New block paving drive - should I seal it?

perc

Hi we have just had our drive block paved. We were wondering if it is a good idea to seal it? There are a couple of ant nests on the drive coming up between the blocks and displacing the sand - would sealing it stop these coming up and encourage them to go elsewhere?

However does sealing the blocks mean that they are left with a wet shiney appearance to them?

Thanks in advance.....

darich

Be very careful about sealing it - water will percolate (very slowly) between the blocks and act as a drainage system. Sealing that could have consequences so unless you have a decent grade i'd avoid sealing it. You may end up with puddles that you don't have just now.

Best bet is to find some sort of ant repellant/killer and apply it to the affected areas.

philsu

perc wrote: »

Hi we have just had our drive block paved. We were wondering if it is a good idea to seal it? There are a couple of ant nests on the drive coming up between the blocks and displacing the sand - would sealing it stop these coming up and encourage them to go elsewhere?

However does sealing the blocks mean that they are left with a wet shiney appearance to them?

Thanks in advance.....

My friend had her block paving sealed recently & while it looks really nice - not really shiney/wet look. I have noticed that the water is not always draining away & she has had some really big puddles under window.

darich

To be honest, sometimes the blocks themselves prevent the water draining fast enough so even without sealing, you can have ponding.
I know of someone who blocked their drive and it caused their house to flood. Previously their drive/garden was grass/gravel but when the whole thing was paved, yeh it looked lovely, but the water couldn't percolate through the ground so it built up and came in the front door.

Extreme case but it happens.

If it's possible to replace some blocks with permeable ones then it may be an option but it can be difficult to lift blocks and lay them again without affecting the surrounding ones.

PROFESSIONAL_LANDLORD

To be honest, sometimes the blocks themselves prevent the water draining fast enough so even without sealing, you can have ponding


Block paving will drink very little water ! more so because they are brush pointed with sand, block paving must be laid to MINUMUM FALLS (gradients) as specified by the manufacturer, at times this might be difficult to acheive if levels are fixed like if a drive were to be laid from a garage door to the heel of a kerb.

grantd

Does anyone have any photos their driveway sealed...ideally block paving? If so, please email me to sophieroebuck@hotmail.com. All of the photos online seem like stock photos or faked....I want to see what it actually looks like!

tony6403

PROFESSIONAL_LANDLORD wrote: »

To be honest, sometimes the blocks themselves prevent the water draining fast enough so even without sealing, you can have ponding


Block paving will drink very little water ! more so because they are brush pointed with sand, block paving must be laid to MINUMUM FALLS (gradients) as specified by the manufacturer, at times this might be difficult to acheive if levels are fixed like if a drive were to be laid from a garage door to the heel of a kerb.

agree. Unless you get a fall you WILL get standing water.
I wish that I had sealed my block paving as cars stand on it and the oil deposits which are made are virtually impossible to remove.

marvic31

I started sealing my block paving a regretted it. It changed the clour of the blocks quite a bit and did not look good. Luckily it was in a section that was behind the car most of the time.

I would not not recommend it.

iamcornholio

If the blocks are laid properly, then very little water should hold on the top or peculate through the joints - it will all run off.

TBH though, to want to seal a drive because of some ant nests seems just bizarre.

If you wanted a nice shiny artificial smooth drive for ever, then you should have had a truck load of molten plastic poured and smoothed off

macman

grantd, I suggest that you delete your email address from your post, (or at least put some extra spaces/chararcters into it) unless you want to get a lot of spam.

bobhawke

Most of the problems associated with sealing block paving is having it sealed by an idiot using cheap rubbish out of B & Q.
http://www.pavingexpert.com/sealants.htm