Cleaning pavers

JDhomeservices

JDhomeservices

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I have been searching the forum for a while, and can not find any information on cleaning pavers. How do you guys do them? Do they need to be stripped, cleaned, and then resealed? Or can they just be washed? Can I use a surface cleaner over sealed papers, or would tat be a bad idea? Bid a job today, and all thy want is the mold off the top. I guess i could just softwash them?

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A strong house wash mix and dwell will probably get a lot of it. You can, if it's not too much trouble, roll back the pressure on your machines and use your SC to get it clean.

I haven't done any pavers, so I don't know for sure. Seems like a SC (with high pressure) would blow all the sand out from between the pavers and loosen them.
 
Hey josh we do tons of pavers sealed and not. If there is alot of weeds ill soak it I weed killer a few days before. We use roof mix on them if there heavy mold. If they are white or very light colo r paver hydroxide makes them pop as well. If weeds arent to bad we just chop them with the turbo nozzle. Suface clean at full blast..most concrete brick pavers 2" of 3" are rated at 8-10, 000psi. They are strong. Surface clea er will keep the sand where it is. The trick is to remove the dirt In between the joints and replace it with sand. Use contractor grade washed and crushed we use the wet method but alot like the dry sweep. Upsell sanding..although it should always be done anyway. we charge more for pavers to just clean
 
We did a paver driveway a few days ago and I sprayed some left over housewash mix and used my S/C on them. But we did turn down the pressure abit. Driveway looks good. Also these folks had a fountain in front and used blue dye in it. When they drained it the dye went all over the pavers and it dried on them. Housewash mix cleaned up the dye too!
 
Hate to hijack a thread, but anyone have experience in pouring new concrete patio to extend/enlarge an existing concrete patio? Customer also wants those brick accent strips in the concrete driveway. I know this is a Paver thread, but I tend to lump brick and pavers into the same box. I figger there's gotta be someone on the board that was a mason in a previous life.

Surface cleaners make more of a mess on the pavers unless they are installed correctly and hopefully small joints. Depends on what type of sand (if any) is present. We do well on paver sand jobs, and include a maintenance agreement on polymeric sand installs.

I'm probably not the only guy who has ruined a pair of shoes from the moss & soil that kicks up when you clean wide-spaced pavers. Its tough to clean them uniformly if they have a defined reveal or sides, so often I try to apply uniform coats of cleaner before applying direct pressure.
 
palm beach said:
Hey josh we do tons of pavers sealed and not. If there is alot of weeds ill soak it I weed killer a few days before. We use roof mix on them if there heavy mold. If they are white or very light colo r paver hydroxide makes them pop as well. If weeds arent to bad we just chop them with the turbo nozzle. Suface clean at full blast..most concrete brick pavers 2" of 3" are rated at 8-10, 000psi. They are strong. Surface clea er will keep the sand where it is. The trick is to remove the dirt In between the joints and replace it with sand. Use contractor grade washed and crushed we use the wet method but alot like the dry sweep. Upsell sanding..although it should always be done anyway. we charge more for pavers to just clean
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I have to write a quote for tomorrow. They are concrete pavers in the front of the home 20sq. and then the pool deck is all pavers.1600 sq. the owner was asking about adding sand after we wash it. Im not sure if we knock out the old sand and seal or resand then seal. how does the sand stay in place while sealing.
 
I personally have had pretty good luck cleaning pavers with my Landa SC. I raise my bar all the way when I do pavers. It will still kick up sand, but not as much when I wand it. Kicking up the sand can't be helped. You can re-sand it and then seal, but depends on what the customer wants. Also, you might want to see how much sand is there to start with and go from there. You can also let the surface dry and use a push broom to put the sand back in. Also check how dense the sand is. I did pavers with really hard sand that didn't explode out of their crevices and then I've done pavers with beach sand (soft sand) that exploded on contact with my SC. I did re-sand that one, but knew I would have to anyways. My best advice and what I always do is advise the customer that the sand in the crevices will kick up and that either I can re-sand it and broom it back in or give them the choice of doing it themselves. I can usually tell on the site how much the sand will kick up depending on how dense it is and advise the customer. Also depends on what is there to begin with. If the sand level is below an inch then I'm not re-sanding it, I'm sanding it and I'll let the customer know that they've lost a sufficient amount of sand already and could benefit from me sanding it. This is usually an up-sale for me.
 
