. The old houses on either side have even just a paved driveway and it looks nicer. The concrete driveway though does blend in with the path I guess….

Vegemite,
not sure where you are located but if you around Perth with bore water don't go for light coloured liquid limestone., We did, even with sealing it we still get really bad stains from bore water.