Paver and Patio Cleaning in Summerville, SC

A paver patio is not a single slab

Poured concrete is one continuous surface. A paver patio is a grid of separate units, brick or concrete, with sand packed into the joints, and that sand is part of what stops the pieces from shifting and rocking underfoot. Water aimed straight down a joint at close range can lift the sand out. Pavers are still a hard mineral surface built to be walked on, so they take real cleaning pressure, but the angle and the distance matter more here than on a slab. The question worth asking before the work starts is how the joints will be looked after.

What grows on a Summerville patio

Back patios here often sit in shade for much of the day and stay damp for hours after a storm, which suits the same algae and mildew that green the siding. On pavers the growth settles into the surface texture and the joints first, so a patio can look fine from the kitchen window and still feel slick underfoot. Brick pavers tend to darken; concrete pavers go a dull gray-green. In the shadiest corners, moss and weeds can root in the joint sand itself, and they come out with the growth on the surface.

Joint sand, sealer and what is not promised

Pressure can move joint sand, and a patio that was already short of sand will show the gaps more clearly once the dirt is gone. Nothing on this page promises re-sanding or sealing: neither one appears on the site's price sheet, so if you want either, ask the company that quotes the job whether it offers them. Polymeric sand, the kind that sets firm after it is wetted, behaves differently from loose sand, so mention it if you know your patio was laid with it. Mortared brick is a different case again, since older mortar is softer than the brick around it.

Where the patio rinse should run

The water coming off a patio carries loosened growth and cleaning solution, and inside town limits it should not be pushed toward a curb inlet. The Town of Summerville has a stormwater permitting page of its own, and a storm drain is built to carry rain, not a patio's worth of cleaning solution. Ask how the rinse from your patio will be steered, onto the lawn or into the planting beds rather than down the drive to the street.

What a patio costs to clean

The site's price sheet carries one line for this work: patio or pool surround, $100 – $250. Where a paver patio lands in that band depends on its size and how much growth it holds. A photo from each corner of the patio is usually enough to price it. Pavers laid around a swimming pool are covered on the page about cleaning a pool deck, and a patio is often quoted together with the low-pressure wash your siding gets, since the growth on both comes from the same shade and damp. Call (843) 994-2432 or send photos through the estimate form.