hello and thanks for watching what we
are looking to help you with hopefully
today is the best ways to maintain clean
and seal your block paving whether that
be a driveway or a patio my name is
Nigel Blake of work within the paving
industry for any in excess of twenty
plus years now and all I've been
involved in all aspects of that process
whether it be the the preparation the
lane the cleaning the ceiling the
maintaining of really all external
surfaces that are used for driveways or
patios but particularly block paving so
you know the reason you're watching
today is possibly that you've got some
sort of frustration with your block
paving you know the picture on the right
obviously looks lovely picture on the
red left not so good and really this is
a common theme with block paving which
if you think about it you we've got a
porous brick being laid into a bit of
sand with sand in the joints putting the
joints there and in a damp climate such
as our own you know if there's not a
degree of maintenance then you know
often these things can start to pretty
quickly look a little bit grubby we can
see on the example here there's some
weeds coming through in different areas
we've got some moss and then some
generally you know this black most
people think it is dirt but it's lichens
and algie's that are just living on the
dampness of the blocks so all of these
problems here can be can be treated and
certainly with a little bit of
maintenance a little bit of commitment
there there's no reason why we can
shouldn't keep the property looking very
nice on the next example here we can see
weed growth has become very prevalent on
the left hand side but again the right
hand side you know literally a diet ooze
work a little bit of investment in some
materials and some proper cleaning
techniques not only to the block paving
does it look
as good as new but also it's protected
and from this point on was very easy to
maintain should never need to get back
to the condition featured in the picture
on the left and again different kind of
example but a different kind of problem
almost certainly this area here could be
sort of North facing gets very little
Sun always stays damp and again that
helps the the green algae flourish but
again the encouraging thing here a
little bit of work a little bit of
commitment there and looks as good as
new
and protected so we're going to talk you
through the various steps today in a
logical fashion and really make sure
that the major points on how to do the
job properly a cupboard so same as any
job any whether it be a professional job
or a DIY job a preparation is the key
and certainly all the products here will
help you and not only achieve a better
result but also speed up the process
certainly if you've got weeds or moss on
your driveway
you want to make sure that before you
start pressure washing you've applied
some materials to kill those kill those
various gross off why is that one it
will make life a lot easier you'll be
able to clean a lot quicker but
certainly particularly with weeds you
don't just want to be chopping the heads
of the weeds so do respect and they will
very quickly reestablish themselves what
you're looking to do is get the weed
kill get the roots killed and then the
subsequent work you do with the
resounding and the sealing you're going
to see far more value from that with the
oil remover and the driveway cleaner
obviously self-explanatory with your
remover any stains it's worth making
that bit of effort to clean them off
before you start it a start finishing
applying the sealers etc to get the job
looking as good as possible and then
with the driveway cleaner really what
that's going to do is remove all the
pollutants and residue of exhaustion and
tires and also open up the pores of the
of the block get all the muck out of
those pores so that when again you go to
the sealing aspect of finishing a job
correctly the sealer can penetrate
properly into the block and you get
maximum benefit from from the products
so just kind of summarizing on and why
it's worth maintaining and the benefits
of maintaining your block paving here
you can see from the example here where
all block paving is always laid an
integral part of lane block paving
properly as it has to be laid into a bed
of sound you've then got a porous brick
sitting into that sand and sand in the
joints here which quickly as you can see
here has gone from a nice yellow to
effectively mud which then encourages
the master weeds and the various algie's
to grow so what we're looking to do with
our maintenance and cleaning process is
really a cleaner clean the blocks back
as good as new
replace that the kiln dried sand get
some nice fresh sand in there and then
get not only the blocks protected with
the sealer but also solidify the joint
in saying now once that process is
complete the the blocks are not only
protected and water resistant but also
that they're not going to continue to
lose their color generally if you see
block paving in excess of ten years old
you know where it could have been quite
vibrant in terms of colors initially a
lot of that color has been lost so again
one of the major benefits of applying
that the sealer is that you will find
that you don't lose any further color
from the blocks it selves and they are
protected against further wear and tear
so here for example is this is actually
a job
I worked on myself the person on the
Left decided just to clean their
driveway person on the right decided to
clean and seal their driveway so yeah
you can see because the sealer is for
all intents and purposes what it's done
is made the driveway water-resistant so
