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I have a large paved area that I would like to replace with lawn. My plan is to use some of the pavers as a border.
They're plain concrete pavers (450x450mm) that look like this except about 20 years old:
I was thinking about painting them a nice cream colour.
Has anyone ever done anything like this?
Will the colour fade or chip?
Is there anything I should know about painting ground cover?
Rather than using paint, look at some of the dozens of dry concrete dyes. There are several methods to color concrete after it has cured. Acid wash is very effective. Check out this web site: http://www.concretenetwork.com/concrete/walkways/existingdecorativeconcretewalkways.html
There are also several other sites you can look at including Lowes, HD, and Sherwin Williams.
Concrete floor paints are easy and quick, but may require more maintenance and refinishing over time as compared to a stains. If your area is small and not subject to lots of traffic, paint may be a good choice.
It turns out they make special paving paint. It's hard wearing and scuff resistant.
Here is a video on applying paving paint.
The really import part is cleaning your pavers. The video goes into great detail about using etching solution to clean the concrete before painting. They also clean with sugar soap.
A friend gave me 18" pavers but not enough, years ago. I couldn't match them now. I may go with dye, but had good luck with painting my old driveway with concrete paint. I let sun bake scratch coat all summer though. Heavy traffic, hot tires, no problem.
