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Polymeric sands have really come up along style since their inception in 1999 by Techni Seal. Polymeric sand is a sand formula that is swept into the joints of pavers and natural stone to lock in the production, prevent weed growth and insects, and to provide the last touches of whatsoever hardscaping task. The sand remains hard when dry out and flexible when wet to allow for it to remain intact if the surface moves whether through frost cycles or traffic. It is what makes it a superior production for the filling of joints.

Over many years, the formula has improved equally contest in the space grew and at present today we have some pretty incredible polymeric sands on the market. Still the marketplace is not without bug, well-nigh of which come from the installation.

The installation of polymeric sand may not get the attention it deserves considering information technology is thought of equally being a unproblematic process that tin can be handed off to anyone. Unfortunately, that is not the instance. There is nevertheless a lot of involvement in the process and if you miss a stride or gloss over the process, you volition have a failure on your easily which will price you fourth dimension and coin.

Information technology is extremely important to read the manufacturer's instructions before you start the installation. Every manufacturer has a different formula and a different gear up of instructions. Even between different products in their lineup. That is why it is so important to familiarize yourself with the production that you lot are used to and to follow the instructions carefully.

In that location are universal steps to the process of installing polymeric sand, failure signs, and ways in which you lot can ensure that your polymeric sand installation volition run smoothly.


Polymeric Sand Installation

How to Install Polymeric Sand

Installing polymeric sand involves more than just sweeping and watering. It requires some more steps to ensure that you are non going to take a failure to fix well after the installation. In this installation process, we will highlight the steps that are universal to any polymeric sand installation, likewise equally the steps that you should refer to the manufacturer's installation instructions as they may differ slights (for instance, watering fourth dimension).

There are a few things that should be considered from an installation perspective. The base cloth should be costless draining. That ways that your bedding layer (the i″ layer that acts every bit a leveler to lay your paving stones on top of) should be able to bleed water. That means information technology should either be a concrete sand or a 1/4″ chip stone. What should not exist installed is rock dust or chip dust. That is because this will harden and not allow water to bleed through, keeping the water beneath the pavers and saturating the joints, not allowing the polymeric sand to properly dry and never set up.



Your surface should be free of grit and debris prior to installation, so you can take your leaf blower or broom and clear off the surface prior to your installation. The surface should too non be wet and there should be no rain forecast for 24 hours (this fourth dimension frame varies from manufacturer to manufacturer and sometimes product to production, then make sure yous read the manufacturer's instruction).

If the surface is wet / covered in snow as information technology would be belatedly in the season and y'all may want to wrap up the job, yous tin can have a torch and clear off / dry out the stones (peculiarly the joints) to fix them for the installation of the polymeric sand. Almost polymeric sands have a temperature range that they tin can exist installed within until they are set (cheque the manufacturer's installation instruction for this temperature which is usually 0 degrees Celsius or 32 degrees Fahrenheit). Call up that if the sand requires 24 hours to ready, temperatures should non drop below this temperature overnight as well.

Your project should also have the edge restraint installed. Nosotros will be compacting the sand into the joints of the installed product, so we want to make sure that in that location is not room for lateral movement. Having the edge restraint installed will brand sure that this will non happen during the polymeric sand installation process.

Your polymeric sand should have a minimum of i″ in depth in the joint to be able to create a strong bond. It should likewise be installed 1/8″ beneath the tiptop of the product or the bottom of the chamfer, whichever is the lower of the two. Failure to do this will result in the erosion of the polymeric sand and weakening its bond.



When it comes to calculating how much polymeric sand you lot volition need, you can consult with the manufacturer of the production that y'all are installing. Almost paver manufacturers will have this information available based on the size of the paver (less joints) and the thickness of the joints themselves. A product with lots of tighter joints may yield as much as 70-90 foursquare feet per l pound pocketbook, but a product with larger joints may yield equally little every bit 50 foursquare feet per fifty pound pocketbook. Other products such as cobble stones or natural rock volition yield significantly less, such every bit Techo-Bloc's Antika could be as little as 30 foursquare feet per 50 pound bag. This is of import to consider especially when quoting a project.

