As with anything, the more care you put into your concrete paver project, the more you’ll get out of it. Pavers can survive for decades unattended, but even the smallest amount of maintenance can preserve and enhance their inherent beauty for many more years. In addition, good cleaning and maintenance of your pavers will keep them strong and durable. However, cleaning pavers isn’t as simply as a quick wash with a hose. If you want to know how to clean concrete pavers yourself, here is a quick guide:
(1) First, make sure you clean any large debris or dirt off the surface first. This will allow you to see if there are any stains or discolorations that have made their way into the top layer of the brick.
(2) Obtain a pressure washer and begin cleaning off the fine dirt and debris that cannot be removed with a broom. Concentrate on areas of stains to see if you can remove them with water alone; if not, see step 3. Take care not to spray water directly into the sand filled joints, as you may remove some of the material and potentially weaken the entire structure. Don’t worry if you lose a little bit of sand; the sand is usually lost anyway over time, and you can fix this in step 4.
(3) Get muriatic acid or some other paver cleaner to take care of the stains on the surface of the paver. Make sure you test out the cleaner on a small scale before applying it in more conspicuous places to prevent making more permanent stains.
(4) Finally, refill the joints with sand as necessary to bring them to the top. Wet down the surface of the pavers one more time with a hose (not the pressure washer) to ‘seal’ the entire structure together.
Repeat this process once every month or so, or whenever the surface gets especially dirty.
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