That seems an unfortunate sacrifice. I am beyond my job description here, but if I had it to do, would try to think of this as a stone garden - substituting cement for sand - that just happened to leave room for a car. Google japanese stone garden for more ideas.[houzz=]

Cisar, the timber is Karri from WA. Underneath and steps are merbau. We coated it with a Sikkens stain. The railing and glass are from Gelcon Fabrications at Bulli (Wollongong) and are aluminium and tinted (grey) glass. The painting starts in one week so I will post a pic when it is finished. Meanwhile we have bought a huge cantilevered umbrella for the deck in “sand”colour as it gets very hot in the summer even though it is south facing. We built the deck to capture the winter sun which it will get plenty of despite its orientation.

Go the paving slabs, it will age better and look higher end.

Thanks. I'll look at tiles. I should have clarified that this has been a rental for 15 years and was in good condition when we bought and reno but since then various tenants and their pets have done plenty of damage so as dejected landlords, we want to spend as little as possible just to make it presentable again for a couple of years before we put it on the market.