Concrete pavers are often promoted as a low maintenance solution driveways, walkways, and patios. Though low maintenance does not mean no maintenance. There are still things that you can do to both prevent larger maintenance projects and keep your pavers looking as good as possible for as long as possible.
How to Maintain Pavers
There are a few aspects to discuss when it comes to paver maintenance so that your pavers and joints look the same as the day it was installed. Often times this largely depends on the way it was installed in the first place to reduce the number of things that can go wrong with your paver driveway, patio, or walkway.
Improper installation of jointing fill can cause it to fail long before it should and cause many headaches that come with that such as loss of integrity of that pavement from traffic that it will experience, ants, and weeds.
Choosing the right paver for the application is another aspect that should be considered to reduce the wear and tear that it will experience from the elements. For example, if you are installing in a space that has a lot of overhead foliage and gets little sun you may want to use a product that will go with the moss growth that this surface will experience such as natural stone. That way when this space does inevitably start to show signs of natural growth, it will go with the natural aesthetic of the environment.
The base is the most important aspect of any paver project and failure to prepare the base appropriately, your project will show signs of failure. This can come in the form of pavers heaving and sinking or border pavers sliding off the edge of the project due to improper base extension or poor edge restraint.
If your project is installed properly, then there are ways in which you can keep that paver project looking great for years to come.
Paver Warranty
The best aspect of choosing pavers over other pavement options is that they are manufactured in a factory setting. This allows manufacturers to control environmental factors that cannot be controlled in other pavement solutions. Not to mention that pavers are made to certain standards to remain structurally sound in different climates, environments, and traffic that they experience.
Most manufacturers offer a limited lifetime structural warranty on their product. They usually need to be installed to the manufacturers specifications in order to uphold this limited lifetime warranty and it is always important to read through their warranty to understand what could void that warranty.
Cleaning
Cleaning your pavers is a great way to revitalize them and to remove any ground in dirt or organic growth on the surface of them. This should be done once a year in the Spring and twice a year if the area is surrounded by foliage and gets very little sun throughout the day. There are paver-specific cleaners that can be used to complete this process without the use of a pressure washer. Some are acid-based and other are detergent-based. If you do opt to use a cleaner, try it on a inconspicuous small area first before continuing throughout the entire project. This helps to see whether or not there is any adverse effect such as staining that the cleaner causes on the pavers.
It is advised to not use a pressure washer on the surface of pavers. This will wear down the surface of pavers and expose the larger aggregates within the pavers. If they are already exposed because the pavers are older, you can get away with using a pressure washer if necessary. Ideally you would stick to the detergent-based cleaner if you can. The acid-based cleaner will etch the surface of the stone slightly and if not applied properly could eat away at the surface and expose those larger aggregates. The benefit to the acid-based cleaners is that it will clean efflorescence which is a white mineral-based residue on the surface of the pavers caused by moisture wicking through the surface dissolving and depositing those minerals on the surface. If this is a continual problem you probably have a moisture problem and not a paver problem.
If you have other stains besides organic such as oil, paint, or tire marks, there are readily available cleaners for all of these stains to remove from the surface of your pavers.
Sealing
Sealing your pavers is not a necessity, but it will protect your pavers from stains and UV rays extending the life and color of your pavers. This will make cleaning much easier especially with more difficult stains such as oil as the sealer will keep that oil on the surface and not allow it to penetrate through the paver. You can apply a water-based or solvent-based sealer. Typically water-based sealers are penetrating and solvent-based sealers are surface film forming. They also come in a variety of looks such as natural, wet look, color boost, and much more.
The downside is it will require re-sealing every 3 to 5 years depending on sun exposure and traffic. You need to wait at least 30 days after installing polymeric sand to be able to seal and maybe more depending on the production date of your pavers. You can find this date on the tag that is available on your pavers when they were first delivered and you can contact the manufacturer to see what they recommend before sealing. Typically this is at least approximately 90 days from the production date.
Sealing requires cleaning beforehand and the right temperature and weather conditions for a few days. There can be no moisture on the surface or in the joints of the pavers. Stripping sealer is a pain, so you want to make sure that you follow the directions of the sealer carefully and apply as directed.
Jointing
The jointing fill is one aspect of a paver project that requires the most amount of maintenance. This will depend largely on what jointing compound you opt for in your installation. The most common is polymeric sand. There can be many reasons why polymeric sand could fail including environmental factors on the day of installation, improper installation, and improper base material. If polymeric sand withstands for a period of time, you can likely get about 5 to 7 years out of it. After that you will see it cracking or deteriorating. Once again, the length will depend on the amount of sun that the pavement gets to dry out the area as joints are the lowest point of a paver project and can hold water which leads to organic growth. It will also depend on the amount of traffic the pavement gets and the slope of the pavers whether or not the pavement removes water from the surface quickly or slowly.
Weeds and ants can get into any crack or finer material such as polymeric sand. This requires frequent maintenance to ensure you are not getting weed growth or ants starting to form in the joints. Pull any weeds immediately when you see them. If you leave them be, their roots will grow into and spread through the bedding layer. At this point it is much more difficult to remove it entirely and pavers would need to be removed to get the entire weed and replaced. Polymeric sand will prevent weed growth and ants, but it wont stop them from appearing.
An alternative to polymeric sand would be a semi-permeable jointing compound. In our experience, this solidifies harder than polymeric sand and does a much better job of preventing weeds and ants. However, it does require an open graded base or synthetic base using paver base panels as water will be introduced into that base. This jointing material requires pressure washing once or twice a year if there a lot of foliage and does not get a lot of sun throughout the day. Organic material will clog the joints and prevent water from permeating through them so you need to keep on top of clearing out the joints with a pressure washer.
Clearing Snow
Most manufacturers warranty their product with the use of de-icing substances. These should not deteriorate the pavers, but I would not test that. Use these in moderation with your pavers using calcium chloride and not sodium chloride or opt for a sand or install electric radiant heat under your pavers to melt the snow.
Use plastic shovels to clear the snow, a plow with a rubber edge, and do not use chains on your tires of either. Raise your blade of your snow blower above the top of the pavers to prevent it from hitting them, especially if your pavers are textured and have high and low points on them. Ideally your snow blower has a rubber paddle rather than a metal blade.
Yеs! Finally someone writes about chloride.