Paver sealingin Coconut Creek, FL.

Winston Park's single-family homes typically came with in-ground pools and patios, and a lot of those patios sit under mature trees. Leaves that land wet and sit through a sprinkler cycle leave a brown print as the tannin soaks into the paver. Palm fronds and seed pods do the same thing in lines. Pool water splashed onto a fresh stain keeps it wet and helps it set.

Tannin gets its own treatment in the clean, before any sand or sealer goes near it. Most prints lift or fade a long way. Ones that have been baking in for years may leave a faint shadow, and Michael tells you that before the sealer goes down. Once sealed, the next leaf rinses off instead of printing.

New concrete pavers often push a white efflorescence haze to the surface for their first months as moisture and salts work out of them. It is not dirt and it is not a defect, but it is the wrong thing to seal in, because a sealer over efflorescence can trap it as a cloudy layer.

So on homes in the MainStreet build-out, the honest answer is often to wait. Michael can look at the pavers and tell you whether the haze has finished. When it has, a first seal on clean, new pavers is the easiest version of the job: no old film, just sand where it is needed and a penetrating sealer. Sealing too early is the most common mistake made on new pavers.

Coconut Creek's landscaping tends to run right up to the edges of the path, with mulch and ground cover on both sides. Polymeric sand swept loosely will end up in the beds, and sealer oversprayed onto mulch is a mess nobody wants. In a city planted like this one, butterfly plants and ground cover right at the edge are the rule rather than the exception.

The edges are sanded and sealed by hand, and the beds are covered or rinsed where the work meets them. Where roots have lifted a paver or two, that is pointed out before the job, because sealing locks a lifted paver in place rather than fixing it. Joints along the edges, where roots and irrigation keep them wet, usually need the most fresh sand.