Sealing Pavers with a roller as opposed to spraying opinions please

[cygnusecks]

I waited 13 weeks before sealing. My pavers are 3.5" thick and very uneven. I imagine with thinner, more traditional pavers, the wait time would be less. My deck is partially covered by my roof, so any time it rained I would also rinse down the covered portion since rain and water help to naturally dissolve and bring efflorescence up to the surface of the paver. i suggest you do the same if you have covered portions.

Don't be surprised if the pavers are much whiter than you wanted when they are first installed. That will slowly dissolve over time with rain, and if you use the "WL" sealant from Techniseal, it will look great after sealing. I am very pleased with the product.

I have 850 sq ft. of deck, and it took about 8 gallons of sealant. Techniseal suggests that one gallon covers 150 sq. ft. but I gooped it and so mine was more like 1 gallon for every 100 sq. ft. With a "standard application" (which I would recommend for traditional smooth pavers) I would think 1 gallon would easily cover 150 sq. ft.

I would test the sealant on a small portion of your deck to decide in slipperyness. I thought my deck would be no problem, but it is slightly more slippery than I thought it would be. Techniseal says not to use the WL sealant on pool decks for this reason, but I ignored it because I want the look and the slightly additional slipperiness was not an issue for me. They say to use the "IN" (invisible) sealant but then you don't get the wet look.

As far as efflorescence, the techniseal efflorescence product is nitric acid. They do not say "does not contain acid", they say "contains no muriatic acid", which is true, because it contains nitric instead! Any strong acid will dissolve efflorescence. I would recommend whatever acid you can get that is cheap. In fact, I bet muratic acid would work too and is probably cheaper than the Behr stuff I bought. I just bought the behr stuff because it said "cleans efflorescence". The Behr stuff is just phosphoric acid. I don't know how much the techniseal efflorescence cleaner costs but I bet they charge way more than they shold for it. Any efflorescence cleaner will do, even the dry stuff you have to mix with water. With traditional pavers, I would *highly* recommend cleaning the efflorescence, you DO NOT want to seal that stuff in. I have seen some white "blooms" of what the owner thought was algae, when in fact it was efflorescence coming up under the sealant. The Behr product seemed to work well, so I would recommend it, unless you can get some other strong acid for much less than $12/gallon. Although I woul stick with either nitric, phosphoric, or muriatic acid. i dunno what other acids will do but I know those three are common acids used around a pool.

Take comfort in the fact that the Techniseal stuff is "micro-porous" and will wear off in a few years. after 10 days of it, I am highly satisfied :-)