Paver sealingin Margate, FL.

On a street first built with poured concrete, a paver drive or patio is usually something an owner added later. That means the pavers may be much younger than the house, and they may never have been sealed. It also means the edges meet old concrete, a swale or a planting bed rather than a matching border. Drainage can differ too, because the pavers were laid to a grade set decades earlier.

The clean runs at paver pressure, not concrete pressure, and the edges where pavers meet old slab are finished by hand. Joints get fresh polymeric sand where they have washed low. A first seal on pavers with no old film is the simplest version of the job. Loose or sunken pavers are pointed out before any sealer goes down.

Margate's lime-softened tap water is not what stains pavers. Irrigation that pulls from a canal or a private well can carry iron, and it prints orange on light pavers wherever the heads land on your two watering days. Light-colored pavers show it most, and it sets deeper each summer it is left.

Rust gets a dedicated remover during the clean, and it comes out before any sand or sealer goes down. Sealing over it would lock it in. After sealing, new overspray sits on the surface longer, which gives you time to rinse it, but re-aiming the heads is still the real fix. Coral Gate's canal-backed lots are where this comes up most. The rust remover is included in the quote, not added on the day.

In Paradise Gardens, Oriole Gardens and the other 55-plus communities, the association often maintains the buildings while the patio behind the unit is left to the owner. Those patios are small, which makes them a short job, but they are often shaded and hold algae in the joints. Pots that sit in the same spot for years also leave dark rings, which get their own treatment in the clean.

They are quoted by the square foot like anything else, cleaned and left to dry, then sanded and sealed on a second short visit. Check your association's rules on finish before choosing a wet look. You do not need to be home for either visit, as long as the patio can be reached and the gate expects the truck.