it still looks nice and clean there's no
real growth years a bit of eeeh slee
this is just foliage off of the trees
and the shrubs just sitting on top there
but same on both drives but what you can
see is this driveway looks freshly
cleaned whereas this one again those
grubby you know it looks dirty the
grubby algie's and lightens where the
block pavers are always damp of
reestablish themselves now the danger is
here the terms certainly if this
customer again decided to clean their
drive it would go back looking like this
for a certain period but the danger is
you can't on a regular basis pressure
wash your driveway because if you can
imagine if this driveway is let's say is
ten years old but during that time it
may be been cleaned two or three times
that pressure washing process is the
equivalent of five years approximately
five years exposure to the element so
rather than being a ten-year-old drive
with the pressure washing that drivers
now had the exposure of a twenty
five-year-old driving it is quickly
going to start you know looking very
tired losing its color and you know
really probably before too long looks
and look like the blocks need replacing
whereas if they are maintained that
aspect of deterioration just doesn't
occur so if we're looking to do the job
we're looking to of course I do it
properly I'm working on the basis here
that we've applied our weed killers are
most clear products whatever was
required the driveway cleaners we've got
rid of our all stains we're now ready to
go with our pressure washer and really
this is any important aspect what we're
trying to highlight here is that when
you're cleaning
you need to clean properly you need to
get a good percentage of the muck out of
the joints now most block pavers are
maybe a 40 a 40 mil deep certainly it
wouldn't be a good idea to try and take
40 mil of all that muck out of the
joints it could easily one destabilize
the blocks until is probably not even
possible
but you want to manage to take a decent
percentage maybe 20 mil of sand out of
those joints now the point we're making
here is you can see the same properly
cleaned you can see daylight behind
between all these blocks here and then
here partially cleaned you and still see
a percentage of muck buildup in the
joints and we're making a point again
here substandard blocks substandard
clean in 12 days later already the weeds
have started to establish itself if you
can imagine if you're spending a few
hours literally pumping water into these
blocks not cleaning the joints properly
then you're creating the perfect
environment for that growth to you know
be very happy all that moisture for it
to very quickly establish yourself so
you need to make sure that the the
pavers have been killing properly and
normally what I would do is when I go
back to resetting the job I would have
on hand a screwdriver or Stanley knife
or something where any joints that I've
missed
I just scrape those out to make sure
that every joint is cleaned before I
move on with the next part of the
process but and in terms of a pressure
washer of course you know same thing
better the tools the easier the job but
there's no reason why yeah a decent DIY
machine can't do the job of course if
you if you're a professional contractor
and you've got a 1200 pound 1500 pound
machine thousand pound machine even
better you're just going to go faster
you know there's no reason why you
shouldn't do the job properly with a
basic model but a more expensive model
is just
going to work that much quicker so now
one thing to just always bear in mind
you know the the resounding the sealing
process can do a lot of things to look
after maintain get your block paving
looking good but it can't do everything
it can't hold poorly laid paving
together those joints are very strong
but you know they cannot repair block
paving so just be careful take a good
look around your property before you
start any kind of cleaning work and just
make sure your driveways properly laid
as you can see in the example here and
the the pavers here running out of line
which shows that the paving is moving
here and that's highlighted by the fact
that there's a greater buildup of
marking the joints that's because these
joints are opening opening up further
and of course here very obviously the
edgings are breaking away there's
wholesale movement so yeah if this was
one of my customers or I was looking to
do the work for myself I'll be looking
to have these sections repaired properly
repaired lifted rebased before I moved
on with the the cleaning side of the job
as I did the sealer and the cleaning
process can do a lot of things but it it
can't achieve miracles so again we are
now projecting us forward and working on
the basis that we've all done an expert
job on cleaning the pavers and now we're
just waiting with the next part of the
process and again just as cleaning the
pavers correctly is absolutely key when
you if you're looking to use the sealers
and then the the certainly then the next
part of the process is absolutely key
starting with making sure that you leave
long enough for the paving to dry
properly before you even think about
resetting or sealing the block pavers so
again it's a bit of an unnatural
thing if you can imagine dependent on
the type of machine it could be you're
pumping five 10 15 liters per minute of
water into these blocks even in even in
the good weather yeah it's going to take
a few days to dry so make sure you know
generally if I'm doing a job for a
customer I would say to the customer
don't really expect to see me for about
seven days depending on what the how the
weather behaves but normally as I would
leave the job for approximately seven
