If you want grey, then most cast pavers look great, because that is the natural intrinsic color of the material. If you're in the high cost per sq foot range, then consider clay or natural stone paving material.

Try laying out a small area of these blocks. You will find that the gap joint is pre-defined because as you put the pattern together you'll have to make the joints line up somewhere. It is more difficult to explain than to just do. Lay out a few in a pattern and you'll clearly get your answer unless you lay them out in a square grid or running bond in which case you can use any gap or lack thereof because it does not affect the pattern.

To find out what the median price for this job is in your market at this time get estimates from multiple contractors (6 is considered a good number). Chances are several will come out at about the same figure and then you will know what is a fair price. High bidders don't want the job or have made a mistake, likewise low bidders may not know what they are doing.

Hi @Kelsen N Alyson Depp, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! I'm only a year in on the patio though, so not too much time has passed, but it's holding up just fine. My biggest concern was that the compression strength would be low and that they would start cracking. I even found another thread/forum where someone did say that using a plate compactor on their Menards' pavers caused a bunch to crack. However, that wasn't my experience. I did some research on Midwest Manufacturing (who makes the pavers) and found the specifications for the pavers where they say it meets the ASTM C-936, ASTM C1634-09/ C55-09, ASTM C-1372, and ASTM C-90 specifications and the compression strength was inline with what it should be. So that made me feel good enough about using them. When I did the patio, I was trying to save as much money as I could. I'm also not a DIYer, so I was really nervous about spending too much money. I didn't want to spend too much on pavers for my first time if it was going to turn out bad. I found these to be a good compromise. But 75% more for Unilock isn't too bad. I bought the Menards' pavers on sale and on a Menards credit card. So it was a bit cheaper. I think it was around $2.11 per sqft. The Unilocks I was looking at were about $6-8 dollars and that was for their lower tier. One thing I will say that I experienced was how difficult it was to lay the larger pavers. From all my research, I learned that laying the pavers required some finesse and I definitely found that to be true. The large 16"x24" paver weighs 72 pounds. What I found was that when I went to lay these larger ones, it would kick up sand around the paver like a crater. Then when I would lay the next paver next to it, it wouldn't be leveled on the one side. It was really difficult to lay the large pavers gently. Even when it was gently, it seemed to still cause sand to kick up a little. This wasn't a problem with the small ones. I wish I would have been a little more patient with it. But all in all, the patio is pretty leveled. A few pavers could have been a bit better, but I'm happy with it still. Also, I did run a plate compactor over the top of the pavers when I finished. I was a bit nervous, but I had no problems with it. I bought a cheap small doorway rug and attached it to the bottom of the plate compactor though. It seemed to actually help level out some of those pavers above that I was mentioning. I'm in Indianapolis by the way. Your winters are a bit harsher than here, but I didn't experience any problems with the one winter! Here is a picture I took when it was finished.