From the top...

[Whyzman]

Before I put in mine, and my father's paver driveways, my mentor from a major paving contractor here in Minnesota cautioned regarding sealing the pavers. The reasoning was that it would defeat one of the great sales points of a paver driveway...that being maintenance free. I was told that once you begin to seal, you've taken on the necessary regimen to maintain.

My father wants to enhance the color of his beautiful driveway and provide some protection from oil stains. He's willing to accept the regimen! :) When I put it in, I went with washed sand.

My understanding from some of the threads I've been following here is that some of the sealers also provide joint stability as well as being able to draw the color out of the pavers.

So, what product would serve my purposes best given my scenario?? What varieties of color enhancement are available, e.g., gloss, semi-gloss, matte?? Solvent based, or latex based??

[Paver]

Just because you seal the pavers, doesn’t mean you have to start a regimen. If you use a high quality sealer, and apply it properly, technically it will be on the pavers for life. But the gloss/color enhancement/stain protection will lessen with time.
ALL coating type sealers will help with joint sand stabilization, as well as add gloss and color enhancement. But, the degree of joint sand stabilization, gloss and color enhancement will depend on the product used. In general, solvent-based sealers are better than water-based. They provide a higher gloss and more color enhancement. Plus, solvent-based sealers have less surface tension than water-based sealers, so the material drops into the joints easier and further. The other factor is the solid content. The higher the solid content, the more gloss/color enhancement/joint sand stabilization you will get (look for 25-30% solids).
Water-based is nice because it doesn’t require specialized spray equipment and is less sensitive to moisture than may still be in the joints at the time of application, but ultimately doesn’t perform as well as solvent-based.
As far as how often you want to/have to reseal to maintain, is dependent on the product used and the manufacturer’s recommendation (yes, you can reseal too often).

The best piece of advice I can give you is . . . don’t use Thompsons water seal, ever. I have seen too many paver projects ruined by this product. Also, if you come across a project that has previously been sealed with Thompsons and they want it resealed with something else, don’t do it. I spoke to a homeowner that had sealed his pavers with Thompsons 6 years previous to resealing with a different product. After resealing, everything looked great for about 5 days, then the product incompatibility started to show. The Thompsons was STILL on the surface after 6 years and the incompatibility showed up as blue rings/circles everywhere (like gas in water). The only thing they could do was attempt to strip all the sealer off of 2200 sf.

[Whyzman]

We live in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area where we are prone to receive some of Nature's finest collections of environmental "mood" swings. Snow blowers are a common occurrence on our driveways adding to Mother Nature's many tantrums.

As I pondered your solvent based sealer suggestion and Googled up a storm...I was inundated with water based products.

Which manufacturers produce the type of solvent based products whereof you speak that might help us to fulfill our goals?

[Paver]

Techniseal makes a couple of solvent-based sealers, WL4 & WLP, and I believe Prosoco has a couple too, but I have not personally tried these products. PAVE CHEM’s PaverGUARD is a solvent-based sealer that I have used and would give you the results you are looking for. Just be glad you are in Minnesota and can still use good, high quality, solvent-based sealers. Some areas of the country, such as Southern California, have a very tight restriction on the VOC content for architectural coatings and the products available for these areas are not as good.

[Derek]

I have only a couple of comments.

The Thompson's thing is absolutely true. Thompsons has silicone in it...which will cause problems when re-sealing and is very hard to strip, even when it is no longer effectively protecting the pavement from water and salt intrusion and stains.

Concrete pavers are NOT maintenance-free. They WERE sold with that attitude for a long time, but it is evident that sealers DO prolong the life of your concrete pavers. Even the paver manufacturers have become proactive about promoting sealing (their profit percentage on sealer tends to be MUCH higher than on pavers, which helps) because sealer DOES work.

All our company does is pavement maintenance. Cleaning, sealing and repair of brick paver and concrete pavement, as well as vertical masonry. We also do decorative concrete overlays, staining, epoxy, etc. We do not install pavers or concrete. If you have any questions about cleaning and sealing, I will be glad to walk you, or anyone, through it. Please contact me or better yet, ask any questions here on the forum so everyone can access it (just send me a message that there are questions posted, I get busy and don't always remember to check the forum)

[Whyzman]

Thanks everyone for your input!! ;)

My follow-up question has to do with cleaning the pavers before sealing. It has been recommended that they be powerwashed and spot-cleaned for stains before sealing. I would suspect that some of the sand will be blown out of the joints during the powerwashing process. What would be the procedure to replace the sand? It would seem that replacing joint sand following the powerwashing would wind up with fines getting impregnated into the pores of the pavers...defeating the powerwashing process.

What's the solution to the dilemma?? :confused:

[Derek]

Actually the process is about that easy...if you follow a couple of simple tips.
We always re-sand prior to sealing.
First you must allow the pavement and joints to dry. If you intentionally remove joint material in the washing process down 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch or more it will help expedite drying time. We usually wait at LEAST overnight...sometimes it takes MUCH longer, depending on weather, the pavement's exposure to the sun and wind, and the type of installation.
When you return to re-sand the joints use DRY BAGGED SAND. We get ours at Home Depot of all places. The All Purpose Sand in the PAPER BAGS (Do NOT use the plastic bags of Play Sand, it may be wet...and it is not properly graded, and be sure it is not SAND MIX or you will have a real mess!) are what we use. These are kept indoors in the cement section and are a washed and graded sand. We hand sweep the sand in...not oversanding like a final compaction but SWEPT to fill joints with no excess on the surface. If you see joints coming back wet when you sweep the sand they are NOT dry enough. If you have doubts as to how dry the joints are, you can test this prior to re-sanding by putting handfuls into suspect areas to see if the sand comes back wet.
After re-sanding use a GOOD leaf blower to remove any excess sand and dust from the surface of the pavement. We only use high-power backpack blowers as anything smaller tends to be too slow. Get the dust, but watch that you do not remove too much material from your joints. It is not too hard, but with experience you can become VERY good at leveling joints with the blower.

After that you are ready to seal. Be sure that you do not leave any excess piles of sand in corners, against steps, or other areas where the sand residue may accumulate during the blowing process.

This seems like a lengthy explanation to me, it really is simple...if any of it is unclear, please let me know.

[Paver]

DRY BAGGED SAND. We get ours at Home Depot of all places. The All Purpose Sand in the PAPER BAGS (Do NOT use the plastic bags of Play Sand, it may be wet...and it is not properly graded, and be sure it is not SAND MIX or you will have a real mess!) are what we use. These are kept indoors in the cement section and are a washed and graded sand.

For those of you outside the Midwest, keep in mind that the All Purpose Sand many be different in your market. Attached is a picture of good joint sand gradation.

[Derek]

The sand in the picture looks a little coarse. Almost like torpedo sand. It would work adequately in a paver with a spacer, but would present problems in non-spacer material (like most tumbled products, etc.).

The only difference between the sand we recommend and the sand in your picture is that the larger aggregates are sieved out of our sand.