days to dry before thinking of sanding
or sealing of course you if it's the
middle of August ninety degrees hasn't
rained for three weeks or something then
that period of time can be cut down
dramatically but certainly there's more
to be lost from trying to sand and seal
too quickly than just maybe waiting a
few days and of course if you went back
and there's a few bits of bird metal
something these can easily be cleaned
off you don't need to think that oh it's
not been sanded or seal for two weeks do
I need to clean it again etc there's not
not necessary now so that's the drying
time covered the point there when to
sand the reason I'm highlighting there
is that you want to only be sanding on
the day when you're looking to apply the
sealer let's say for example you've
waited for a few days for the paving to
dry and then the night before you is
going to seal the drive or patio you
decide to resend it okay it's in a five
minute shower ten minute share a 15
minute share doesn't really matter that
sound gets soaking wet I will now take a
further few diet days to dry again
whereas that little bit of rain just on
the blocks itself would have evaporated
within an hour okay so the point I'm
making here is only sand on the same day
you're going to seal then yeah so we try
to give general advice here on just to
help you look after your block paving
better when it comes to CD you've got
various options as a company we
offer solvent-based cedars we offer
eco-friendly sealers in a variety of
finishes you must should see most of the
information you require on the
smartsealer website you can look at your
options there what's right for you but
of course any questions always give us a
call the benefit of maybe another seal
called a gloss type product as you can
see from the example here certainly
those products do rejuvenate revitalized
the color and that is an additional
benefit of the sealer it can really as a
kind of turn tired looking paving back
to new and then then the final point
make here is correct sealer coverage per
square meter as a company we would
rather people not buy our products then
try and spread them too thin you end up
with a disappointed customer who doesn't
think the sealers achieved what he
thought it would and you know we end up
with our brand not being not being seen
in the marketplace in the positive way
that it should be so you know certainly
our advice would be either use the right
amount of sealer
don't use it at all you know if you work
out you need five hundred pounds worth
three hundred pounds worth of cedar
don't think oh you know I'll just buy
one Drammen and see how far I get
because you're just going to end up
disappointed you know is just not worth
trying to cut cut corners and you can
see here some examples on what I'm
trying to emphasize example on the right
here
you can see how far that sound is now
solid in the joints this is this example
represents a cut off section of a block
paver and the sound in the joints there
and basically the further the sealer
penetrates then longer that joint is
going to stabilize the more resistant to
growth and et cetera and weeds it's
going to be and of course that the
further see the penetrates into the
block itself and the more protection or
is there the the better that is going to
easier that's going to maintain and the
more benefits from the cedar itself so
certainly don't cut corners and also be
very careful the information that you
can see on some websites you know people
talking about two or three even four
times the coverage that we would
recommend for our sealers yes any cedar
can spread that far but what you don't
want is just a tiny little crust of
penetration into the sound which after a
few weeks is just going to to break down
you're going to see very little benefit
if there's only a tiny amount of sealer
on the block itself and say it's very
easy just to end up wasting wasting good
money rather than just say concentrating
on doing the job properly and this is
again just an example on how strong and
how effective the sealers can be a
three-block pavers they're surprising
how heavy they are but these in this
example they're just held together I'm
sorry just click back there they just
held together through the sand and
sealer and lung so it creates a very
strong bond but say if you don't use
enough see that you you're just wasting
your time okay so let's say that
everything's clean everything's
everything's dry we're ready to go and
we're looking at the the materials we
require to effectively properly sand and
seal seal or block paving so we start
with the kiln dry sound that you can see
here killed rice and decent sanding
broom make sure that you take all the
sound you want your joints nicely filled
but you don't want any see saying left
on the surface of the blocks because
whether it be an acrylic polyurethane or
an eco-friendly block paving sealer
anything left on the surface of the
blocks is going to be effectively glued
on there so you don't want a scattering
of saying permanently on the face of the
blocks definitely spoiling spoiling the
look and that is one reason
only eight out of ten driveways in this
country they've been sealed have been
sealed with a roller so it's absolutely
particularly as a one-off for a
homeowner the the most cost-effective
way of sealing your block payment but
just be careful that you only let the
roller glide across the surface of the
blocks with quite a lot of sealer on
there what you don't want to be doing is
putting any pressure on the roller and
dragging the sand out of the joints and
sakes effectively painting the surface
and gluing grains of sand to the surface
