I love flagstone and slate. We used granite irregular cut flagging on our front and rear porches. This was set in a mortar bed atop a 4" poured concrete pad (sitting in a pan). Our flagstone was originally (we got it on sale) $450/ton, and it covers about 100 sq/ft a ton. I would say that is a reasonable estimate for coverage although it can vary some. Slate would be much more affordable...more likely in the $100-$200 range for materials only. You will probably not (depending on your local prices) be able to get a stone install in the $5/sq ft range...more likely it will be closer to $8-$10. You could maybe get tile installed close to $5/sq ft. There are some good looking tiles out there that closely mimic slate. You could also use ipe for some of the porches...not sure if the price difference would be that great though. I think that if the natural stone doesn't work, and you don't want wood that stained concrete would work too. I don't think that pavers sound very caribbean...and their install cost wouldn't save you any money.

Thanks for the help. I talked to the dealer again yesterday. He agrees that the membrane should not be necessary as we never get a hard freeze here and our concrete was poured almost a year ago so any settling has probably already occurred. On grouting he did say that some people prefer not to fill the holes with grout and just hose down the porch when they fill up with the local sandy dirt. On the other hand he said that in picking a grout color we might consider getting something that blends with the local dirt as well as with the travertine. That way, in his opinion, the holes won't fill up with dirt and the grout will never look dirty. At first I thought he was kidding but he was serious. What do you think of this idea? SALLEN, I should have mentioned that the tile is 1/2" thick and I was calling it tile to distinguish it from the travertine pavers I've seen that are much thicker. We looked at everything from ceramic and porcelain tile, to slate, to Pennsylvania bluestone and even considered just painting the concrete. What finally pushed us completely to the travertine was the natural beauty of the stone and how cool it feels underfoot. (I actually took off my shoes and walked on a sample patch that was sitting in the sun). It was also in our price range---around $4 sf. Hope this helps.

It's true ... mosquitos love dark places during the day and crawl spaces are a favorite. The deck being only 2-3 steps high is close enough to the ground to warrant a patio. You could raise it a little with a retaining curb. At 18" or less above grade, I'd opt for patio. At 18" to 24", it's a toss up. Above 36", I'd opt for deck.

Well, painting our doors is taking much more time than anticipated! Partly bc we decided to take them off to lay flat and spray for a smoother finish. Plus my husband decided to work on building our shed yesterday so i had to wait for help on a few occasions. But we need a shed so that’s ok! Prep took forever bc the doors are not in great shape. And those darn windows! But I got both doors prepped and we sprayed 1 coat of primer on 1 door. But then couldn’t move it right away and then had to hang them before dark! So we will finish this weekend! I’ll post pics when done. Thank you!