You’ve invested time, effort, and money into building a patio. You have a wonderful summer lounging, hosting your neighbours, and BBQing. Flash forward and you may find weeds poking through cracked and discoloured stones. Your patio isn’t the centre of your backyard anymore – it’s a definite eyesore.
Properly maintaining your interlock patio with scheduled cleaning and sealing will have your interlocking stones looking and functioning at its best. So what do you need to know about maintaining your interlocking patio? Here’s our tips on how to properly maintain your interlock and keep your backyard looking beautiful:
Cleaning and Sealing
Cleaning your interlocking patio is necessary, but cleaning and other maintenance tasks are made a lot easier if your patio has been sealed. Regular cleaning will help protect your stones from getting stained, but sealing will fortify your patio and decrease the chances of other issues developing.
Freezing, Thawing, and Weeds
Freeze and thaw cycles open cracks in your patio, which gives weeds the chance to grow straight through interlocking stonework. Sealing your patio helps it prevent this cycle and deprives weeds of the room they need to grow. This makes the short and long term maintenance of your interlocking patio much easier.
Sand Loss, and Infestations
The thin space between the stones in your patio is filled with sand. Inevitably wind and rain will start to erode this sand over time, which will cause problems as we’ve mentioned above. However, it’s not only weeds you should look after, but other nuisances that can fester between the stones of your patio.
Ants and other insects can form colonies between your stones. During the sealing process these gaps are repaired and closed off. If regular sand was used in the construction of your patio, resealing gives you a chance to replace it with stronger, more reliable polymeric sand.
Grease, Trees and Bird Poop
These three are some of the biggest offenders when it comes to stains on your interlocking patio.
- Grease from your BBQ can leave stains on your patio
- Trees that have berries cause the most issue, but even the decomposition of leaves contributes to discolouration
- Bird Poop, enough said. Bird droppings contain Uric Acid, a corrosive chemical that can leave stains and discoloration.
Regular cleanings should be your defense against these challenges. But keep in mind that UV rays and chlorine (if you own a pool) will discolour your deck and these damages can’t be swept away or cleaned up. That’s why sealing should also be a part of your regular patio maintenance.
Stay Stylish
On a more positive note, maintaining your interlocking patio lets you change up the style. If you choose a natural sealant your interlocking patio will have a natural look, as if the stone just dried after a cleaning. Semi-gloss makes it seem like it just rained and the interlocking stones are still a little wet. High gloss has that same wet look, but kicked up a notch, so it has more shine.
Sealing your interlocking patio once every few years will make cleaning and other regular maintenance less strenuous. Contact Seal Tech, to schedule regular maintenance and sealing of your interlock patio. This will give you the chance to fortify your patio, and to keep your backyard looking its best!
