Paver Sealing in St. Augustine, FL

What a paver seal includes

The sealer is the last 10 minutes of the job you see. The result depends on everything before it: how clean the pavers are, how dry they are and what's sitting in the joints.

• Surface cleaning across the whole area, then a detail rinse along borders, steps and edges
• Spot treatment for oil, rust, mildew and algae in the joints
• Drying time, so the sealer bonds to the paver and not to trapped water
• Re-sanding every joint with joint sand
• Sealer applied across every paver and joint
• Before and after photos of your job

Joint sand vs. play sand

Most paver installs around here were filled with play sand because it's cheap. Play sand isn't made for pavers. Every afternoon storm and sprinkler cycle washes a little more out, and the gaps fill with dirt and then weeds. If your joints look sunken, dark or green, that's usually the reason. It isn't anything you did wrong.

Joint sand has a stabilizer in it that sets up once it's in place. It holds the pavers together, stops washout and gives weeds far less to root in. Re-sanding is part of every paver seal Jordan does, because sealer over half-empty joints doesn't last.

Why Northeast Florida pavers need sealing

Sun fades paver color. Summer storms and irrigation pull sand out of the joints. Shade and humidity grow algae and mildew on anything that stays damp, which on most St. Johns County lots means the side yards and the north-facing patio.

Sealing locks the sand in, slows the fading and makes the surface much easier to keep clean between visits. Skip it and the joints keep emptying, the pavers start to shift, and at some point the fix is a paver installer pulling and resetting sections. That costs many times what a seal does.

Pool decks and paver patios

Pool decks take a beating: chlorine, full sun and water that never really dries out. Sealing protects the color, keeps the sand in the joints and keeps algae and weeds from creeping back along the waterline.

If there's a screen enclosure, it gets cleaned at a pressure the screen can handle. Too much pressure tears screens and cracks the mesh, and that repair costs more than the cleaning. The full pool side of the job is on the pool deck cleaning page.

How often to reseal, and when to wait

In Northeast Florida, plan on a quick look at your pavers every year and a reseal about every 2 to 3 years. Driveways that take daily car traffic and pool decks usually land closer to 2.

Brand-new pavers should wait about 60 to 90 days before sealing. That gives trapped moisture time to escape and lets any white mineral haze (efflorescence) come to the surface so it can be cleaned off first instead of being sealed in.

After a wash, pavers usually need 24 to 48 hours to dry before sealing, longer in shade or after rain. That's why cleaning and sealing are often separate days.

What affects your price

Paver cleaning, re-sanding and sealing starts at $1,200, and sealing is backed by a 2-year warranty on the maintenance plan.

Every paver job is quoted on its own because no two are the same. These are the things that move the number:

For typical price ranges by size and what each factor adds, see the paver sealing cost guide. The fastest way to your own quote: text a wide photo of the whole area and a close-up of the joints to (904) 412-8080.

• Square footage, and how many separate areas (driveway, walkway, patio, pool deck)
• How dirty it is: oil spots, rust, heavy algae or years without a cleaning
• How much sand has washed out of the joints
• Whether old sealer is peeling and needs attention first
• The finish you want, a darker wet look or a natural look
• Access: gates, tight side yards and furniture to move

When sealing isn't the right call

Sealing protects pavers that are in good shape. It doesn't fix pavers that are sinking, heaving, cracked or rocking underfoot. Those need an installer to reset them first, and Jordan will tell you that at the quote rather than seal over the problem.

If your pavers went in within the last two months, wait. And if you just want everything clean before guests or a sale, a paver cleaning on its own may be all you need. Plenty of customers pair a paver seal with a house wash so the whole property looks finished at once.