Brick Pavers - Sealing - Who, when and why?
 

Looking for some opinions and/or recommendations on re-sealing brick pavers on a driveway. Work was originally done by Old World Pavers about 18 months ago. They no longer do re-sealing jobs.

So....if you have had pavers for a long time (say 3 years or more)...do you regularly re-seal them? How often? If not, what is your reasoning for not re-sealing? (I have read internet articles pro and con on benefit for re-sealing...seems to primarily be aesthetic).

Do you do the work yourself? If so, cost and difficulty of doing the job?

If not, do you have a recommendation for a good, honest, reasonable contractor to do the job? Any ballpark costs (i.e. for 800 sq ft, they charged $250).

As always, the experience and wisdom of the many TOTV members is greatly appreciated.

I always recommend resealing every year but at least every other year.

Paver Sealing
 

Please Mr and Ms Homeowner, do not let anyone seal your pavers EVERY year! It is absolutely oversealed and then there is a white milky substance that then has to be dealt with.

We are a paver installation company and as such have a little more knowledge than your neighbor. I do not do reseals and therfore have no dog in this race...I post this only for the possibility of being helpful in the decision process. :wave:

Mine had never been sealed and it looks just fine. Ten years now.

all american brick pavers
 

On my street Pennecamp Drive..it looks like All American Brick Pavers did not finish a job. Just be sure to get work done before you pay.

Just wondering if you can tell me where on Pennecamp ? We were thinking of getting an estimate from them and we would like to check out that driveway.

Just go all the way down Pennecamp...pass the lagoon....stay to the right and it is on the right....you can't miss it...it look awful.... green gunk on the driveway and no pavers...it has been this way for months.

Tell me more about the 7 year warranty. I had mine installed by this company and had them resealed in 3 years for about $1000. Warranty was never available.

We had brick pavers installed and part of the look was a soft sheen. As this sheen faded I power washed the dark spots that formed in the crevises between the bricks. I also used a product called Crud remover on the house. As a result I lost the sheen and the seal on the bricks. Got them resealed after 3 years and they look great. Cost over $1000 but there are several different types of sealers. When ours were resealed it took several days. The first day was many hours scrubbing the bricks with a power rotating disk. This removed older coating but also the coated sand and accumulated moss, mold etc in the crevises. The pavers were then resanded and several days had to pass before the new sealant could be installed after all was dry. I may have been overcharged but they look great.

After all was done, I had to admit that it was not simply a task of getting out the sealant and coating. The scubbing and reSnding was imprortant.

Funny thing, my concrete drives always seem to work very well in all weather, year after year, without any maintenance except for an occasional sweeping of grass clippings. Why seek out additional maintenance and headaches? Must be part of retirement.
In reality, pavers should be laid on top of a thick bed of sand or "truepack" material. They can then settle, flex, isolate themselves from adjoining bricks and drain as a paver roadway is designed to do. The Villages retrofit idea of using thin veneer bricks on top of a hard concrete slab is nothing but asking for trouble. Too thin for the weight and stress placed on them, thin underlayment of sand washed away because water can't drain down, mold because of poor water drainage, etc etc. If you want to see how a paver driveway should look and function, drive through our neighbors at Harbor Hills where many of the homes have paver drives that were orginally built as paver drives with the proper sized and hardened pavers laid in a proper bedding.

You are right about Pennecamp and All American Brick Pavers. The green gunk driveway which was that way for 3 months is finally gone. The pavers are down now and it looks beautiful, but the are not sealed and the cars have been out on the street for two weeks. The people have apologized and hope it will be done soon. I drive my bike everday and I don't like cars on the street. I understand they have to park them there until they finish the job. They are doing their landscaping wall also and it has been dug up since November and their driveway just had pavers put down and it did look ugly from November till now. How long does it take to get a job done.

Charles Hewlett has started a landscaping wall on the same street and they are there everyday working. There are rocks in the street and trucks...makes my ride a little hard...but who will get the job done first?

pavers
 

I did call them many times. The job was started in November and was not finished until April. This was after many phone calls, seeing Crimes vs Seniors and the sheriff. This was many days and months of heartache because we did the wrong thing by paying the money upfront.

I was not the only one this was happening too.

All American did our paver job. When the pavers were sealed spots appeared all over the pavers. Trish Colon (owner)came out and said the pavers her company used must have been defective and that oil or hydraulic fluid got into the mix. She has replaced about 1/2 of the defective pavers and now refuses to complete the repair job. In my last conversation with her she said "I have spent too much money and time on your job". She told me to call the paver manufacturer directly to get the replacements and then told me if I wanted the rest of the repair done I WOULD HAVE TO PAY HER! My contract was with her not the company that makes the pavers. Although the actual job they did installing the pavers was very good they do not honor their word and do not correct problems. She admitted that defective pavers were used and originally told us she would take care of everything - not to worry. We now have spent a lot of money and have a driveway that looks terrible with spots all over it. BEWARE of this company.

Warning about any postings from faithfull. This is most likely Patricia (Trish) Colon from All American Brick Pavers. When you finally talk with her on the phone, after numerous phone calls, she says you have to have faith that the work will be done. In other words, I would strongly suggest that you don't believe one word you see from faithfull. She is lying just like she always does.

Don't believe anything this "Faithfull" says- She is probably Trish Colon, and is only trying to promote her company. I would also suspect " Paver Lady" of being the same person.