With these factors considered, we can continue on to the installation of the sand itself, as well as the equipment that would be required to install the sand.

Equipment Required

Making sure that your polymeric sand installation is successful requires that yous take the right tools for the task. This ways that you lot should have:

  • Polymeric Sand
  • Push Broom
  • Foliage Blower
  • H2o Hose with Shower Setting
  • Plate Compactor with Pad to Protect Pavers
  • Dust Mask
  • Torch (not required)

Using Polymeric Sand

  1. Spreading and Sweeping

    2. Even something as simple as opening a bag of polymeric sand and spreading it to exist swept in requires some thought. Most manufacturers recommend non to sweep the sand more than 10 feet in whatsoever direction to avoid separating the delicate formula. That ways when yous open a bag and cascade it, you should not exercise and so in one large pile. Try to cascade it out over an area and sweep information technology in.


  2. Compacting

    3. Once you accept swept the sand into all of the joints, you can run a plate compactor over the surface of the stones. Unless your rock is a tumbled product (fifty-fifty still nosotros would recommend this), you should have a protective barrier between your plate compactor and the pavers. This can be a pad that attaches itself to your plate compactor, a piece of carpet that you can tie to your plate compactor, or anything that you lot can lay down on the surface like plywood that volition protect the surface of your pavers. Failing to exercise this volition consequence in the scuffing of your pavers that cannot be fixed.

    If your production has a larger footprint or is a natural stone, you may require a roller compactor to be able to compact the sand into the joints. These pieces of equipment will not crack your stone as you vibrate the sand into the joints, fifty-fifty if you are compacting 1″ natural stone slabs.



    The reason why we do this pace is to ensure that the sand has made its way to the lesser of the joint. The large grains of the sand volition lodge themselves part of the way downwards the joint and will trap the smaller particles near the top making information technology look like the joint is filled. Using the plate compactor, yous are able to make certain that the vibration causes all of the grains to make their manner to the bottom of the joint. If you tin make at least ane pass, overlapping your passes by at least 1/3 of the width of the plate compactor, you will provide enough consolidation of the polymeric sand.

    Doing this likewise levels out the material which reduces the high and low points in your installation, making it look smooth and complete. You will also notice that the material has locked itself together and does not move when you walk over it now.


  3. Sweeping and Bravado

    4. Afterwards this compaction process, you lot volition be left with some sand and dust balance on the surface of the stones. You volition also discover that your joints demand a little scrap more topping up in most of the areas. You tin now take the fourth dimension to sweep in some more sand to the joints that need it. Now, some manufacturers merits their sand to exist haze free and it does not require a blower to remove this dust before watering. What this ways is that when it is watered, at that place is no residuum that solidifies itself to the surface of the stone requiring a cleaner to remove it off. In my experience, this has non been the case and you should always remove whatsoever residual from the surface using a blower before moving on to the next footstep.


  4. Watering

    5. Watering should always start from the bottom of the slope. This ensures that you are activating the sand that you lot want to activate by getting to the bottom of the joint without having the water running down the slope activating only the surface of the sand if you were to commencement at the top of the slope. You should focus on a certain area for specific amount of time on the shower setting before continuing on to another area of the project. This is where referring to the manufacturer's instruction is important. You should be looking for what setting to take your hose on, how long you should be watering the sand for, and how much square feet at a time you should exist activating.

  5. Bravado

    6. Whatever backlog sand on the surface of the stones tin now be diddled off with your leaf blower to make sure that they do not attach themselves to the surface of your stones.

Polymeric Sand Bug

Polymeric sand installations are non without their problems. Following the instructions is the commencement step to ensuring there is no failure. However, mistakes happen and there are problems with some installations. Allow'southward get into some of the problems and the solutions to those problems.

  1. Polymeric Sand Non Hardening

    2. The number ane problem that occurs with the installation of polymeric sand is that it does non gear up. What this looks like is the sand not hardening. A simple examination for this is sticking a screwdriver into information technology. If information technology is able to penetrate the sand, and then there is a problem. Typically this occurs because there was a rainfall soon later on the installation which caused the sand non to set, the sand was watered for also long, or in that location is not proper drainage in the base.

