Paver sealingin Deerfield Beach, FL.

Waterfront lots on the east side of The Cove come with private docks, and the pool deck or patio often runs from the back of the house most of the way to the water. That surface takes salt every day off the Intracoastal and the Hillsboro River, plus splash from the pool, and unsealed pavers soak both in.

The deck is cleaned with the rinse steered away from the water, the joints are blown out and refilled with polymeric sand, and a penetrating sealer goes down. Set sand stays in the joints instead of washing toward the dock. Most people choose a natural finish by the pool, because a wet look can be slick underfoot and glares in the afternoon sun off the water. You pick on a test patch on your own pavers.

Deer Creek's homes, built from 1974 onward, face a golf course that is watered and shaded by mature trees. Pool decks and patios on those lots rarely dry out completely, and the joints grow algae while leaves from the course stain the paver faces brown.

The clean treats the tannin and the algae before anything is sealed, because sealer locks in whatever is under it. Joints are refilled where they have washed low, and the sealer goes on in even coats. A sealed deck sheds the next leaf and the next round of sprinkler spray instead of absorbing them. Homes span nearly fifty years of building here, so some decks are original and some are new, and each is looked at before it is quoted.

Independence Bay was built from the 1980s into the early 1990s west of Powerline Road, and its eleven neighborhood associations each decide what owners maintain. Where a villa's paver entry or back patio is the owner's, it is often small and shaded by the building, with algae in the joints and rings from pots. Entries also collect leaves from the planting that lines most walks, and the tannin prints brown on light pavers.

Small patios are quoted by the square foot and done in two short visits: clean and dry, then sand and seal. Check your association's rules on paver finish before choosing a wet look, and move furniture off before the first visit. Gate access and parking are sorted before the day. Foot traffic can usually come back within a day, which matters on an entry you walk through daily.