How To Remove Weeds From Block Paving

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One of the most frustrating things about Block Paving is weeds growing in between the gaps. They can make your beautiful paving look unsightly. They can also be incredibly tedious to remove!

Luckily for you, we have gathered together some of the most effective ways for you to remove them and condensed them all into one article. This guide explains how to get rid of weeds in block paving.

Weed Weapons For Block Paving

You have a few different weapons in your arsenal, each with its pros and cons. We will go through them all here.

After you have killed your weeds, you should seal up your block paving to prevent them from returning. Keep reading to find out how to do just that!

1. Weed Killers

There are untold numbers of various weed killers on the market today. Including ones specially formulated for driveways and paving.

Most weed killers are very toxic (you don’t say!), which puts many people off using them. This especially affects pet owners and parents with young children or grandchildren.

Weed killers are effective, so they are a great option if you want maximum weed removal and are not bothered about using toxic chemicals.

To achieve the best results with weed killers, applying them whilst weeds are actively growing is always advisable. I like to give them a blast in early spring and then finish off any survivors with another spray in mid-summer.

Targeting the weeds while growing will make the roots suck the weed killer up and transfer it to the weed’s root, allowing for much better weed-killing.

2. Weed Burners

Weed burners are a relatively novel way of removing weeds for many people. They come in two forms, electric or gas-powered.

The electric ones can quite often take a while to get up to temperature and also can take a while to burn the weed. So don’t expect to tackle a full driveway with an electric weed burner quickly.

For larger areas, I would recommend a gas burner. Again this comes with its caveats, though.

Many of the smaller, cheaper burners that come with an attached camping gas cylinder are not as powerful as their larger brothers, again making them unsuitable for large drives.

I would suggest a proper burner with a trolly to carry a gas canister for larger areas. These are great if you have a large drive and don’t want to use poisonous chemicals.

3. Removal Tools

Numerous specially designed hand tools are available to help remove weeds from block paving. Generally designed as small scrapers, they allow you to efficiently get into the gaps between pavers and pull up those weeds.

They are an excellent method of removing weeds in an environmentally friendly way. However, they have their drawbacks. It is tedious to clear a full driveway this way, not to mention bad on the back and knees!

However, following the little and often mantra can be a very useful tool to defeat those driveway weeds.

4. Electric Weeding Machine

I have to be honest, I had never heard of these until I did some research for this article. But after reading up on them, I can see the appeal, particularly for older users who may not be able to bend down easily to manually remove weeds.

Essentially this machine is a rotating wire brush with a long handle that helps to pick up weeds and sweep them out of cracks.

5. Jet Washer

A popular two-for-one! Clean your drive and blast away the weeds at the same time. This is a very laborious process, so it’s not recommended to do this regularly.

However, a good jetwash once or twice a year, followed by a re-sand of the cracks will keep away most weeds.

6. Elbow Grease

The good old-fashioned method. Get down on your hands and knees and pull those suckers out manually.

Unarguably the most environmentally friendly way of removing weeds. However, this is very time (and back) consuming. Not a realistic approach for many people.

How To Remove Moss From Block Paving

Moss is very easy to remove from block paving, and all of the methods listed above for weeds will also work when it comes to moss.

This is because moss is very shallowly rooted and so comes away from the paving easily.

The two best ways to get rid of moss on paving are using a scraper, like the one listed above, and a jet washer.

The jet washer works well on moss as it just blasts it away, and due to the shallow roots of moss, they don’t cling on, and they tend to just get blasted away by the water.

How To Seal Block Paving To Stop Weeds

So after you have cleared your block paving of weeds or moss, you will want it to stay that way, so what can you do? Sealing is one way that you can help fend off those pesky weeds.

Sealing block paving is simple. You apply a layer of clear sealer that sits on top of the paving; this helps keep the paving clean as an added benefit.

Now while all this is well and good, your problem with block paving is that weeds come up through the gaps between blocks, not the actual pavers.

Step 1 – Remove Soil/Dirt From Cracks

To deal with this, we need to remove all soil from the gaps that have built up over time. The best way to do this is by using a pressure washer and blasting it all out.

This soil is the perfect place for weeds to live and grow, so we need to get rid of it if we want any chance of keeping the weeds away.

Step 2 – Fill Gaps With Sand

Once you have don’t this, and the gaps between the paving are looking clear of weeds and soil, then we need to fill them back in with sand.

Sand is brushed into all the gaps between block paving to replace the soil and to stop the gap from just filling up with dirt again.

But don’t just use any sand. This is where our secret weapon comes in, setting sand. Setting sand is a product from Sika; it looks just like normal sand and is brushed into the gaps like normal sand.

But what happens next is very different from ordinary sand, as you could probably tell from the name. This sand sets rock solid, so it doesn’t get washed away. You need to get it wet to start the setting process.

Step 3 – Seal The Block Paving

Now that we have a solid surface and all of our gaps are solid, it is time to seal the pavers. Sika again offers a really easy product that works well with the setting sand we just used.

You brush this acrylic sealer on with a paint roller and use a long pole, so you do not have to bend over. It looks like a thin PVA and is easy to apply.

The only thing to remember is that it can’t get wet for 24 hours, so check the forecast before applying this sealer.

Once dried, this will create an acrylic layer above our pavers, which will stop the weeds from being able to grow back for a good while.

You can keep topping up this sealer every few years, give the pavers a good jetwash, let it dry and apply another coat of sealer.

You will also have the added benefit of protecting your paving from dirt and oil spill, so a real win-win!

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