Can pavers under a lanai be sealed?

The trade documents behind paver sealing talk about ventilation, drying and pool decks, and never about a lanai by name.

What sets a lanai apart for a sealer is the shape the word describes, a covered, sometimes partly closed area in the Cambridge Dictionary's definition, defined in full at lanai. That shape changes three things, and each is weighed below against what a named document actually says:

• Air movement: a roof and partial walls move less air than an open driveway.
• Drying: the documents that speak to shade and humidity say both slow a sealer down.
• A pool beside the floor: ICPI and two makers have lines about sealers on pool decks.

Of everything a covered floor raises, ICPI states one point as a flat rule.

ICPI Tech Spec 5 says many solvent based products are combustible and emit hazardous fumes, that flame and sparks are kept out of the area, and: “Never use solvent based sealers in poorly ventilated or confined areas.” A roofed, partly walled floor moves less air than an open driveway, so how well a particular lanai ventilates is the question that rule puts to it. ICPI also notes that most water based sealers comply with VOC restrictions.

Whether a product is solvent or water based is the carrier question set out under what a sealer is carried in, and whether either kind smells while it dries is answered under does paver sealing smell.

A covered floor gets less sun than the pavers outside it, and the documents that speak to drying name humidity, temperature and air movement, with one maker naming shade outright.

Seal 'n Lock's guide for its Super-Wet-Look says: “Shaded areas, lower temperature or high relative humidity will slow the drying process.” SEK-Surebond's SB-1300 data sheet says low surface or air temperature or high relative humidity extend that product's dry times, and ICPI says water based sealer curing time varies with temperature, wind conditions and humidity. ASCC's decorative concrete guide says sealers on interior projects with little or no cross-ventilation can have delayed dry times, and that it is best to wait for humidity below 70 percent relative humidity before applying a water based sealer.

None of those lines was written about a lanai, and ASCC's ventilation line is about interior projects. Shade, the condition a roof supplies most plainly, is the one Seal 'n Lock's drying line names, and it has its own answer under sealing pavers in the shade.

A covered floor that runs to the edge of a pool brings chlorine into the product question.

ICPI says silane and siloxane sealers “are also useful around pool decks to minimize degradation from chlorine.” SEK-Surebond's SB-1300 data sheet calls that product “Ideal for shaded areas, pool decks and outdoor showers where mildew, fungus and algae are a concern,” a maker's line about its own sealer, and Seal 'n Lock's guide gives its Super-Wet-Look 2 days before swimming. Whether a pool deck needs a different sealer from a driveway is answered under driveway sealer versus pool sealer, and slip on a sealed deck under an anti-slip additive on a pool deck.

Sealing the lanai floor and leaving another paver area unsealed, or the reverse, is the partial question taken up under sealing the driveway and not the walkway.