Catalogue of block paving laying patterns

The quickest bond there is. It goes down course by course, block by block, with no turning and no counting, so you cover more square metres in a day with it than with anything else. Cutting happens on two edges only and the offcut from one side often drops straight into the other.

Its weakness is the continuous joint running one way. Under a braking wheel that course starts to creep, because nothing stops it. On a path or patio that never matters; on a driveway it does.

Two blocks stacked make a unit and the units shift by half a block. The continuous joint breaks every second course, so the area carries noticeably more than stretcher bond while still laying fast.

It is the sensible middle for a drive that takes a car now and then but does not justify paying for herringbone cuts. For a surface that gets reversed onto and braked on daily it is not enough.

Blocks stood on end in aligned columns, joints running through in both directions. As a field pattern it is the weakest thing you can lay — each block is held by friction alone and nothing stops it moving.

Where it earns its place is as a soldier course around the area, as a divider between two patterns, or as a narrow decorative band. That is the job it is actually good at: closing an edge off cleanly.

Herringbone squared up to the edge of the area. Every block is keyed between neighbours in two directions and no joint runs straight across, so wheel load spreads into the surrounding blocks instead of shoving a whole course.

Against the 45 degree version it lays faster and cuts less, because the courses run parallel to the edge. You pay for that with some courses pointing along the direction of travel when a car brakes.

The same interlock turned forty-five degrees to the edge. Not one course points where the wheel pushes under braking, and that is exactly why this is the version specified for driveways rather than the 90 degree one.

You pay in angled cuts right around the perimeter. Every one of those is slower, noisier and leaves a wedge that will not fit anywhere else.

Stretcher bond turned forty-five degrees. It visually widens a narrow area and takes the eye off the fact that it is long and thin, which on corridor-shaped side returns is the only cheap trick that works.

Load capacity stays the same as plain stretcher bond, because the continuous joints have not gone away, only rotated. The waste is herringbone waste. It is a choice about looks, not strength.

Pairs of blocks alternate flat and upright like the weave of a basket. It reads calmly and on a small area looks better than herringbone, which in a tight space comes across as busy.

It needs a 2:1 block. With a square it will not form at all, and with a rectangle whose length is not exactly two widths plus a joint it starts drifting after a few courses.

The same idea as basketweave, but fours alternate instead of pairs. The motif is twice the size and stays readable across a large area, where plain basketweave dissolves into an even texture at about thirty square metres.

On a small courtyard it goes the other way: a big motif needs distance, and without it the surface looks restless. Under thirty square metres, reach for plain basketweave.

Three blocks side by side make a square and neighbouring squares turn ninety degrees. The result reads like timber parquet and on an entrance apron looks more deliberate than stretcher bond.

It needs a 3:1 block, so 300×100 mm. That is a narrower format than most merchants keep in stock, so check availability before you promise the pattern to a customer.

A module of three sizes shuffled so no long joint forms across the area. It reads naturally and avoids the repeating grid that gives stretcher bond away after a few metres.

It is sold on a pallet with a fixed ratio of pieces, which is why it is quantified differently from single-size paving: you order whole pallet layers, not square metres, and whichever size you need most decides how many pallets turn up. You are left holding a surplus of the other two.

Several sizes in courses, but without a fixed module. You have a freer hand than with the modular three-size and can play the area against whatever is in stock, which helps when topping up or working through leftovers from another job.

You pay for the freedom by having to police the ratio of sizes yourself. Without a pallet holding it, it is easy to run one size out halfway across and finish with whatever is left.

Irregular pieces with no courses and no repeat. It belongs with riven natural stone and anywhere a path is meant to look as though it has always been there. Joints are wider and nothing runs straight.

It is the slowest layout in the catalogue, because every piece is offered up, turned and usually cut. Allow more than the eight percent the calculator defaults to.

All four edges are waved, three waves along the long side and one along the short. Neighbouring blocks key into each other in every direction, so the surface holds its shape even where the edge restraint is weak or missing altogether.

The break can be rounded or sharp at forty-five degrees. That is down to the maker and the look, not the load: the block's envelope is identical either way, so neither the setting out nor the blocks per square metre change. Our editor switches between the two in one field.

Courses shift by a third of a block rather than a half: the offset has to be a multiple of the wave spacing, otherwise one course's wave lands on the next one's. It lays easily because the shape forces its own position. It cuts badly — every cut goes through a wave and the edge no longer seats against its neighbour as cleanly as a whole block.

Arcs nested into each other, the classic setts layout. Fans are not laid edge to edge but sunk into one another like scales, otherwise wedge-shaped gaps open up between the arcs.

Structurally it is excellent, because an arc carries load out to the sides. It is hand work for an experienced layer, though, and cannot be compared with stretcher bond on time or on price.

Concentric rings around one centre. Most manufacturers sell it as a kit with the tapers already cut, so the circle itself goes down without any cutting at all.

The cutting catches up with you around it. The circle has to meet a rectangular field, and that is a ring of angled cuts right around the perimeter. Where you can, run a soldier course around it — the transition is cleaner and there is less to cut.

Courses run out from a single point and widen as they go. It is the only pattern that resolves an area splaying out from the house cleanly, without leaving long wedge cuts down both sides.

It has to be thought through first: the point the courses radiate from sets the look of the whole area and cannot be moved once blocks are down. Draw it before you lay the first one.