Do pool chemicals damage pavers or sealer?

"Pool chemicals and pavers" is really two questions stacked together: what pool water does to the paver material, and what it does to the sealer on top of it.

None of the paver, stone or sealer documents behind this answer measures what pool water or pool chemicals do to either one. What is published is narrower: ICPI's chlorine line for silane and siloxane sealers, its chemical-resistance comparison of urethanes and acrylics, its instruction to consult the sealer maker, and the Natural Stone Institute's line that calcareous stone is sensitive to acid, which is about acid in general rather than pool water.

One sentence in ICPI's sealer guidance names pool decks and chlorine together, and its verb carries the whole answer.

Of silanes and siloxanes, ICPI writes that "they are also useful around pool decks to minimize degradation from chlorine," and its sealer table lists "Areas subject to chlorine & heavy de-icing salts" among the applications it compares. ICPI also says the same chemistry decreases the intrusion of chloride materials, which gives pavers subject to deicing salts or salt air additional protection. Useful is ICPI's word: not immune, not a recommendation, and not measured against any chlorine level a pool holds.

How a pool deck's sealer differs from a driveway's is answered under driveway versus pool deck sealer, and the two sealer families are set side by side under what a paver sealer does, and its two families. For a particular product beside a pool, ICPI routes the question rather than answering it: the sealer's manufacturer or supplier is asked first whether the product will perform there.

ICPI compares two sealer chemistries on chemical resistance once, and the comparison is narrower than it first sounds.

"Urethanes themselves are more resistant to chemicals than acrylics," ICPI writes, a comparison between two sealer chemistries, not a rating against pool chemicals. None of the documents tests urethane or acrylic against chlorine, algaecide or anything else a pool holds, so the line says which of the two resists chemicals better in general, not how either holds up beside a pool over a season.

A pool deck laid in travertine or marble carries a chemistry rule that has nothing to do with the sealer question above.

The Natural Stone Institute says calcium carbonate "is sensitive to acidic solutions" and that products containing lemon, vinegar or other acids "may dull or etch calcareous stones." Those are NSI's own examples of acid, and NSI's page does not name pool water or pool chemicals as a cause. None of the documents diagnoses a particular deck as etched by pool chemistry; whether acid can be used on travertine at all, and what etching is, is answered under whether travertine can be cleaned with acid.

Both published routings for a sealed surface end with the people who make the sealer, not with a general rule.

Beside ICPI's line, the Natural Stone Institute tells stone owners to consult the supplier or sealing manufacturer specific to the type of sealer. Growth on the deck, apart from anything the chemicals did, is its own question under why pool deck pavers can look green, and routine care of a sealed deck is covered under cleaning sealed pavers between visits. Where the deck sits under a lanai, bleach near the glass carries its own caution, taken up under whether bleach hurts pavers.