March 28, 2024

Pavement is a truly wonderful building material for your home. Whether it’s for your patio and pool, or your driveway and garage, concrete pavement is a strong, solid, and reliable material that can also be gorgeous and modern looking. But while the pavement is very practical and trustworthy, it needs to be properly maintained, just like all home-building materials. Thankfully, proper care for pavement is easy, quick, and cheap, so it’s a piece of cake to make sure that your pavement is well maintained. Here are some tips for taking care of your pavement:

Take Care of Stains

A lot of people think that once concrete is stained, there’s no going back, but these people are misinformed. In reality, stains are actually quite easy to remove from the pavement, as long as you don’t let them sit around for a long time. When you notice a stain on your pavement, it’s imperative that you take the necessary action to remove it immediately. Contrary to what your instincts may be, you want to avoid immediately scrubbing stains in your concrete; this will simply massage the oils further into your pavement, thus making the stain more permanent.

Instead, you want to cover the stain with a substance that will draw the oil out: try baby powder for small stains and cat litter for larger ones.  After that has sat overnight you can sweep it away, then apply grease-busting soap, wash with a brush, and flush with hot water.

Embracing the stain: How to Decoratively Stain Concrete

Reseal Your Pavement      

Resealing pavement is extremely important. Once the surface starts to wear, it can become home to all kinds of dirt and debris, and it also opens the door for water to enter, freeze and expand, which can cause a host of problems to your pavement. How often you should reseal your pavement depends on the weather, and how often it gets used, but you should ideally reseal most surfaces every two or three years.

Clean it Well

Many people carelessly treat their concrete with abrasive chemicals. These chemicals may have a positive short-term impact – such as removing stains or creating a glistening shine – but they have a very negative long-term impact, as they eat at the concrete and the sealer. These harmful cleaners attack not just the dirt on your paved surfaces, but the concrete as well. So instead, use natural, harmless cleaners; you can quickly, cheaply, and easily make your own with vinegar or baking soda.

Hire professionals for larger projects

One of the keys to maintaining your pavement is to know when it’s no longer a do-it-yourself project. When the project gets large enough, it’s time to call in the professionals, to make sure that the work is done safely, and immaculately. Whether you’re repaving a large patio or paving a driveway with natural stone, it’s important to get the help of a professional. It will actually save you money because it takes so much time to do large projects yourself, and the quality of the work will be instantly noticeable.

With these tips, you can be well on your way to the perfectly maintained pavement. Take care of it properly, and you’ll always have beautiful paved surfaces.

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