Does rain restart the clock before pavers can be sealed?

SEK-Surebond's SB-1300 data sheet puts rain and the rinse in one sentence: "Allow surface to dry for a minimum of 24 hours after cleaning and/or rain before sealer application." Rain is not a separate delay added on top of the cleaning wait; it is another event the same minimum is counted from.

SEK-Surebond's TB17 bulletin frames the wet surface itself: "A surface wet with standing water from rain or cleaning should dry approximately 24 hours before applying a sealer depending on your project conditions." Its figure is approximate and tied to conditions, where the data sheet's is a minimum. Read together, the two lines restart the clock at the latest wetting, cleaning or rain, and whether more rain is coming before the count finishes is a question for the forecast.

ICPI hedges its 24 hour condition to most sealers, and so does step 12 of SEK-Surebond's TB.6 site preparation bulletin, which highly recommends a surface free of moisture, rain or water for a minimum of 24 hours before most sealers. Techniseal's application conditions add that the surface must be clean, dry and warm to the touch. Why a surface can look dry after rain and still hold water is answered on why pavers can look dry and still be too wet to seal.

Sealers labeled for damp application are the exception to the wait, covered on whether any sealer is made to go on damp pavers. The wait that follows the cleaning itself, before any rain, is set out under the drying condition between a cleaning and a seal.

The ASCC guide, writing about decorative concrete sealers, names what a short count risks: applying sealers to wet concrete can cause the surface to fog up or blush, which "will turn it white and/or cause adhesion problems."

Sprinklers belong to the same moisture condition, and scheduling around a controller is answered on sealing when the sprinklers run at night. Rain on a sealer that is already down is a different question, covered on what happens if rain hits freshly sealed pavers, and the wait itself is defined on dry time.