A patio made of bricks or other stones can always be the visual uplift that your house always needed. This assortment of different stones with varying colours and sizes would lend your house a premium look, while also complementing the landscape of your garden. However, without proper maintenance, the look of your pavement can rapidly decline, laying waste to the many Pounds that you have spent on that piece of architecture.
Any block paving that is riddled with growing weeds can prove to be an eyesore, turning a piece of good stonework into an insufferable sight. If left untreated, various types of Algae, Moss, and Dandelion will continue to contaminate the outdoor portion of your house, hiding the beauty that lies underneath. Therefore, removing this unwanted vegetation would be the best course of action for you.
Best Ways to Get Weeds Out of Block Paving
Getting weeds out of your block paving does not necessarily have to be complicated and doesn’t even warrant the need for a professional. You can embark on this mission as a DIY task, using materials that are already present in your household. There are a few ways on how you can go about clearing off the weeds in your patio, which are all discussed below.
Use of Salt
Which home pantry does not have table salt present at all times? Therefore, the advantage of using salt is the easy availability, cancelling the need of you to visit the local grocery or garden store before you set out to clear your block paving.
Salt is an effective plant killer, since it drains out all of the moisture from it, leaving it to dry up and die in the process. This is how we will be using salt to kill the unnecessary weeds on our patio:
- We will be combining 3 parts of water with one part of salt.
- This mixture will be poured into a spray bottle.
- It will be sprayed onto all the weeds that you want to kill.
For the paving that has too many weeds, dry salt can be sprinkled for more effective results. Doing all this on a sunny day will yield better results, however, you have to protect your eyes and other sensitive parts of your body to avoid irritation.
Use of Baking Soda
Similar to salt, baking soda (Sodium Bicarbonate), which may also be lying available in your pantry, kills weeds by drying them up. However, the only difference would be that this would give you the best results after a downpour of rain.
What you have to do is to sprinkle baking soda directly onto the weeds that you want dead. The use of baking soda gives you the advantage of killing only the weeds while safeguarding any desired plants surrounding the pavement. However, this is most effective on younger, more shallow-rooted weeds.
Use of Vinegar
Vinegar can be a cause of death for plants due to the presence of acetic acid. Acetic acid effectively dries out a plant. A dried plant hardly thrives. However, this method can be used only for the part of the block paving where there are no desired plants since this method will pose a threat to those plants too.
There are multiple types of vinegar and we will be considering killing weeds with:
- White vinegar, possibly lying somewhere in your kitchen.
- Horticulture vinegar, which can be acquired from a garden shop.
Since the concentration of horticulture vinegar is higher than that of white vinegar, it will be diluted with water. Dish soap will be added to either so that vinegar sticks to the weeds while killing them in the process.
Like salt, treatment with vinegar will produce the most desirable results when done on a hot, sunny day. It is advised to use protective gear when using vinegar to eliminate weeds in your block pavings, including tight-fitting garden gloves, goggles, and a face mask. These will protect you from any possible burns, irritation, or toxic fume inhalation that pose a hazard during the weed removal process.
Use of Weed Torch
Torching is another method of hindering the unwelcome growth of weeds in your block paving, that too, at a higher speed. For this job, there are speciality gas-powered weed wands or torches available. Only torches that are burned at a certain desired level of heat would do the job effectively.
Furthermore, when making use of this method, much care has to be put into not stressing the stone slabs too much, otherwise they may crack. Once the weeds have been charred by the torch, the roots have to be dug out in order to prevent regrowth.
Use of Hot Water
Boiling water can be used to eradicate weeds growing in the spaces between the stones that line your pavement. Just pour it directly onto the weeds you want to kill off and repeat it multiple times in areas of high weed growth.
In order to avoid wastage, use only that water which was heated for some other purpose such as boiling eggs or potatoes. Finally, exercise extreme caution when handling hot water.
Manual Rooting of Weeds
In certain use case scenarios, this is the best way of getting weeds out of your block paving. This is true as it is most environmentally friendly to remove weeds through manual methods. All it involves is uprooting all the weeds by hand. However, it is best advised to do this after heavy rain, or when the soil around the slabs and stones is wet.
The problems associated with this method are that it is slow and very laborious. However, doing this slowly but often allows you to maintain a neat patio all year round. You just have to follow safety guidelines and sport tight-fitting gardening gloves and knee pads to prevent any form of injury to your hands or knees.
Use of Scrapers
This method is similar to manual weeding of your block paving; however, the only difference is that you will be using tools rather than just your hands. For wider gaps in the stones, use a billhook, and for the narrower cracks and spaces from which weeds are sprouting, a serrated knife will be the tool of choice. Specialist tools and weeders can also be found to aid in this task.
Maintaining Your Block Paving
Once you have cleared your patio using any of the weed-clearing methods you found best, you have to make sure that it stays that way. A few steps have to be taken in that regard.
Jetwashing Your Pavement
After clearing your patio of all the unwanted weeds, jetwashing it will be a good idea since shallow-rooted vegetation such as Moss may have thrived, which will be uprooted in this process. Furthermore, any soil or dirt will also be cleared, leaving behind a clean block paving which will be uninhabitable for weeds for a long period of time.
Add Polymeric Jointing Sand
Jetwashing of the patio might erode and create gaps between the slabs of stone. Those gaps should be closed in order to avoid the buildup of dirt or regrowth of weeds. Polymeric jointing sand will be the perfect solution for this. This sand settles within the gaps of a block patio and hardly erodes, keeping those gaps off-limits for weed.
Clearing Any Gaps and Cracks
Over time, seeds of weed might start settling in the gaps and cracks of your block paving and might cause weed growth. Therefore, regularly clearing your patio of dirt and weed seeds will allow for the maintenance of a tidy pavement.
Apply a Seal
Applying a seal is a good method of keeping your pavement clean since it allows for easier cleaning and also hinders weed growth. Therefore, it is recommended to apply a good patio seal if you want to maintain a clean block paving.
Summarising It for You!
If you have an unmaintained block paving, weed growth will be inevitable. Once weeds grow on your patio, it is better to clear them out than leave your house in an untidy state. There are a number of methods to do so, some being easier while others being more effective.
We have provided you with a guide on how to bring your pavement back to its previous, more aesthetically pleasing position. Follow the steps outlined above and give an easy-on-the-pocket uplift to your old block paving.
If you have a resin-coated pavement, you do not need to worry since such patios are weed-growth resistant. To get your block paving resin-coated, contact 1st Choice Driveways & Surfacing LTD. We provide top-of-the-class resin services!
