Tips and advice on Driveway sealing
Keeping your driveway in good condition is essential for both aesthetic and practical reasons. One of the most effective ways to maintain a safe and attractive driveway is by sealing it. Driveway sealing can offer a range of benefits, from protecting your driveway surface from water damage to enhancing its overall appearance. In this article, we will discuss the various advantages of sealing your driveway, along with some tips on how to go about doing so correctly. Driving onto a newly cleaned driveway is a lovely feeling. The new clean surface gives you the sense of starting fresh, but it can soon look dirty again. It then requires sealing.
While pressure washing and sealing your driveway not only helps give it that “fresh off the showroom floor” look. However, the one common problem that homeowners face after pressure washing is how to keep their newly cleaned driveway clean.
Pressure washing doesn’t necessarily create this problem; rather, it exposes the root cause of the issue, which is that your driveway hasn’t been properly sealed.
Sealing it helps protect the driveway against many common driveway problems like oil leaks, stains, and rust.
If you’ve decided to seal your driveway, you’ll want to keep the following tips in mind on how to protect your sealed driveway.
Clean Your Parking Area Before Sealing It
After pressure washing your driveway, the last thing that you need is for it to get dirty again, preventing proper penetration of the sealer into the pavement. To avoid this issue, Make sure that you clean your driveway and after allowing it to dry, immediately seal it. You can use a pressure washer to remove any dirt or debris so that the sealer can penetrate the surface more effectively.
Pressure washing may seem like an inconvenience, but doing this is necessary to ensure the surface is adequately prepared to accept the sealer. Expect Some Cracking and Peeling.
Even if your driveway has been sealed perfectly, it will still experience some amount of cracking and peeling after a few years. The reason for this is. Over time, the sealer thins out from being exposed to sun, rain, snow, ice, etc. Once a sealer gets too thin, it can crack and peel. So you’ll need to reseal your driveway every 1-2 years to help prevent this issue.
Even after you pressure wash your driveway, the sealer will still experience some amount of staining and buildup. This can happen because oil or bird poop might get on the surface and not get washed away by the water.
To help combat this issue, make sure that you’re cleaning your sealed driveway at least once a year after initially pressure washing and sealing it. To clean the sealer, you can use a pressure washer or broom just like you used to clean your parking space before sealing it.
A top tip is always to try and keep it free from debris buildup.
Keep Your Sealer Clean
The best way to avoid getting stains on your new driveway is by keeping it free of oil and contaminants in the first place. If you’re using your driveway for work purposes, ensure that you don’t have any oil leaks or spills. You should also avoid parking your work truck with its diesel engine on your driveway if at all possible.
What to Do with Oil Stains
If oil stains get into your sealer, don’t stress too much about them since they can be removed. Just make sure that you use the right chemicals to remove them.
If you don’t, you’ll damage your sealer and make the stained area worse than before. To avoid this issue, always read the directions on any product you’ll use to clean your driveway or patio.
Keep Your Pressure Washer Around for Emergencies
If you recently cleaned your driveway, chances are you used a pressure washer. If so, keep one around for emergencies since they can be pretty valuable in the future. This is because there are times when your sealer might start to crack or peel. In these instances, you’ll need to clean it using a pressure washer and reseal the localised areas of damage. A Decent sealer will rebond to the original area as long as it is pre-cleaned.
Using a pressure washer is the only way that you’ll be able to properly clean your parking space and remove oil stains from your seal. If you don’t have a pressure washer, call for professional help to clean your driveway if it cracks or peels after a few years. Cleaning Service Ltd can help. Contact us using this form here .
