Hi I’m Mark with the Perfect Paver Company back again to answer today’s question of the week. How many coats of sealer do you apply?

So when it comes to sealing pavers more is not always better. I know that’s the case when you’re painting your house or painting walls inside of your house, you really want to get good coverage, not always the case with paver sealer. We utilize a penetrating sealer, which means that the sealer is going to soak down into the paver, and its goal is to coat the individual particles that make up the paver and not put a roof over top of the paver.

The more sealer that you apply to the paver, the more of a roof effect you’re going to get and the less breathable that paver is. So there’s a lot of ground moisture, water is underneath the paver, it needs to be able to evaporate up through the paver and move freely. If you have a roof over top of the pavers, you’re going to prevent that from being able to happen.

The other thing that can happen when you over apply sealer is, again back to the roof. You’re trapping in moisture, and it’s going to build up what’s called Hydrostatic Pressure, and it’s going to start pushing on that roof until eventually it pops loose and detaches from the surface of the paver.

So we’re really good at putting just enough sealer on our pavers not too much, not too little. A lot of times, there are companies who utilize a two part sealer and so the sealer actually comes to them and Part A, Part B when it arrives on the job site, the applicator will mix the Part A and Part B together and add water.

We actually have our sealer pre-mixed for consistency. So when we when we show up to the job, it’s the same product being applied every time. What happens with the Part A, Part B being mixed with water on the site, your first batch maybe has too much water, your second batch has not enough water. The other thing that’s going on is the first coat that they typically will put down is a heavily watered down version. So the purpose of that is to get that sealer is so deep down in the paver and then they come back over it with a second coat where they’re using a little bit less water.

At the end of the day, it’s the same amount of solids that’s being put on the paper. And that’s what’s important that you’re getting good protection of the paver, you’re coating the individual particles of the paver, it’s breathable, allowing the moisture to go up and down through the paver. You’re not trapping that in and it’s going to wear nice and consistently because you haven’t over applied sealer.

I hope that answers your question. We apply just enough sealer and rarely do we apply two coats, but in the event that we feel it is needed to get that great coverage on the particles, that’s what we do!