Kristopher Pettitt said:
I personally have had pretty good luck cleaning pavers with my Landa SC. I raise my bar all the way when I do pavers. It will still kick up sand, but not as much when I wand it. Kicking up the sand can't be helped. You can re-sand it and then seal, but depends on what the customer wants. Also, you might want to see how much sand is there to start with and go from there. You can also let the surface dry and use a push broom to put the sand back in. Also check how dense the sand is. I did pavers with really hard sand that didn't explode out of their crevices and then I've done pavers with beach sand (soft sand) that exploded on contact with my SC. I did re-sand that one, but knew I would have to anyways. My best advice and what I always do is advise the customer that the sand in the crevices will kick up and that either I can re-sand it and broom it back in or give them the choice of doing it themselves. I can usually tell on the site how much the sand will kick up depending on how dense it is and advise the customer. Also depends on what is there to begin with. If the sand level is below an inch then I'm not re-sanding it, I'm sanding it and I'll let the customer know that they've lost a sufficient amount of sand already and could benefit from me sanding it. This is usually an up-sale for me.
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Great. Thanks The sand is missing mostly closest to the pool. How do you apply the sealer with the sand? I was thinking of spraying it on, or would a roller be better?
 
I personally haven't sealed yet (needing some experience) but I would say the rolling method. I've seen pavers where the spray the seal and to me it looks sloppy. Craig Harrison has some experience in this field. I would try to contact him. He can give you some really good intel.
 
Kristopher, I've never used a SC but who knows, maybe I will try it some time. Th paver jobs are messy, no matter what. If there are chunks of moss present, or any other foreign materials, in the joints then simply brushing everything back in won't work. Use a garden sprayer if the pavers are small, a roller if not. If they are really big, they sell 24" rollers. Be sure to backbrush with some throwaway brushes -- not the foam or china bristle, but a $2-5 brush. Buy several because they are going to get nasty and gunked up quick.
 
john neilson said:
These pavers are really not that bad. My belief would be to add the sand to keep it uniform and to keep any pavers from shifting. Why not use a surface cleaner?
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Just better to use wand at angle, unless they are sealed properly using a surface cleaner is a bad idea. Prolong use will damage the sub base and allow them to fail.

I get a lot of paver business from installers than repair damaged jobs after companies continual use of surface cleaners.

I have some monster and will post photos of a job I got back after low balled. Around 45,000 in damage.


Oct event San Diego free free text me for more details !!
 
Have this job to do this week and the pavers are not sealed. I read some use sc and others do not. This is a pool customer of mine and I have done some pw for them in the past. I am 1 man and doing this with a sc will take me the better part of a day as my sc is 18 inches and powered by 3000 psi at 2.5 gpm. That's all I have at this time. If I do this with a rotors nozzel it will go fast but I am guessing 1 full day to do. Any help? Thanks.image.jpg
 

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Solopressure washer said:
Have this job to do this week and the pavers are not sealed. I read some use sc and others do not. This is a pool customer of mine and I have done some pw for them in the past. I am 1 man and doing this with a sc will take me the better part of a day as my sc is 18 inches and powered by 3000 psi at 2.5 gpm. That's all I have at this time. If I do this with a rotors nozzel it will go fast but I am guessing 1 full day to do. Any help? Thanks.View attachment 26128
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Ive been in your shoes, At 2.5 GPM your Surface cleaner will barely spin. I would DS my SH And use a 40*. You have a large area to cover, let the chemical do the work.
 
The pw is rated at 3800psiand 3.8 gpm. Cat pump with a 10hp. Tried to get the low down on this pump but the model# does not match anything on the cat web site. I know that the sc saves me a lot of time once net drives or pool decks and does a good job for me. Guess I will try a small area first to see how it works. Not able use chems as there is a mote around the front of the house with Koi fish in it. Even with the insurance I have not willing to take a chance on hurting the family pets. I did check with the vet on this concern about the fish and good old cold water with what ever else may get I the pond /mote will not hurt them. Thanks for the help. I will try to post some pics later this week.
 
Cleaning pavers is a delicate and tedious process, I clean pavers all the time sealed and not sealed. I use a roof mix and let dwell for several minutes to eat away all the mold, dial down my pressure a little and use surface cleaner. Havent shifted, lifted or damage any pavers and they come out looking like new again.
 
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