Sandstone sealant or not - Sandstone sealant or not

[southy]

Hi just having sandsone patio put down and I have had different feedback on whether or not to use a sealant.
Can any one tell me if it is worth sealing the patio or not and does the sealant work well to prevent stains.

Any advice appreciated

[lutonlagerlout]

2 schools of though here southy

school 1 most stone is millions of years old
if you walk along old streets in certain areas the stone you are walking on my well have been laid 200 years ago and has gained a patina of time

school2 my patio is *NEW* and I want it to stay looking new
so seal it

a lot depends on the stone

generally the lighter or more garish colours are softer and stain easily

the harder ones kandla grey and modak spring to mind keep their looks longer

I have sealed with lithofin Mn stainstop, and Dry Treat but these are both fairly expensive options

lithofin roughly £30 a litre
dry treat roughly £50 a litre

whatever you do do not use a cheap sealant as this will do more harm than good

another thing is general maintenance

sweep leaves up

try to avoid children spilling fizzy drinks or sweets on the patio

dont have plant pots and baskets leaking mud and water all over it

hope this helps

LLL

[southy]

Thanks for the advice lutonlagerlout, a grey sandstone going in and i'm guessing very porous. I am not to worried about looking new but want to avoid grease stains from bbq etc.

I quite like the weathered look. Interesting what you said about the cheap solvent doing more harm than good, I will need to read up on it.
Thanks again

[RAPressureWashing]

As long as you use a good impregnating sealer you should be fine with bar-b-q fats, grease etc, but you do have to wipe any spills off asap as in time grease food fats, acidy drinks will get through the sealer.
Top brands to consider are
Lithofin
Aqua Mix
Dry Treat
Miracle
Weiss
All very good brands, not cheap but well worth the investment if you want to go the sealing route.

[mikeindorset]

Hello, I also laid a large patio last summer using lots of advice from pavingexpert.com. I laid a light Indian Sandstone on a slurry mix of silver sand and white cement. The back of the slabs were sealed with a paste made from SBR and white cement. This has achieved great results with absolutely no stains bleeding through from under the slabs. The top of the slabs were sealed with Lithofin Stain Stop. I used a small sponge roller and applied a first and second coat on a dry day. I then followed up and used the same procedure twice more. So, three coats of Lithofin at some considerable expense. However, I have not been super impressed with the Lithofin. Perhaps I was just expecting too much. I still get stains on the top of the patio mainly from wet leaves and bird droppings. Can I ask if this is normal? Should I seal it again or am I just into a maintenance cycle where I need to work hard to keep the patio clean. I would be very interested to get some feedback from the experts. Thank You!

[lutonlagerlout]

did you use MN stainstop mike?
you will still get surface stains as lithofin is normally an impregnating sealer
but it stops them going right in
sadly sweeping up leaves and detritus is part of british patio ownership!
LLL

[mikeindorset]

Hi lutonlargerlout, yes I did use the Lithofin MN Stainstop, I wondered if the stone is so porous that the impregnator keeps seeping lower in the slab over time, and becomes less effective at the surface. Do you think it might be worth using a different sealer or just get soapy water and broom out in the spring?

[RAPressureWashing]

Hi lutonlargerlout, yes I did use the Lithofin MN Stainstop, I wondered if the stone is so porous that the impregnator keeps seeping lower in the slab over time, and becomes less effective at the surface. Do you think it might be worth using a different sealer or just get soapy water and broom out in the spring?

Mike, as LLL said, you do still get some stains even with sealing if stuff sits on the surface especially leaf's.
The sealer won't have gone through the stone and left nothing at the top!!!, and 3 coats is a bit overkill IMO You have used a good sealer and correct in it being an impregnator sealer.I'd just try to keep the patio as clean as possible, difficult in the winter months I know, then come spring give the patio a good deep clean and enjoy it. You will need to top the Lithofin up around every 12-18 months and you should only need one coat for this.

[mikeindorset]

Thank You Roger and lutonlagerlout! I do appreciate the feedback and will now prepare for the big clean in the spring. It is useful to know that the surface stains from the leaves are relatively normal. I will certainly seal it again this year with another light coat of Lithofin. Cheers, Mike

[Jimmy Conway]

Whilst there's questions about sealing sandstone I have couple queries....

When using a sealant are you best always using the same type ie Aqua Mix enrich and seal and then continuing to use same product for future applications in maybe couple years time?
If you use different types must you remove previous sealant before applying new one whereas if you always use same it would avoid this problem and you could clean it sufficiently with a home use pressure washer rather having big job to remove any previously applied sealant?

Will bitch urine damage unsealed sandstone?

Will bitch urine compromise the effectiveness of a sealant?

THANKS

[RAPressureWashing]

Whilst there's questions about sealing sandstone I have couple queries....

When using a sealant are you best always using the same type ie Aqua Mix enrich and seal and then continuing to use same product for future applications in maybe couple years time?
If you use different types must you remove previous sealant before applying new one whereas if you always use same it would avoid this problem and you could clean it sufficiently with a home use pressure washer rather having big job to remove any previously applied sealant?

Will bitch urine damage unsealed sandstone?

Will bitch urine compromise the effectiveness of a sealant?

THANKS

To answer your questions Jimmy,

Yes you should continue to use the same product, different brands will re-act differently with other brands and can mess-up or fail. So if you are using Aqua-Mix then stick with it, if you do need or want to change then, sealant removal can be a messy business.

Any urine will slightly mark or etch some natural stone being acidic, if you can rinse the urine off asap or straight away, but saying that a deep clean with an alkaline product can help reverse the stain.

Again with the sealed paving, get the urine off asap especially if it is a surface sealer as the acid's in the urine will start to discolour the sealer, not so noticeable with an impregnating sealer but will still start to have an effect if not cleaned up asap. Unfortunately some people think sealing a paving is the end of any maintenance or clean-up of spills etc but it isn't.

[Jimmy Conway]

Roger,

Thanks for taking the time to pass on your expertise.

Went onto Aqua Mix site to see if Enrich and Seal is an impregnator and they called it a penetrator, take it that means the same?

Would you recommend enrich and seal for sandstone that's going to get bitch urine or do you know of a better suited product? I like the idea of something that enriches the colour of the slabs.

THANKS

[RAPressureWashing]

Roger,

Thanks for taking the time to pass on your expertise.

Went onto Aqua Mix site to see if Enrich and Seal is an impregnator and they called it a penetrator, take it that means the same?

Would you recommend enrich and seal for sandstone that's going to get bitch urine or do you know of a better suited product? I like the idea of something that enriches the colour of the slabs.

THANKS

Penetrator sealer is the same as impregnating sealer, Aqua-Mix being a USA web-site it's just their terminology is different!!!!

Aqua-Mix is a Great product but what might be easier for you to use is the Miracle brand http://miraclesealants.com this is the American site but there is a distributor over here, for colour enhancing I would recommend 511 seal & enhance http://miraclesealants.com/index.p....mid=178

The other thing with Aqua-Mix is from I can gather they are pulling out of the UK market from around March 2015. The Miracle products are as easy to apply as Lithofin being solvent based.

[Jimmy Conway]

That's great roger.

Will put the 511 sealer-enhancer on the shopping list.

Thanks again for your help.