Sealing, Cleaning, and Re-Sanding Pavers

Paver installations are genuinely low-maintenance, which is different from no-maintenance. The routine is short—a few hours a year—but the details matter, and several widely available products and popular techniques do real damage.

Routine Cleaning

For ordinary dust and debris, a broom and a garden hose handle most of it. Two or three times a year, a more thorough wash keeps the surface bright.

On Pressure Washing

Pressure washing pavers is fine within limits and destructive beyond them. The failure mode is blasting joint sand out from between the units, which then requires re-sanding and, if it happens repeatedly, undermines interlock.

Our guidance:

• Use a fan tip, never a zero-degree or turbo nozzle
• Keep the wand 8-12 inches off the surface and moving
• Stay under roughly 2,000 PSI on standard concrete pavers
• Work parallel to joints where possible rather than directly into them
• Plan on re-sanding joints afterward—assume you removed some

Stains: Treat by Type

Different stains need different chemistry. A single all-purpose cleaner is rarely the right answer.

• Oil and grease: A poultice-type degreaser that pulls the stain out of the pore structure. Fresh spills respond to cat litter or absorbent powder applied immediately.
• Rust (from irrigation water, patio furniture feet, or fertilizer): Oxalic-acid-based rust remover formulated for masonry. Never use muriatic acid on pavers—it etches the surface and strips pigment permanently.
• Efflorescence (the white haze of migrating mineral salts): Often clears on its own over the first year. If it persists, a dedicated efflorescence cleaner works. This is normal in new concrete products, not a defect.
• Organic staining from leaves and mulch: Oxygen bleach and a stiff brush. Chlorine bleach discolors many pigmented pavers.
• Hard water deposits—very common here: A mild acidic masonry cleaner, tested in an inconspicuous area first.

Joint Sand: The Detail That Gets Ignored

Joint sand is structural. It's what transfers load between adjacent units and creates the interlock that makes a paver surface behave as a system rather than as loose blocks. When joints run low, edges chip, units rock underfoot, and weeds move in.

Check joints annually. Sand should sit close to the bottom of the paver chamfer. Where it's low, sweep in fresh material and compact it in.

Polymeric sand is what we install and what we recommend for refills. It binds when activated with water, resists monsoon washout, and substantially reduces weed germination and ant activity in joints. Installing it correctly matters: the surface must be dry, joints must be filled to the proper depth, all residue must be swept and blown completely off the paver faces before watering, and the activation watering must follow the manufacturer's sequence. Polymeric residue left on the surface and then wetted leaves a haze that is genuinely difficult to remove.

Sealing: Optional, and a Real Choice

Sealing is not required. Unsealed pavers perform well for decades. It's a decision about appearance and stain resistance.

Arguments For

• Stain resistance—meaningful around outdoor kitchens, grills, and driveways
• Color enhancement; a "wet look" sealer deepens tone considerably
• Some stabilization of joint sand
• Slightly easier routine cleaning

Arguments Against

• Ongoing commitment—reapplication every 3-5 years in Arizona UV, and a sealed surface that's allowed to fail looks worse than one never sealed
• Film-forming sealers can become slippery when wet
• Improper application (over a damp surface, or over efflorescence) traps moisture and produces a cloudy white haze
• Cost

If You Seal

Wait a minimum of 60-90 days after installation so the pavers can release initial efflorescence. Clean thoroughly and let the surface dry completely. In Arizona we generally prefer penetrating or breathable solvent-based sealers over heavy film-forming acrylics—they handle the UV and heat better and fail more gracefully.

"The best-looking ten-year-old paver patios we see aren't the ones that got the most product applied. They're the ones where the joints were kept full and nobody attacked them with a turbo nozzle."

Repairing a Settled Area

This is the structural advantage of pavers over poured concrete: a localized problem is a localized repair. Lift the affected units with two flat pry bars, correct the bedding or base beneath, reset the same pavers, re-sand, and compact. Done properly, the repair is invisible—which is something no concrete patch can claim.

The Annual Routine, Condensed

1. Sweep and rinse two or three times a year
2. Inspect joint sand annually; top up where low
3. Treat stains promptly and with the correct product
4. Keep irrigation spray off paver surfaces to limit mineral deposits
5. Reset any settled area before it grows

That's the entire program. A few hours a year keeps an installation looking essentially new for decades.