Block paved driveway in Marlow before cleaning, with moss and lichen across the blocks

EXPERT CARE. LASTING RESULTS.

The finished block paved driveway in Marlow after cleaning and re-sanding

After · The finished driveway

Before · The driveway as we found it

Block Paved Driveway Cleaning &
Porcelain Patio Re-Jointing in
Marlow, Buckinghamshire

A block-paved driveway deep cleaned, re-sanded with polymeric sand, compacted and protected, and a porcelain patio cleaned and fully re-jointed.

Chiltern Surface Cochilternsurface.co.uk

Block paved driveway before cleaning, with moss in the joints, Marlow

Porcelain patio before cleaning, stained and with failed jointing, Marlow

Before · The driveway

Before · The porcelain patio

The Brief

The project at a glance

Client

Paul Nicklin

Location

Marlow, Buckinghamshire

Surfaces

Block-paved driveway and a porcelain patio in the garden

Time taken

Two days on site

Main issues

Moss, lichen and organic growth across the driveway and in its joints; failed jointing on the porcelain patio, with weeds growing through it

Driveway

Deep cleaning, polymeric re-sanding, mechanical compaction, a second sanding and Chiltern EverGuard™

Porcelain patio

Deep cleaning, removal of all the old jointing and new jointing laid into every joint

Outcome

A clean, re-jointed and stabilised driveway, and a clean porcelain patio with sound new joints throughout

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Close-up of lichen and moss on the block paving before cleaning

Before · Lichen on the blocks, moss in the joints

Two Surfaces at One Marlow Home

A driveway losing its joints
to moss and lichen

Paul contacted Chiltern Surface Co about the block-paved driveway at his home in Marlow, Buckinghamshire.

Lichen had spotted the face of the blocks across the whole driveway, and moss had taken hold in the joints, filling the space where the jointing sand should have been.

That sand is what holds a block-paved driveway together. Once it is lost to soil and growth, the blocks are free to move and the joints become a seed bed.

Site Visit and Assessment

At our site visit we assessed the driveway and recommended a full block-paving restoration rather than a surface clean: deep clean the blocks, rebuild the joints with polymeric sand, compact the paving and protect it with Chiltern EverGuard™.

Paul also showed us the porcelain patio in his garden, and we added it to the project.

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Before · Failed jointing, weeds through the gaps

The Porcelain Patio

Sound slabs,
failed joints

The porcelain slabs themselves were in good order. The problem was the jointing between them.

Much of it had failed, leaving open gaps between the slabs, and weeds had rooted along the joints right across the patio. The surface had also dulled under dirt and staining.

Porcelain is dense and non-porous, so the slabs clean up well. Failed jointing does not: once it has cracked and let growth in, cleaning over it only moves the problem around.

The only lasting answer was to take every joint out and lay new jointing in its place.

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Chiltern Surface Co technician deep cleaning the block paved driveway

Stage 01 · Deep cleaning

The Driveway · Stage 01 of 04

Deep Cleaning the Block Paving

Chiltern Surface Co technicians began by deep cleaning the whole driveway.

The clean lifted the lichen, moss and accumulated soiling from the face of the blocks and stripped the growth and degraded sand out of the joints, taking them back so that new sand could be worked right down into them.

It also brought back the colour of the paving: the reds, browns and darker blocks that had been lost under years of growth.

The Driveway · Stages 02 to 04 of 04

On a block-paved driveway, the sand is the structure. It is what locks the blocks together — so we put it in twice.

Re-Sanding with Polymeric Sand

Once the driveway had dried, fresh polymeric sand was swept across the paving and worked into every joint. Once activated, its binding agents set into firm but flexible joints that resist washout, discourage weeds and ants, and hold the blocks together far better than ordinary kiln-dried sand.

Compaction and a Second Sanding

The driveway was then mechanically compacted with a plate compactor, settling the sand down into the joints and the blocks firmly into their bed. A second application of polymeric sand was then swept in to fill every joint to the top.

Without re-compaction and a second sanding, the stability of the driveway is compromised. Both are part of every block-paved driveway restoration undertaken by Chiltern Surface Co.

Chiltern EverGuard™

To finish, the whole driveway was treated with Chiltern EverGuard™, our proprietary surface protection system with a biocide at its heart.

Biological growth lives within the surface, not just on top of it, so surface cleaning is not enough. Chiltern EverGuard™ penetrates the pores of the blocks, kills the growth living inside them and inhibits regrowth, typically for two to three years, depending on the surface and its environment.

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Before

After

The Driveway · The Finished Result

The colour back,
the joints rebuilt

The same view of the driveway, before and after. The lichen and moss are gone, the colour of the blocks is back, and every joint is full of fresh polymeric sand.

Deep cleaned, re-sanded, compacted, sanded a second time and protected with Chiltern EverGuard™: not simply a cleaner driveway, but a stable, properly jointed one.

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The deep clean

The Porcelain Patio · The Process

Cleaned, Cleared and Re-Jointed

Deep Cleaning

The patio was deep cleaned to lift the dirt and staining from the face of the porcelain.

Removing the Old Jointing

Every joint was taken out: the failed jointing, the weeds rooted in it and the debris beneath. Where needed, slabs were lifted, the sub-base re-compacted and the slabs relaid level.

Laying in New Jointing

New jointing was then laid into every joint across the patio, closing the gaps the weeds had been using.

Plate compactor on the patio sub-base with the porcelain slabs lifted

Re-compacting the sub-base

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The finished porcelain patio in Marlow after cleaning and re-jointing

After · The finished patio

Close-up of the old, failed jointing in the porcelain patio

Close-up of the new jointing between the porcelain slabs

Before · The old jointing

After · The new jointing

The Porcelain Patio · The Finished Result

Clean slabs, sound joints

The staining has lifted from the porcelain and the weeds are gone from between the slabs.

With every joint cleared and re-laid, the patio is one continuous, finished surface again, and the gaps that let the growth in are closed.

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Tight close-up of the finished block paving with new polymeric sand joints

EXPERT CARE. LASTING RESULTS.

After · The finished blocks, up close

What Paul Said

“Jon and his great team have transformed our block paving from a grubby, grimy drive with moss and weeds in the cracks back to how it looked when it was new. Everyone brings a friendly professionalism and the goal of delivering an end product that the customer is happy with. They also restored our patio area in the back garden which had become very worn with grout coming out all over the place and it now looks as good as new.”

Paul · Marlow

Chiltern Surface Co · Buckinghamshire