Once your design is complete and your pavers are set, you’ll need to have the fruit of your hard work and time sealed. Sealing pavers is the best way to ensure that your pavers continue to look beautiful well into the future – and to be confident that they’ll be protected from the elements.
A quality sealer will ensure that your pavers can still breathe while being protected from oil, water, salt, and other corrosive elements. In addition, they’ll block vegetation growth, so you don’t have weeds popping up throughout your walkway or patio.
When you begin looking at different paver sealers, you’ll likely realize that there are a couple of major categories available to you. You can use a matte finish to maintain the natural look of the pavers while protecting them. On the other hand, you can use pavers wet look sealers to achieve a shinier, wet look.
This can really make your pavers – and their design – pop in a way that matte finishes can’t.
So, what is a pavers wet look sealer?
Wet look sealers have a higher concentration of acrylic or polyurethane. This causes the stones to look darker, as if you’ve just gotten sprayed by a water hose. This can create a much more attractive finish by enriching the natural gray, brown, and red tones in the stone.
The level of gloss that the sealer adds to your pavers largely depends on the amount of acrylic or polyurethane in the sealer you choose. For example, if your sealer has a 25% solid content, then it would be labeled as ‘semi-gloss.’ If your sealer hits the 30% mark, it would likely be considered a ‘high gloss.’ These are important points to remember because a wet look sealer’s level of gloss can drastically change the way that your final design looks.
If you only want pavers that appear wet, then you’ll want to look for a sealer that has a lower solid content. If, on the other hand, you want something that will shine, you’ll want to search for a sealer that has a 30%+ solid content.
Applying a wet look sealer can be accomplished in several different ways. You can use a roller to lay the sealer down – though when you’re sealing pavers, you can end up with an uneven finish. A better option for pavers is to simply use a normal pump sprayer so that everything is even and you’re able to get it into all the cracks and crevices. And make sure to use a mask when installing so you don’t accidentally breathe any of the sealer.
If you’d like to know what your pavers will look like after wet look sealer is applied, you can get a pretty good idea by simply spraying your pavers with water. This will give you a good approximation of the color – even if it doesn’t show you the exact level of shine your end result will have.
Hopefully, this answers your question – ‘What is a pavers wet look sealer?’
In short, it’s a great option for making your paver-designed patio, walkway, or driveway look its very best!
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