Paving Maintenance & Staining Advice

Buying a new patio or driveway can be a very rewarding experience, providing more useable space for off road parking or somewhere to share with the family. Once you have made this investment, its worth spending some time to keep it looking good. To help, with have provided an essential maintenance guide that you can use to look after you paving throughout the year or in the event of a spillage.

Efflorescence

Efflorescence is a temporary salt residue that can occur on all concrete products in their initial life. The salt masks the colour of the product and is often mistaken for fading. The best course of action is to leave the paved area to weather over time and efflorescence will usually disappear.

Differential Curing

Dark patches occasionally appear on the surface of Garden products. This is known as Differential Curing and is caused by varying moisture levels within the flag drying the surface at different rates. Care should be taken within construction of a patio to not extenuate this reaction. Like efflorescence, given time and the natural weathering process such patches will tone down and become less visible.

Damp Paving

Concrete continues to cure for many years after manufacture. Whilst this happens, and usually only during its initial life, a level of porosity may exist where some product retains water giving a damp appearance. This will disappear as the concrete continues to harden and the product dries out. Again, it is best to wait for about a year.