here you won't be very happy and
certainly family won't be very impressed
so just make sure you avoid that if you
decide to go down the line if using a
sprayer just make sure it's got a Viton
seals to handle the nature of the
chemicals and again can handle the
viscosity of their sealers as well again
the kind of thing you would pick up in a
local DIY store 30 40 pound sprayer for
looking after your roses and you guard
and that's not going to be fit for
purpose so as a if it's a one-off job
you might be just better off sticking
with a roller kit but we have sprayers
as various other companies have surprise
of air available but just make sure you
get a piece of piece of kit that's fit
for purpose okay so we're just looking
there at you know the various methods
and they spray are self-explanatory what
you're really looking to do that's
myself working in that picture and I
would be looking to really have that
sealer puddling in front of me at my
feet to know that it's then going to
penetrate deep enough to do a proper job
into into the blocks in the sand there
with the roller kit so really same sort
of principle plenty of sealer on the
roller and that will quickly penetrate
and then on the right hand side this
kind of squeegee slightly different
technique but at the end of the video
the end of the information on this video
there will be a couple of links where
you can see that that product being
applied properly using the squeegee
technique so certainly just one to look
out for there and normally with these
products you know I would be applying
two coats to make sure the job's done
properly and after the first coat just
checking that the sound in the joints
there hadn't congealed and sunk down a
little bit so I would be prefer prepared
an hour to after the first coat just to
walk over and any sand which is
saturated down a little bit excuse me I
just replace that to make sure there's
no voids there where it could be very
easy for weeds and that to start to we
establish itself few more examples here
of what could be cleaned I remember
doing this job this was for a friend of
mine and this was oh excuse me
I sort of ten year old driveway that
come back looking really nice and with
the cedar as well kept looking good for
many years to come
another example here not the the worst
condition drive in the world but
certainly you can see areas where it was
getting tired really this was the right
time to try and look after and get it
clean and get the sealer there because
the lightens the allergies were just
starting to establish themselves and
certainly that the driveway was
beginning to lose color after eight of
ten years but you can see in the example
here come back looking as good as new
and then again never let anyone tell you
otherwise
of course any external service in this
country is going to need a little bit of
aftercare a little bit of maintenance
and certainly your drive why is no
different we wouldn't expect to take our
car have that service once and then it
to last forever or have our windows
cleaned and then for them to stay nice
and clean forever you get that you get
the principle you
yeah so certainly I would say to get the
maximum value from the work that you've
done get the maximum value and longevity
from the cedars that you've applied
maybe say to yourself twice a year
you're going to spend maybe a few hours
half a day maybe an hour depending on
the size of your driveway or patio just
doing a couple of basic things with all
kinds of with all forms of block paving
and not sure how clearly here but if
you've got block paving you'll know what
I mean you've got a little beveled
beveled edge here where a little void
here where we're left and swept again
sort of residue off of tires
markayla trees generally things can
start to build up in those joints and if
they're allowed to build up that's when
the master weaves the algie's will start
to re-establish itself so I would
suggest couple of times a year maybe
south-facing areas only once
north-facing maybe two or three who
knows but we're not talking a lot of
period of time here to do the work and
certainly very little costing materials
but just be prepared to to sweep sweep
the drive occasionally stop any residue
building up in the joints if you see
some sort of green lg's and they're
appearing on the blocks where say it
kind of really they're staying damp they
don't get much Sun and they're in the
winter just put this on with a watering
can that will that will get rid of all
that green and then again once or twice
a year just to help help everything stay
under control
watering can dialogue weedkiller just to
stop anything building up or and
developing in those joints and I'm
emphasizing the point here you know we
don't need to think about pressure
washing
just a light hose down again just you
know maybe once maybe twice a year just
a light hose down and a broom this will
keep your your driveway your patio
looking good for many years to come and
then if you work on the basis getting
depend on wear and tear but a top up
coat of sealer maybe every three years
if you want to really keep it looking
nice or if you just want to keep
on top of it maybe that would be five
years but you say that the point I'm
making here in a little bit of
maintenance once you've got your
driveway or patio looking as good as new
a little bit of maintenance you can keep
it under control and looking great so
hopefully this helps say we're always on
hand I'm sure that you might have some
other questions that the information
we've supplied here has conjured up for
you but you always feel free to get in
touch and thanks very much for watching