Why Should I Re-sand My pavers?
The sand in the brick paver joints serves MANY essential purposes. It helps keep joints stable, paver’s level, insects out, and plant life from growing between the joints and helps prevent mold. Before allowing another brick paver sealing professional to convince you out of re-sanding or over-sanding your brick pavers, please read this short article and educate yourself. Proper Joints between pavers should be between [1/16 in. and 3/16 in. (2 and 5 mm)] during first installation.
Joint Stabilization
If you don’t have sand in the joints, rainwater or pool water will run between the brick paver joints and wash out the base aggregate sand material your brick pavers float on (usually a 1″ – 2″ sand base), making your brick pavers lose, shaky, uneven, sunken in or even raised in some areas. Commonly called “sub-surface erosion” or “Degradation, “also widely found with improper installation, dripping water, and/or drainage areas.
Why Should you resand and seal your pavers joints?
When the brick paver sealer is applied to the joint sand, the sand is activated and hardens to a consistency comparable to concrete. As you can imagine, once it becomes this hard, water is unable to wash away the aggregate material that the brick pavers float on. Furthermore, the solid joint sand serves as an impenetrable barrier that prevents weeds from growing through. Mold won’t be able to grow since water won’t be able to collect between and below those paver joints and warm up from the heat. Reduce the unwanted mold or weeds in your brick pavers, Insects like ants will no longer be able to readily establish homes under your driveways or pool decks, leaving small ant piles throughout your brick paver installation.
Many companies advise against sanding your brick paver joints after cleaning and sealing. Why? Because getting the joint sand to the ICPI (Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute) standard is a skill obtained only from a lot of experience doing that task. The ICPI calls for joint sand between 1/8th and 1/4th inches below the brick paver’s chamfered edge (the beveled edge around the individual brick). As opposed to a high level you would find in the grout between tiles in your home for three reasons.
- Reason # 1 The small 1/8th inch canal below the surface of the pavers allows for a channel that rain/pool water can find its way to the deco drain that you would find on a pool deck, for a path to safely trickle between the brick pavers in your front walkway down your brick paver driveway to the street gutters, or run off the side of the driveway.
- Reason # 2 Why you don’t want the joint sand flush with the tops of the pavers is so when the sealer does start to wear off, that sand that the contractor who didn’t follow the ICPI joint sand standards will stick to the bottom of your feet, or wash into the pool, clogging up your pool filter with sand, find its way on your car tires when you pull your car into the garage, or shoe bottoms when walking into the entryway of your home. Proper joint sand height is essential when using a joint stabilizing sealer with joint sand. When it’s too high, there could be an issue when applying a joint stabilizing sealer. If there is no reservoir for the water or sealer to accumulate in the joint, it may not get adequately saturated, which helps create a solid full-depth joint, causing premature sand loss.
- Reason # 3 The sand/sealer will also wear unevenly and at a faster rate as you walk on, move furniture, drive on, or rub off the sealer, and the sand will find its way all over the surface area, making your sweeping job never-ending! Again, resulting in the loss of joint sand, which can cause wobbly, uneven pavers, and water not to channel or drain properly, adding a potentially unsafe environment.
Do i need to seal my pavers?
Do I seal or not seal my brick pavers? This is the most asked question that we get. In short, our answer will always be a profound yes! It all comes down to this, would you like to protect your investment and get the most out of it? Most likely your answer is a yes!
If you have noticed that your brick pavers have lost most of the lovely colors they once had when they were initially installed and now, they look faded and raw, then they are due for a sealing.
When brick pavers are not sealed, they are simply exposed to the harsh elements and to harmful UV rays. Yes, you read that correctly, unsealed, brick pavers will get damaged by every day UV rays. These rays will eat up their colors and in turn make them look dull, faded and raw. This will certainly deteriorate and decrease the life expectancy of your brick pavers costing you more dollars down the road.
