More than likely the color of those pavers runs through the body of the pavers. Acid washing will not blend the colors. Staining may not give you the affect you're looking for...but you can still try in an inconspicuous area.

Sorry to say but that is some nice work. Bold yes (which I'm OK with) but nice work all the same. I would hate to see you ruin this just because the colours are not to your liking.

How old do you think it is? If it is relatively new, you might want to let the SUN do all the work for you. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, fades things faster than UV rays from the sun. My personal favourite is "do nothing". Given enough time, the sun will bleach black plastic/concrete/pavement/black top, etc down to "off white".

But then again I'm all about the "most for the least". More time in the sun = less money spent trying to fix something like this. Time and sunlight are free....but it has to be an option you can live with until you get the look you want.

I think you may be able to neuter the color strength with acid stain but you're entering a world where no results could be guaranteed. So definitely test the waters with samples before jumping in head first. There are some acid stains that do not work outdoors (mainly blue/green range.) Brick red, ochre yellow and black seem to be the predominant colors for outdoors, but it's hard to cover a dark color with a lighter color. So yellow would not work well to change black. My guess is that black/charcoal is going to be your best best for taming the wildness out of the pavers. Acid stain requires time. It's not as though you can apply it and see a change quickly. It must develop so you can't really tell the end result until time passes, it's neutralized and washed off. It's kind of like how you can't tell what a piece of glazed pottery is going to look like until it comes out of the kiln. You can buy a fairly small sample of acid stain in order to make a test.

You can park a car on those? Nice. They look as if they were installed very well. I really like your pavers, sorry you don't :(

ej, I'm surprised you're getting so much pushback. I agree with you it's ugly, and the quality of the installation and materials can't hide that. I'm sure this is a well made product too:

"Ugly" is entirely in the eye of the beholder :-) That and the fact that is an extremely well done paving installation is why the pushback. Have no first hand experience myself in staining or acid washing pavers so can't comment on how well that might work but agree that it would be prohibitively expensive to replace so if testing on an out of the way area does not provide the desired results, this may be something you will just have to learn to live with. Would not necessarily be my first choice either but then I'd break it up with something to draw the eye away.......a collection of planted containers perhaps.

Yes, ugly is in the eye of the beholder, and we should all remember that the beholder is the OP homeowner who thinks it is horrible, I'm just confirming their good taste:)

As for the quality of the installation, how much information is conveyed by one photo? It's flat, I'll give it that, but we aren't even seeing the entire area. How old is it? How much paver base was installed? How well was it compacted? We don't know any of that so making judgments about its quality seems a little presumptuous. What we do know is that the homeowner thinks it's horrible and I wish I could give them more help.

Considering paver installations are something I deal with on a daily basis, I can easily recognize a quality installation from one that is not. A poorly done installation is obvious almost immediately after it is laid.

This is my first time posting and I have to say, I am entertained and appreciate any and all help (as well as the confirmation of the ugliness we have been living with for far too long!). Yes, prob very expensive to install this, so I am trying to salvage it if at all possible! I actually would take ANY random grey-ish color over this, so I am willing to give staining or acid-wash stain a try (somewhere out of the way first, of course). If Cinar Interiors or Yaardvark (or anyone else) could suggest a brand or direction for materials we would so appreciate it)!

Thank you!!! I think that is the most concrete/helpful advice I have gotten after asking countless paver people and landscapers what can be done!

Let us see your test samples (which hopefully you have discreetly chosen for their semi-hidden quality) and, of course, the finished product.

@ejlanner Can you share pics of the finished product? I have a similar issue with my driveway and want to stain it grey, as well. Thanks!

Sadly Iris I have made little progress! I tried Colors Direct but the black acid stain is actually a muddy earth tone that looks somewhat dirty. I tried soy based (seems to be all that’s avail near me) and that is opaque which is not my preference. I’m not giving up but wouldn’t say I’ve had great success as yet!

Agree, i have the same problem, ugly, hot, rough rough, dated.

Did you stained them? Can you share your solution?