Dealing with Weeds in an Older Patio or Walkway

We often get questions about how to clean up an older patio or walkway that is still solid and level, but has developed a lot of weeds in the joints.

In the past, we have tried using a pressure washer to blast the old sand and weeds out of the cracks, but this is a wet, messy and time-consuming process that isn't effective enough for us to offer as a regular service.

We now know that the best way to get rid of the weeds is to remove, clean and reinstall the pavers.

While we have the bricks out, we might as well take the time to tune up the grading of the patio or walkway. So that's exactly what we do. Even patios or walkways that are still pretty level after decades can still always be made even more level. It doesn't take long. We make sure the base is level and has the right slope for drainage before putting the bricks back in place.

We sweep, vibrate and compact new polymeric sand between the joints and the repair is done. The walkway or patio should remain weed-free for many years after that.

Other approaches that are more temporary:

• Scraping away the weeds: Scraping away the weeds is not very effective. It tends to leave fragments of roots of the plants behind. Those will push to the surface again, and can hasten polymeric sand failure if they are not completely removed.
• Herbicides and pulling: Weeds can be temporarily dealt with by pulling them or the use of herbicides, but even then, they have a strong tendency to regrow. Whatever conditions existed that allowed them to grow in the first place will allow more to grow in the future. The problem is that there's soil between the pavers.
• Topping up the joints with more polymeric sand: For a patio that is not too weed infested but has lost a lot of the joint sand, it may be tempting to just top up the joints with polymeric sand. This has limited success. The new polymeric may not properly bind to the pavers unless it penetrates to the full depth of the pavers. A half inch of polymeric near the surface will tend to come loose and flake away over time.

All of these methods will be successful temporarily, but if you get tired of doing that, let us provide a long-lasting solution: remove the bricks and then replace 100% of the joint material with new polymeric sand.

It'll only take us a day or two and you'll be good to go for many years after that.