Weeds Don't Grow Up from the Bottom, They Settle In from the Top
It's a common misconception that weeds on a patio grow up through the joints of the patio. In reality, weeds settle in from the top.
Weeds on patios begin as seeds. Wind blows them onto the patio surface. Birds or other animals, like your dog carry, accidentally or intentionally them onto the patio. If the seeds get into the joints between the pavers and there's anything nutritious for them to grow in, they can germinate and grow.
Nutritious material in joints
Over time, dirt and organic debris (ex: bits of leaves) naturally collects in the paver joints. This can mix in with the sand between the pavers or settle into cracks of any kind.
The patio base is not ideal for weed growth
Weeds really can't grow in the stone base of the well-built patio. It's just too compact. We compact our patio foundations so much that the surface is practically as hard as concrete.
Knowing this, we have some idea of what our strategy should be to avoid patio weeds.
How to build a weed-free patio
Throwing down some weed barrier landscaping fabric below the base is not what we should do! In our patio installations, we do use landscaping fabric below the base for the purposes of separation, not for keeping weeds down.
Instead, what we want to do is keep debris, the nutritious material, from finding a home in the joints.
With traditional sand in the joints, it is basically inevitable that that sand will gradually have more and more soil mixed into it. You'll eventually have some weeds to deal with. But modern patios, like the patios we build, use polymeric sand to more or less eliminate the problem.
Polymeric sand hardens in the joints which solves the weed problem for two reasons:
- Dirt and seeds cannot mix into it.
- You can wash the patio without washing away the joint sand. You can even use a pressure washer. You can wash away the dirt that settles on the top and the hardened joint sand will remain.
A bit of maintenance
Even with polymeric sand in the joints it is still a good idea to look for small cracks that can sometimes develop in the joints. Those are easily dealt with by adding more polymeric sand. That's a part of our patio warranty and we want you to tell us as soon as you notice them!
It is also a good idea to spray down the patio every now and again to wash the dirt away. We recommend picking up a cheap pressure washer for this, but a garden hose sprayer on the "jet" setting is often enough. With a low level of effort, you are not going to have weeds on your patio.
All of this applies to concrete paver driveways we build and walkways too.
Older weedy patios
If your patio is already weedy, we can completely deal with this problem for you by replacing your existing sand with polymeric sand. After we are finished with this patio restoration, it will look as good as new.
As a Winnipeg landscaping contractor specializing in patios, we've been building patios in Winnipeg (and concrete paver driveways and walkways too) for 28 years. We've seen what happens as patios age. We've also done hundreds of repairs to patios that are many decades old. We'd love to help revive your older patio or build you a brand new one. Please get in touch for a very easy estimate.