    If the trouble is caused by the base, then there is a bigger problem at hand. The solution for this would be to remove the polymeric sand, install a jointing sand, and use a joint stabilizer on the sand as an culling to the polymeric sand. If you believe it was because the sand was besides saturated or in that location was a rainfall earlier the sand prepare, then you can scrape out the sand and try reinstalling the polymeric sand.

  2. Polymeric Sand Crust

    3. If there is a crust forming on the surface of the sand, typically this means that the sand was filled also high or the sand was non watered enough. If the sand was filled too high in the initial installation, the sand volition continuously be worn and eroded away. If the sand was not watered enough, then the surface was able to solidify only everything beneath it would remain fairly loose causing the acme layer to chaff and peel abroad. The solution to this trouble is unfortunately removing the sand and replacing information technology much like what was described higher up and we will get into the procedure farther beneath.

  3. Polymeric Sand Haze

    4. Polymeric sand haze is a dust haze that hardens to the surface of the pavers. This is caused past skipping the blowing step in the process of installation. What is left behind is the hardened grit on the surface of the pavers that needs to exist removed. The process of polymeric sand haze removal involves using a saturated chemical clean the surface of the pavers and remove the brume. Click this link if you want to acquire more about the procedure of cleaning pavers.



  4. Polymeric Sand on Pavers

    5. Knowing how to remove polymeric sand from pavers is not difficult, just time consuming and tedious. Warm to hot water actually reactivates the polymers within the sand and allows yous to scrub or wash away the sand that is stuck to the surface of the pavers. If you have a small area like a corner where sand built up and hardened, you tin can simply boil some water and use that to pour on top of the afflicted areas and wash abroad the sand. If you have a larger area, so you will want to take a hot water force per unit area washer with an oscillating head to avoid wearing downwardly the surface of the pavers to remove the polymeric sand from the surface.

  5. How to Remove Polymeric Sand

    6. Whether you are replacing and freshening upwardly your polymeric sand or you are fixing a problem, polymeric sand removal may exist required. Removing polymeric sand from pavers is non a fun process. You tin can endeavour to utilize a hot pressure washer to remove the sand, merely you may exist left with some sand remaining in the joint. Regardless, you are going to have to scrape out the sand of the joints and employ a shop vac or blower to remove this scraped out sand. If you are using a force per unit area washer, make sure that you take an oscillating head on it.

    When removing sand, you want to make sure that you have at least one″ in depth to supervene upon the polymeric sand and so that yous have a strong bond. If you lot are removing merely a portion of the sand in your entire projection, it is best to remove beyond the problem area to ensure a strong bond.

What is the Best Polymeric Sand

The best polymeric sand depends entirely on the application. At that place are industry leaders in polymeric sands on the market that you should look for and you will probable find a product that you are used to installing over time. Information technology is likewise important to choose the polymeric sand for your awarding.

If y'all are installing polymeric sand for flagstone that typically has larger joints or any production with joints larger than one″, you are going to want to pay more than money for the polymeric sand that is installed for wider joints. Most pavers will be fine with the regular polymeric sand pick, unless installed on top of physical as an overlay. In this case, at that place will exist a specific polymeric sand for this application.

Polymeric Sand Culling

At that place is an alternative to polymeric sand on the market that tin can be used. Azpects makes a product called EASYJoint which is installed wet and is air cured. This allows you to install it early or tardily in the season when polymeric sand is a little bit more hard to install. Information technology also allows water to permeate through, whereas polymeric sand only lets a small percentage of water to pass through. Since this product allows such a big amount of water to pass through, it is best used in applications where an open graded base is installed that allows water to laissez passer through.



In that location are other alternatives on the market to polymeric sand and the formula is e'er in the process of refining itself to be easier to install for every user. Notwithstanding, we take had the most success with polymeric sand in our installations and volition be using EASYJoint when necessary and on certain applications.