For homeowners that ask – Can I seal pavers myself in Florida?

[0:01] in this video let's go over sealing pavers yourself this is something that's asked quite often it's even asked to us when we come out to do the estimate at times like why shouldn't I do this myself and so I want to do a quick video just educating you on some things that you should consider before you seal the pavers yourself especially if you live in the Florida area living in Florida is totally different than anyone else than anywhere else when it comes to selling pavers for example

[0:32] when I retired from the military my wife and I considered strongly to move to Virginia where she's from and in Virginia our approach to sealing pavers would have been completely different than the approach here in Florida mainly because of the weather and that's the part that a lot of people just don't understand so let's go over some of the things that you should consider if you're going to take on this project yourself number one do you know how to properly address the stains it's very common to

[1:03] have rust stains oil stains grease stains and so you need to know how to approach and clean up those stains if they'll even come out but more importantly to treat those things is not just pressure and water those type of stains are inorganic stains or man-made stains and so those take usually like degreasers or they take an acid and so you need to properly know how to neutralize those those chemicals that you're using so later on when it's time

[1:35] to seal you don't have an adverse reaction or a chemical burn because earlier in the steps you were treating a stain and then properly neutralize it another thing you need to do to know is the proper sand believe it or not sand is very very critical in all of this the sand what goes on in between the pavers and what goes on underneath the pavers is very very important I cannot foot stomp that enough and you need to know what types of sand to use if you're

[2:07] going to seal your pavers and believe it or not if you go to Home Depot or Lowe's or any of these big box stores here in Florida they're all going to try to sell you a play sand or paver sand and it's kind of an oxymoron because that's actually the opposite of what you want to use here in this area again what you might be able to get away with in places like New Jersey Virginia Colorado you cannot get away with down here in Florida and I'm not saying this to try to scare anyone or try to deceive you or

[2:38] make you think you can't do it yourself but it's just a shocker when people try to do it themselves and the sealer has failed and now they're paying four or five thousand dollars to fix it when you could have had it cleaned and sealed for a thousand a thousand maybe even less but now you're paying four top four or five times the cost to have it fixed another thing is you want to use a water-based sealer this is again very important given the environment that we

[3:09] live in you want to have something that's breathable that uh when you're exposed to the high levels of of rain and humidity if you've ever seen a pool deck or a driveway that's covered in white a lot of time a lot of times that's uh the sealer it has failed and what's going on the reason it's got like this white Haze everywhere it's either the cause of two things or three things efflorescence which is very easy to to treat and to diagnose or failed Sealer

[3:41] or poly haze from poly sand so if you have any of those uh issues especially like a real bad poly Haze or trap moisture from sealer that's that's failing the only way you can Rectify that is you have to have that old sealer taken off and that can be again four five six thousand dollars to fix a job that would have been just maybe a thousand bucks to clean and seal so it's very important to use the right type of sealer what we use we use a water-based

[4:14] sealer a particular type of water-based sealer our sealer is guaranteed not to trap moisture it's guaranteed not to turn yellow it's guaranteed not to delaminate if any of those things happen we have a warranty to protect you the homeowner against those things but if you're just trying to do it yourself you're going to have a very difficult time finding a proper water-based sealer down here in Florida because at these big box stores such as A's Home Depot Lowe's they sell what the rest of the

[4:45] world buys which is solvents or oil-based and that's what we would use living up in Virginia but again down here in Florida you have to use a water-based type sealer or I don't say you have to but that's what is strongly recommended and the problem for DIY people that want to do it themselves it's very very difficult to find a water-based sealer and if they can they can usually only find like a one-part water base that's just not near as good as a good solid two-part water-based

[5:18] sealer and then do you know the proper sand levels and I know we discussed a little bit about the types of sand you got to use a filtered sand but the sand levels are also important you don't want the sand too high and you certainly don't want it too low and there's a specific level preferably 1 4 to 1 8 Below the beveled Edge is where you want those sand levels and that helps with the interlocking functions of the pavers and also with the draining of the favors so all of

[5:48] these things are very important for you to know and to be able to apply so that you don't find yourself in trouble the last thing I want to touch on again down here in Florida is we prefer not to Rose sealer on again a rolled look is uneven you can see the roll marks so we spray our sealer and that's the preferred way on water base solvents and those kind of things it's that's more common up north that's where

[6:18] they roll and that's where you may see people doing it down here that's a that's bad juju down here for every one that you find has no problems I can show you 99 that do have problems so if you're going to do it yourself just be careful you need to understand the type of sealer you use is very important the type of sand you use is very important and also when you're treating stains you need to know how to properly neutralize afterwards or if you don't you're going to cause a chemical reaction later on

[6:48] when you go to apply the sealer so I hope that helps again I'm not ever saying that you shouldn't do it you're so but there are there are certainly some factors you need to be aware of if you're going to take that type of project on yourself