Ryan’s Landscaping Winter Paver Care Tips

With winter weather here Ryan’s Landscaping would like to take a minute to give some tips on how to care for your paver patio to ensure that it looks beautiful come spring. Whether we completed a project for you or you had someone else do the work, these are general rules that apply to all.

De-icers are the enemy of concrete pavers

Regardless if you have a tumbled paver driveway or a beautiful prest paver sidewalk; salt will destroy your investment. Try to refrain from throwing any kind of salt products on concrete pavers. We suggest using kitty litter in place of salt. Will it melt the ice? Probably not, but it will give you some traction for walking across it during the winter and it is easy to clean up come spring.

Sealers

While sealing of concrete pavers is not typically necessary, it does add a layer of protection for it during the winter months. Does this mean that we recommend using deicers since your paver patio is not sealed? Absolutely not! However, if you have a concrete paver driveway you may want to give it a shot of sealer in the fall. You are constantly dragging salt from the street across your driveway during the winter months and this may help to prevent some issues.

Shoveling Snow, Plows, and Snow Blowers 

When Shoveling snow off sidewalks, we recommend using a plastic shovel. Metal shovels have a tendency to scratch pavers and would destroy the seal on sealed patios. These damages are hard and costly to fix. For driveways we recommend using snow blowers which have shoes to protect the pavers. Set the depth gauges up 1/8”-1/4” to help protect from scratching.

Sweeping and Cleaning

While this is not absolutely necessary it cannot hurt. If you get a nice warm winter day after the snow has melted don’t be afraid to give your paver patio a good sweeping if deicers were applied to them. This will help get those products off your concrete to prevent unnecessary damage.

For snow removal service, please Contact Us or call (717)-632-4074.