Recoat window

None of the documents behind these definitions prints the phrase recoat window: not ICPI's Tech Spec 5, not Techniseal's product guide or data sheets, not SEK-Surebond's bulletins or SB-1300 sheet, and not Seal 'n Lock's guide. The two waits it names do appear in them, so this entry defines the phrase in plain words and lets each document's own line carry the numbers.

Inside one application, a recoat window is the wait between a first coat and a second, where the product calls for a second at all. Techniseal's WL1-2 Wet Look data sheet is a single-coat application, with a second coat only on never-sealed surfaces once the surface is dry to the touch, about 4 hours. Techniseal's product guide table, revision 02/24, prints about 2 hours between coats on its Wet Look row and no condition beside the figure. The two documents disagree on the hours, so each figure is that document's own, and the only condition printed is the data sheet's: dry to the touch.

SEK-Surebond's SB-1300 is designed for a one-coat application, with an optional light spray coat only after the first coat has dried to the touch, while Techniseal's NS sheet applies a single coat and prints no second-coat wait. ICPI writes a different condition for water based sealers that require two coats: the second goes on while the first is still very tacky. ICPI does not say which sealers call for two coats; the label does. Whether a given surface needs a second pass at all is answered on how many coats a paver sealer needs.

The second sense of recoat window runs in years rather than hours. Techniseal, for its own paver protectors, answers no to a fresh coat every year, says they are made to last several years, and writes that normally it is recommended to wait at least 2 or 3 years before recoating. That is one maker's figure for its own products, not a schedule for every sealer.

How long a given sealer lasts before it needs redoing at all is answered on how long paver sealer lasts, and whether coating again too soon causes its own problems is on whether pavers can be resealed too often.

Neither sense of recoat window is a rule ICPI sets; its Tech Spec 5 ties reapplication to wear and weather rather than a calendar. The hours between coats and the years before recoating both belong to the product actually on the surface and are read from that product's own data sheet, not borrowed from another maker's. What a new coat piled on too soon can do to a finish, whitening and peeling among it, is set out under why sealed pavers turn white.