Name me one person that doesn’t love the beautiful and classic look of brick pavers. Whether it is a driveway, walkway or patio, they all look incredible. Pavers are extremely popular in Monmouth County, New Jersey due to the durability and attractive appearance. Often referred to as carefree, brick pavers actually require routine maintenance to prolong their lifespan and maintain their beauty. So you may be wondering why brick paver cleaning is important, let’s find out.
Why Clean Brick Pavers?
Brick pavers are actually very porous. Even when you seal them, overtime pavers will begin to hold dirt and grime. Particularly in New Jersey, the constant season changes will take a toll on your pavers. Mold and algae can grow on your pavers during the high humidity months.
You don’t have to clean all that grime off if you don’t want to. However, it will cause more damage than just curb appeal. That grime will actually break down the pavers and slowly start to decay and weaken them. This will cause a need to replace them much sooner than your neighbor who frequently has them power washed.
Cleaning brick pavers in Monmouth County, NJ is not as easy as borrowing your neighbors pressure washer and going to town. In fact, this could easily cause more harm than good. So let’s talk about your options, from easy to more complicated;
How to Clean Brick Pavers?
1 – Use a Broom
Yes! Grab a broom and get to sweeping. You might be surprised to hear that sweeping your pavers will actually help keep them clean. However, did you know that dirt, furniture and even leaves can often stain brick pavers when they get wet. That’s right! Oftentimes leaves will leave a filthy outline after rain. Furthermore, exterior furniture often drips water causing stains on the pavers. If these stains aren’t prevented they can become a real pain to clean.
2 – Soap and Water
Next, give soap and water a try. This is like the caveman’s version of power washing in Monmouth County. The dish soap at your kitchen sink will do just fine. Mix the soap with warm water. Then use a bristle brush to lightly scrub the stains away from your pavers. This can become very tiresome and not very practical for cleaning the entire driveway or patio.
3 – White Vinegar and Water
Ok so the soap didn’t work, that can be a common issue depending on the dirt or stain you are trying to clean. Another option for spot cleaning is using white vinegar and water. Again combine the two in a mixture, get some on the stained pavers and let it sit for about an hour. This will help break up the dirt and grim. After that go back and use soap and water with a bristle brush and scrub away.
4 – Power Washing Brick Pavers
Often the go-to cleaning approach for brick pavers, power washing is pretty straight forward. Apply water pressure to the surface and maybe a cleaning solution and your done. I caution you to be careful. We often get calls from clients who attempted to power wash themselves or maybe hired a cheap local guy to do it. Pavers appear strong and durable but in fact can be fragile and are very porous. This means the wrong pressure can leave marks from the water, or even worse, destroy them.
You should be using low pressure, preferably with a surface cleaner along with a cleaning solution which contains bleach. This combination ensures excellent results while preserving the integrity of the brick pavers. Furthermore, prior to power washing, you must determine if you will be replacing the polymeric sand between the joints or not. This will ultimately determine your cleaning approach.
Wondering what other surfaces you can power wash? Check out this previous article covering What Surfaces Can You Power Wash?
Professional Brick Paver Cleaning
Similarly to just about everything else regarding your hike maintenance, you could do this yourself. However, remember all your other projects that didn’t turn out as well as you thought? Consider hiring a professional power washing service you give you professional results. Don’t forget that you get what you pay for. Consider a company with numerous reviews and a positive track record. A company will most likely give you two options, a light surface cleaning or a deep cleaning.
A light surface cleaning will provide a noticeable cleaning of the surface of the brick pavers. A deep cleaning will provide a beautiful restoration of your pavers along with removing all the current polymeric sand from between the joints.
This deep cleaning is often accomplished with a higher pressure and using the water pressure to clear the sand from the joints. Once the brick pavers are cleaned and dried, the employees will repack new polymeric sand into every inch of the joints. This sand is an absolute MUST for pavers, it provides strength and maintains the integrity of the design.
The next option during a deep cleaning would be costing the pavers with a sealer. These sealers come in various finishes from matte to glossy. The sealer is not a must but it will certainly protect the pavers for a much longer time. Having your brick pavers sealed will help solidify and protect the polymeric sand along with preventing weeds and moss from appearing within the joints.
Monmouth County Brick Paver Cleaning
Like previously stated, the best way to clean and maintain your pavers, is to understand the how and why. How they get dirty or damaged and why you need to clean them. Routine scheduled maintenance will ensure your brick pavers will outlast just about every other addition to your home’s exterior. An annual cleaning will prolong the pavers lifespan while also maintaining that original beautiful look.
In the case of a damaged paver, don’t panic. These are actually designed with these potential issues in mind. Think of pavers as a big puzzle, each piece fitting together perfectly. This design allows for some shifting while maintaining integrity. This provides the ability to replace a random paver without having the redo the entire patio or driveway.
Check out the Most Common Power Washing Mistakes to learn from other peoples errors.
Know you have all the information you need to clean, maintain and protect your pavers. Feel a little overwhelmed? Give us a call and we will take care all the dirty work for you with a smile on our faces! If not us, I do suggest having a certified and experienced professional clean your pavers to prevent those DIY mistakes and damages. Pavers are an expensive addition to a home and the last thing you want to do is damage them because you were trying to save a couple bucks on a cleaning.
Read this article next; The Importance of Power Washing.
