Paver sealingin Pompano Beach, FL.

On a Garden Isles or Harbor Village canal lot, the pool deck is often the whole back yard, from the house to the seawall cap. Salt settles on it every day, and the pool's own splash adds chlorine or salt from a salt system. Unsealed pavers and travertine soak both in, and the joint sand slowly washes toward the water in heavy rain.

The deck is cleaned with the rinse steered away from the canal, the joints are blown out and refilled with polymeric sand that sets hard, and a penetrating sealer goes down. Set sand stays in the joints instead of washing over the seawall. A natural finish is the usual choice by the pool, because a wet look can be slick underfoot and glares in the afternoon sun off the water.

Pompano's OASIS reuse customers may irrigate any day of the week outside the hours of 10am to 4pm, which can mean a head throwing water on the same pavers every morning. Reclaimed water carries some nitrogen and phosphorus, and on pavers that shows up as green algae in the joints and a dark fan at the edge nearest the sprinkler.

The clean kills the growth and lifts the staining, and sealing keeps the next round closer to the surface where a rinse reaches it. The sealer does not stop reuse water landing. Turning the heads so they water the lawn and not the drive is still the real fix, and it takes a few minutes with a screwdriver. Rinsing the edge with fresh water now and then helps too.

People on the water often ask whether they will need to reseal more often than friends inland. In practice, sun and traffic wear a sealer more than salt does. A penetrating sealer on a canal-side pool deck lasts about as long as one on a patio a few miles west, and the three to five year range holds.

What salt changes is the upkeep between seals. A sealed deck sheds salt with a simple rinse, while an unsealed one holds it in the pores, where it can leave a white bloom as it dries. Rinsing the deck with fresh water now and then, especially after a windy week, keeps it looking right. Film sealers are a different story, and a failing film on a sunny deck is often what people see peeling around the coping.