Who decides how soon new pavers can be sealed?

Put the published waits for new pavers in one table and the disagreement is plain. Every line comes from a named document, and every one applies to its own product.

The range runs from immediately to a month or more, and the documents at either end are not in conflict about facts. They are describing different products. The number that circulates as the rule, 60 or 90 days, is not an ICPI rule at all, a point the paver cleaning page makes where it explains why sealed pavers turn white.

The disagreement comes down to what new concrete does and what a sealer does about it. Techniseal's WL1-2 data sheet puts the first half in one line: “Any new concrete product has the potential to produce efflorescence (whitish salts) on its surface.”

The same sheet then states the risk for its own product: “This Protector, like any film-forming coating, carries a small risk of trapping efflorescence beneath its film.” A film sits on the surface. If salts are still working their way up out of the concrete, a film can hold them underneath it, where they show as white.

ICPI names the property that changes the picture. Its list of whitening conditions includes a sealer that “is not breathable, i.e., does not allow moisture to move through to the surface of the paver and evaporate.” SEK-Surebond's reason for allowing SB-1300 right after installation is exactly that property: the product is breathable and will not trap naturally occurring moisture and efflorescence. Techniseal's word for the same idea, on its Paver Protectors, is microporous, which it says means they let moisture out.

ICPI Tech Spec 5 does not print a waiting period for new pavers. What it prints is a condition, listed among the reasons pavers may draw efflorescence or a sealer may whiten: “The pavers have not had an adequate period of exposure to moisture.”

Adequate is not defined in days, and the institute's other lines explain why a single number would mislead. Efflorescence, it writes, “may reach its peak in as short as 60 days after installation”, and “If installation takes place during dry period of the year, the next cycle of wet weather may sometimes be necessary for efflorescence to materialize.” The same pavers installed in a dry stretch and in a wet one can reach that point on different schedules.

A driveway that already shows the white bloom is a different question, answered under whether pavers with efflorescence can be sealed, and whether it fades without help is covered under whether efflorescence goes away on its own.

Where a new installation finishes with polymeric sand swept into the joints, one route to joint stabilization, that material has its own clock. Techniseal's product guide says it is strongly recommended to wait at least 30 days after the installation of polymeric sand before cleaning and sealing the pavers, and it names the purpose: “This curing period allows the joints to harden completely”.

That 30 days is Techniseal's instruction for its own polymeric sand. SEK-Surebond's site preparation bulletin, TB.6, attaches its own drying conditions to the joint sand and the sealer, and whether the sand goes in before or after the sealer is set out in SEK-Surebond's site preparation sequence.

So a new paver driveway can carry two waits at once, one for the concrete units and one for the joints, and they are printed by different makers.

The documents themselves say where the answer lives. Techniseal's data sheet, after its efflorescence warning, tells the reader to “Consult the paver manufacturer”. ICPI's general advice points at the other half, the sealer manufacturer or supplier.

• The paver maker's instructions speak for the pavers that were laid, including any wait that maker sets.
• The sealer's label speaks for the product that will go on, whether it allows early application or asks for a wait.
• The installer's own instructions stay the installer's, and they are worth reading alongside the other two.

Where those documents agree, the wait is settled. Where they differ, the question goes back to the makers before any sealer goes down. The first cleaning of new pavers raises its own question about looks, answered under how soon pavers look their best after cleaning.