Cobblelock Drive

davidm25

Hello all

It's time to powerwash the cobblelock drive again, and I've been advised by a few people that it needs to be sandpacked soon after or the weeds will run rampant in between the cracks and crevices (as they currently are).

From a spot of googling it looks like I need a particular type of sand and not any old sand will do - I've seen binding, jointing, soft kiln and silica sand mentioned as suitable so far. The trouble is I'm having some difficulty in locating any of these types of sand, it's either builders sand or children's sandpit sand I'm finding in the usual large DIY stores.

Can anyone advise:
1. What is the best type of sand for this job?
2. Where might I locate this (preferably north Kildare or west Dublin)?

Also, does anyone have an opinion on sealing the drive after the job has been done? Some say yes, others no.

Sorry if this isn't the best forum for this one, I'll trust a mod to move it accordingly if that's the case.

Thanks in advance,
D

wait4me

Paving (kiln dried)sand especially for brushing in between the paviors. Available in B&Q for about €7 a bag if you want to get it this weekend. Probably a bit cheaper in a builders providers.

davidm25

Perfect - thanks a million wait4me

D

Luckysasha

It's a good idea to run a whacker plate over the entire area after you roughly spread out the sand. Lightly brush the sand over the cobbles but leave some excess at the joints. Run a whacker plate over the cobbles and then finish brushing the sand off the cobbles. The idea behind this is that if you don't vibrate the cobbles the sand will not settle properly in the joints. This can lead to the cobbles moving when you drive over them or even in time the joints will settle and moss and weeds can collect in the joints.
On the topic of sealing them I personally do seal after washing and resanding. The sealer will harden the sand stopping weeds etc growing up between the cobbles. It also cuts down on having to resand everytime you power wash. I only resand every 3 years or so.

davidm25

Many thanks Luckysasha - yes the level of moss and weeds growing between the joints is quite heavy at the moment and I suspect down to the fact that it wasn't sandpacked or sealed after the last wash a few years ago. Could you recommend a particular sealant or where I might be able to obtain this, please? Should the sealant be applied to the full area or just the joints?

Thanks,
Dave

Luckysasha

I use a sealer called picseal. If you google picseal Ireland you will get the name of the distributor. I think there in Wexford. Ring them up and place the order over the phone, they take card payments and they send the sealer via courier. You will have to apply the sealer over the entire area unless you have the time and patience just to do the joints. Best tool for the job is a standard paint roller. The sealer will give a wet look to your cobbles for a couple of weeks but will eventually go dull. Leave it a day or so before you drive on it. Be warned it is expensive but it's the right stuff for the job don't be tempted by the cheap stuff in woodies or the likes

pablo128

Have you much of an area to do? I did the front and back paving at my folks house today. I didn't power wash them though. I just scraped the vast majority of the weeds, grass and moss with a hoe, and washed down the rear with water and washing powder. It was the first time being washed in about 12 years and it came up well

No need for re sanding either.

davidm25

Hi Pablo128 - it's a fairly standard 2 car driveway at the front of the house. In addition to the weeds and moss that need to be dealt with, the tiles themselves have become quite dirty and black over the last few years and it's very obvious when looking at any of the neighbours drives who have done this recently. So I reckon the powerwash is probably the best solution in my case to tackle all of the problems at once. Well done on your own work, it looks great - I might try that approach next year once I get the heavy stuff off this year.

Thanks,
D

Raven_k42

Rather than start a new thread I decided to resurrect this one.

I had been trawling Boards for ideas and recommendations on cleaning a cobblelock drive. We get ours cleaned every year...non-cowboy operators...spending €200 a time. They use the right sand etc. Within weeks the weeds are back.

Anyway this year we decided to DIY. Power-washed the blocks with a domestic-type Karcher...and we brushed on Cementone (a Bostik product we got in HomeBase). Cost about €200 for 8 bags. The sand is not 100% dry so takes a bit of persuading...plus perhaps not suitable for really close blocks. As you can see from the attached we were not as tidy as we might have been...as there's some hard Cementone on the surface. We're OK with it however and still weed-free after 4 weeks.

We'll see how it goes...but just in case this might be of use/interest to anyone.

K