First paver sanding - no wonder she jumped right on my quote. Learning a lesson here, and no doubt a few more before the job is done. Wondering if any of you paver guys have ever dealt with this and what your suggested remedy would be.
The existing sand is coming out of most of the joints, and remains compact in others. Not sure if it’s a concrete-based sand or what, but I don’t anticipate anything other than real pressure is going to dislodge all of it. No top down photos to show.
The drainage sends water right into this area, so as the roots grew they had a great relationship with the runoff. Couldn’t see the roots underneath all the dirt they were trapping when I came out for the initial quote.
Not really clear what the issue is here…other than it sounds like maybe uyou didn’t quote it where you wanted to. I can’t see any roots, just a lot of moss and junk. Sand never breaks down evenly, you’ll always have a ton of work to do to truly prep the joints to take new sand.
Exactly as Jason said. What roots are you talking about. Just looks like tree litter. Blow all the loose crap off of there, hit with a 3-4% mix and then surface clean. Then you can see what you’ve got to do sand wise.
Is this what you are referring to as roots? Looks like pinestraw litter in the photos, but, since in this photo the stone looks washed I’m guessing it isn’t pinestraw?
If these are the roots you have some things to consider:
if you’ve already sprayed a 3-4% (or greater) post treatment consider them dead.
you can take a string trimmer and knock them out if you like
how “clean of debris” did you tell the client you’d make this? If you stated that you’d remove dirt, mildew, moss, then you shouldn’t be responsible for removing shrub roots.
Also, if you are the one who trimmed the cypress tree, might as well trim those branches cleanly back to the main trunk. New growth won’t happen on those cut branches.
if he’s resanding with polymeric or using a locking sealer, he’ll need to turbo tip out those joints to get a good 1/2"-3/4" depth for new sand, but that’s all the joints not just the roots. If you’re washing, sanding, and sealing that, I’d wager sand removal/joint prep is possibly half of the whole job to do it right
We hardly have any pavers around here. I think I’ve been asked just once in the last few years. It seems like a good deal of work. Does the pricing compare to the pricing for staining a deck? And is it a one day job where you clean and sand/seal?
Pretty much never…especially if you use quality sealer products. If you get the clean and joint prep done in one day, you can likely sand and seal on a 2nd visit though. Most of them cost enough to easily support that.
Those are definitely roots from the bushes on the left. Zoom in you’ll see it’s not just debris. I dealt with this BS a couple years ago. I had to weed eat all that crap out first.
Appreciate the feedback - so far I have 1. Another round of hot mix if the roots aren’t already toast or move straight to 2. Weed eat the roots. 3. Turbo the joints. I may talk to her about trimming the evergreen’s lower branches back as that will just make this job easier.
Looking like a three day project depending on how much can be done on day two. Got some aluminum siding to contend with as well.
Off your topic, DC, don’t mean to undercut your thread. But how are y’all addressing this wood down in the paver, assuming the customer is asking it to be cleaned and look new along with the rest of the paver?
Are we treating this like a deck or fence and going sodium metasilicate and brightener? SH only and brightener? Or explain to customer what it would look like with SH and washing only, and if they would like brightener and say, “match the fence,” then price it accordingly and use a brightener or even stain?
What would you guys do?
I’d wash, sand & seal the patio… if I was messing with the fence then I might ask them if they wanted anything done specifically with that piece. But we don’t stain anymore, so it would be clean only
If I had to guess, likely in part because of the scheduling associated with it. Multi-day versus in-and-out. Exposing my hand a bit here, but this project is ongoing since we were contracted weeks ago.
didn’t have people who could do it well, and farming it out wasn’t reliable… took me 2+ years to find a reliable company I felt good about even referring it over to (I found one guy, but he wasn’t a smart enough businessman to not steal away the wash part of the job from me, so he lost all the referrals). I still use it as a point maker in talking to people… “we don’t do anything we can’t do very well”
Ok so it needs to completely dry before sealing or staining? My understanding, and 1 of many methods, is pre wet, sodium metasilicate, dwell, rinse, rinse, wood brightener, dwell, rinse. (correct me if that is wrong) and then once it dries i.e. next day, go back and seal or stain?
There is no way this can be a 1 day project?
Staining? Not that I know of. Depending on the season, which side of the house it sat on, and the humidity levels, we sometimes waited a week or 2 for it to be dry enough, and had to work in the afternoons only an a couple.
Have a basic moisture meter, and go by to test it. That’s the surest means of meeting whatever the product manufacturer requires…
I do it, but some of the problem is it’s almost a separate service due to all the equipment and stuff you need to carry. The product itself, different sprayers, tape, plastic and cardboard, etc. to protect surroundings. Brushes, rollers, maybe sanding equipment, thinners, different nozzles, tarps. the list goes on. It’s basically a small trailer load of equipment. On larger jobs I’ll unload my landscape trailer, which is 6*12, and pull it and it’ll be 80% full. And of course the weather. If you live somewhere that gets thunderstorms or it’s windy, you can wait for weeks for right conditions and the wood to be dry enough and that’s after you’ve cleaned it. Pavers a little easier but still have to carry a fair amount of stuff, especially if re-sanding. The problem is most people don’t really want to pay to do it right. You can make decent money on the ones that do, but you can spend a lot of time with tire kickers who have no idea what the costs involved are and then have a heart attack when you get them the estimate.
Also, of all the things you’ll do, probably the one with the most liability.
