What I’m here to talk to you about is sealing your paver project. There’s a lot of conflict on whether or not you should be spraying or rolling your project. Both systems…none of these systems are wrong but we would highly suggest having your project rolled. But I want to tell you why the spray guys are pushing the spray so hard as opposed to doing the roll. And I’m just going to go over a few things as to why these spray guys are doing what they’re doing.
They come up with these fancy websites and they have a lot of techno-music playing in the background and they want to compare brick pavers to the car business. And they want to show you that their airless spraying of a car and what a great job it does and it’s more of an even coat. Absolutely. When you’re doing a car, I think spraying is the best method. But you’re also in a controlled environment. You are also in an area that’s blocked off and there’s no contamination.  You’re now outside. Breezes and things like that going around and I think you probably know where I’m going with this. With overspray, killing plants and you’re doing different things like that when you’re spraying this product down.
The other thing with brick pavers is the porosity. You can never get a consistent, porous paver all the way through. When you’re doing these jobs, every paving stone is different.  We want to penetrate the stone and we want to penetrate the sand joint.  The reason we want to do that that when the moisture works it way up, because there is always going to be moisture in the patio or in the ground, it’s stopped before it reaches the surface.  When you’re spraying a chemical like Zylene, it has an extremely high flashpoint. So when you’re spraying this project, it’s drying instantly. So now you’re really getting a topical sealer as opposed to a penetrable sealer. The reason I don’t like the topical, yes the topical gives you a little more shine, it looks nice, but it doesn’t last.  The sand joints begin to crack because you’re not getting any penetration and obviously it begins to wear off or it begins to turn white because the moisture starts to work its way up.
There’s a reason why we do the rolling as opposed to the spraying also. We want this project to last. Absolutely, it’s beneficial for the contractor to spray your project. And the reason it’s beneficial is they get to see you more.   And I don’t know about you, but you want to see me less.  I’m the maintenance guy. So when I’m doing your maintenance, would you want to see me every 5 years and would you want to see me every year or every 2 years?
So these are the reasons why these spray guys are pushing this project. But you can’t compare what the car companies are doing in a controlled environment when you’re outside with rain and moisture content and weeds and pollen and things like that blowing in the wind. Using a roller is not trying to cut on an investment. These sprayers that these guys are using cost about $650.00 to buy. We go through about $650.00 worth of roller covers in one month per one crew. So there’s no money savings that they’d like to state…oh, you’re going to save money by sealing your brick paver project with a roller. We’re using double the product and we’re pushing that product into your paving stone and into your sand joints.
So we think it’s very important that when you are going to hire somebody, ask them if they’re going to roll, ask them if they’re going to spray. Everybody has their own opinions. I’m not going to knock what the spray guys are doing because I’d like to make more money too. But this isn’t a short term business. This is a long term relationship that we’re looking for. We want you to call us every 5 years (not every 1-2 years with Spraying). There’s a lot of cases where we come out and say you need to wait another year. So the honesty portion of it and not making the quick buck, rolling is the way to go. And it is the most beneficial thing the customer can have done for themselves because it’s going to last longer. You’re getting a penetrable sealer not a topical. And that is by far the best way to go.
Thank you again. Steve Dhondt from Paver Maintenance. Give us a call toll free 866-786-9500 or visit us at weretheguys.com
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