What is the best way to maintain your paving stone?
Paving stones in various colors, patterns and textures are now the material of choice to embellish your outdoor courtyard. You can use it to cover your parking lot, driveways, patio or to add a touch of sparkle to your pool area.
However, given the extreme weather conditions in Quebec (freezing, thawing, bad weather, wind…), these stone blocks can lose their brilliance, their color or show signs of deterioration over time. So here are some tips for the maintenance of your paving.
Cleaning your paving stone
Several elements can affect the appearance of your pavement such as traces of fallen leaves from the trees, oil spots from your vehicles or even moss and weeds. So if you want a new look for your paving surface, you have to clean it thoroughly, but how should you do it? Do it step by step! First of all, to prevent damage to plants and shrubs near the clean-up area or to decorative metal objects, consider protecting them or moving them to a safer place.
A first step in the maintenance and cleaning of the stone paving is without a doubt the removal of weeds. In the long term, these could cause a deterioration of your pavement by distancing the blocks of stone. It is therefore essential to remove the vegetation between the paving joints.
When the time comes for cleaning, it’s time to consider not only the detergents’ effectiveness, but also the impact on the environment! A dish soap or vinegar diluted in water are degreasers and disinfectants powerful enough to restore your pavement to its original brilliance.
Then start the job with a stiff bristle brush and rub. The rinsing is done with a light water spray; a high pressure water jet may cause damage to the sand joints. Happy with the result? You can now enlarge your cleaning surface and repeat the operation.
Maintaining your paving surface
Weather, climate or even cleaning are factors that can cause your paving to wear out. Sand loss at the joints and stone broken joints is not uncommon. How can these problems be resolved? Besides the fact that joints made up of sand and polymer have a role in the aesthetics and maintenance of stones, they also limit the growth of weeds.
Therefore, if there is a gap, it is necessary to work them over again. This operation remains quite simple since it essentially consists in filling the joints with polymer sand. To be sure that these are perfectly filled, simply sweep and evaluate the height of the granular material. Repeat this process until the sand level is even.
But what to do in case of stone breakage? Remove the sand around the damaged brick and remove it. Before laying a new one, check the level and add sand if necessary. Once this step is completed, you simply lay the brick, press it down and finally fill the joints with polymeric sand.
If you still have questions about paving stone maintenance or installation, feel free to contact Les Entreprises Lavoie Leblanc, we will be happy to help you.
