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Bring life back to your driveway or patio pavers by staining and restoring brick. Few things add so much to a landscape than a beautiful set of pavers, whether installed in your driveway, around the pool, or on your patio. One of the things that makes them so popular is the countless ideas of patterns and even colors you can choose from.
What To Do if Your Paver Color is Faded or Ugly?
Brick pavers must be maintained and sealed regularly to protect them from obvious staining. What might not be obvious to most is their gradual fade. If pavers are not sealed, they can fade to look like bare cement in as little as seven years!
Staining pavers can help protect them from water damage and erosion and increase their lifespan. Stains can also restore faded pavers to look almost new again. Some say that staining pavers is easy and affordable. It can transform a patio into a beautiful extension of a home. Here are some reasons why you might want to stain your pavers:
- Protect from water damage—Water can cause pavers to crack and stain over time. Sealing pavers with a water-repellent sealer can help keep water from penetrating the surface, reducing the likelihood of damage and prolonging the life of the pavers.
- Restore faded pavers—If pavers aren’t sealed, they can fade to look like bare cement in as little as seven years. Staining can restore faded pavers to look almost new again.
- Longer-lasting color—Stains penetrate into the concrete rather than just building up on the surface like paint, resulting in a longer-lasting color that won’t fade as quickly.
- Better look – Stains can give pavers depth of color, making them look better than paint and less fake. The stain won’t be all one consistent color, so some darks or lighter colors will still be visible.
Paver Staining – Power Washing & Polymetric Sand
Recently, Gappsi completed a patio paver stain from Crab Orchard (pink/peach color) from Nicolock to gray. The client chose to stain the pavers in gray and the coping in black, changing the color of the backyard to a gray tone.
The paver staining process starts first by pressure washing the stones. Then, new gray polymeric sand is added and swept between the joints. Polymeric sand is a mixture of sand and additives that can fill the joints between pavers and other hardscape materials. It can be a good choice for paver joints because it has many benefits, including:
- Durability – Polymeric sand is more durable than regular sand and can help increase the lifespan of your hardscape. It’s also resistant to erosion from heavy rain and water runoff.
- Weed and insect prevention – Polymeric sand can help prevent weeds like moss, grass, and dandelions from growing between pavers, and it can also deter ants from burrowing into cracks.
- Easy application – Polymeric sand is quick and easy to apply, and it doesn’t require perfectly dry pavers.
- Aesthetics – Polymeric sand comes in many colors, so choose a shade that matches your pavers or walkway.
- Polymeric sand can cost more than regular sand, but it is worth the investment in the long term. With proper care, polymeric sand can last up to 15 years.
Paver Staining – First Coat of Color Sealant
Once the polymetric sane has dried, we apply the first coat of colored sealer. It takes a few passes to achieve the gray color we want. It is going to be a huge transformation. Changing the color from a beige pink to a gray stone is a challenge. With each pass, we increase the color we apply as we add to the multiple coats. We are putting an extra coat of black on the coping.
VISIT OUR KITCHEN & BATHROOM CLEANING & SEALING PAGE TO LEARN MORE
How to Stain Pavers?
To stain pavers, you can use either sprayers or brushes. A brush can provide better penetration of the coloring agents, but you must be careful not to leave brush marks. Remember to protect surrounding areas to prevent unintentional stains.
You can feel compelled to stain your pavers in a different color for several reasons. Let’s list below some of them:
- You can create unique patterns using different colors.
- Staining your pavers in different colors can add that new, fresh look you’re looking for in your landscape.
- The result has a more natural look than painted pavers.
- It is relatively easy compared to other options (replacing pavers).
We will blend it in with the existing Cambridge patio. The color staining for this backyard in Smithtown NY has been completed. We transformed the color of the patio and the coping from the crab orchard, a combination of beige brown and peach colors, to a light gray for the patio and charcoal for the borders.
The homeowners have changed the color of the backyard to be more gray-toned throughout the years. The existing old patio did not match the style, so they decided to color stain the pavers to blend in. This color that we used is also a sealer that stains the stones. This is the latest stone staining project done by Gappsi in Smithtown, NY.
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