Should I have our pavers sealed right after installation?
Should I have our pavers sealed right after installation?
The clear answer is NO!!
When should I seal my pavers?
Most manufacturers suggest you wait 30-90 days after the manufacture date before sealing. This is because 30 days usually allow efflorescence to exhaust itself through hydration and drying.
Sealing your newly installed brick pavers before them having the opportunity to release any efflorescence within each brick paver can be detrimental. The paver sealant can prevent the calcium carbonate from evaporating into the air, and the sealer will trap that release, causing the white haze into the pavers. Leaving you with a very unsightly mess.
This will now require a costly stripping of the new sealant.
Chemical removal of the efflorescence and correctly re-sealing using a high-quality commercial-grade brick paver sealant like Ure-Seal.
Most reputable brick paver installation companies know about the efflorescence process. However, they will still offer brick paver sealing services to put a few hundred more dollars into their pockets. Our customers have told us that the brick paver installation company will tell the homeowner that it is a natural process once the efflorescence is trapped under the sealer. They are not responsible for the efflorescence. It is not covered under warranty. However, the brick paver manufacturers who abide by ICPI (Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute, www.icpi.org) standards will often offer a reduced cost for a replacement paver affected by this process. This will also benefit the paver installer, who now will charge you to remove the affected pavers and install new ones—again, costing you, the homeowner, significantly more money.
Don’t get me wrong; your brick pavers need to be sealed! However, you want to wait a minimum of 30 days after installation (in Florida) before you have them sealed. It is different in Central and South Florida (draw a line between Central Florida and everywhere south from there) because of our subtropical climate. Our climate in these areas has a lot of ground moisture which permeates through the soil and into the brick pavers from the bottom. So, as the brick pavers heat up throughout the morning and hot afternoon and that moisture evaporates out of the pavers, it draws that efflorescence out along with it much quicker than in states further north, where you may have to wait up to 3 months before sealing.
However, suppose the brick pavers go un-sealed, aside from cosmetic issues and possible staining and absorption of oils and rust. In that case, your new brick paver installation will quickly become loose, wobbly, and uneven as the aggregate material that the brick pavers float on erodes out through a process called “degradation” or “Subsurface Erosion” – Leaving you with a very costly repair bill to level those areas again before sealing your brick pavers.
Don’t be misled by these brick paver installers that offer sealing services immediately after installation for a discounted price. You may spend 3x the amount to have the sealer stripped, efflorescence chemically removed, and re-sealed.
Most busy installation companies will install between 5 – 8 new installs monthly during the active months. Out of those 5 – 8 new paver installs, they may seal 1 or 2. This means you’re trusting companies that may only do a handful of brick paver sealing jobs a year with your new investment of a brick paver driveway or pool deck. Why wouldn’t you pay the same amount to have an experienced, professional brick paver sealing company do the job correctly the first time?
That’s all we do.
Be careful who you hire. If they use the wrong sealer, they can permanently discolor your pavers, giving them a yellow tint.
We are not an installation company.
We know sealing – And we know it better!
Should I have our pavers sealed right after installation? No
For your expert brick paver sealing company, give us a call at
352-282-2886
or
For a same-day response, submit an online request for an estimate by clicking this link.
Brick paver sealing in Citrus, Sumter, Lake, Marion, Pasco, Hillsborough, and Hernando Counties
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