With the recent heavy rain and flooding across most of Australia, it’s a good time to look at how you can care for outdoor stone tiles and surfaces.
If you sealed all your outdoor stone properly before the rain hit, congratulations! You may still have some clean up to do, but you have avoided more serious damage.
If your stone wasn’t sealed, we recommend cleaning and sealing before the next extreme weather event.
Make sure you use an impregnating sealer – anything from our range is OK. Your outdoor stone will be exposed to wind and water, so it needs to ‘breathe’ as the humidity changes. Impregnating sealers allows for this. Surface sealers, on the other hand, can trap water in the stone and cause more damage.
Top tips to care for outdoor stone tiles, pavers and other features
1. Can I seal wet stone?
If your stone was underwater or had water running over it during the recent weather, you don’t need to wait for it to dry out completely.
You’ll get a better result on dry stone, but you can seal your stone while it’s still damp. Just make sure that even if the surface of the stone is still damp, there are no puddles.
In fact, sometimes your stone can be too dry! Not a problem right now in Australia, but our extreme weather includes drought as well as floods! If it’s very dry, consider misting a small amount of water onto the stone surface before you seal. This can help the sealer penetrate deeper.
2. What kind of cleaning do I need to do before I seal?
The cleaning you need depends on the kind of stone you have and the condition it’s in. You might want a pressure wash, or you may just need a detergent wash and rinse.
One thing to avoid is acidic products. These can damage stone surfaces even further. Our PH neutral natural stone cleaner is ideal for most stone types.
3. Can I seal while it’s raining or cloudy?
You cannot seal stone while it’s raining.
Cloudy weather is OK, as long as rain is not imminent.
4. Does the temperature matter?
We recommend choosing a day where the surface temperature is above 12C and below 30C for your outdoor stone sealing project.
5. How long does it take for the seal to impregnate and start working?
Our sealers will penetrate your stone in minutes but can take up to 24 hours to cure. The process is quicker in warmer, drier weather.
Warning:
excess sealer left on the surface of your outdoor stone tiles can go milky and be hard to remove. Remove any excess with 10-20 minutes of application to avoid this happening on your project.
A special offer to help you care for your outdoor stone
As specialist stone sealer suppliers, we want every Australian home owner or business to have the best of care for their outdoor stone tiles, pavers and other features.
Sealing your stone may sound like a lot of work now, but it will save you time and effort cleaning in the future.
Get a free cleaner with every purchase of Elite Shield before midnight AEST Wednesday 31 March 2021.
- Buy 5L Elite Shield, get 5L of cleaning product free
- Buy 10L Elite Shield, get 10L of cleaning product free
- Buy 20L Elite Shield, get 20L of cleaning product free
How to claim: Simply comment at checkout with one of the following options:
- Free Stone and concrete cleaner
- Free Universal Cleaner
- Free PH Neutral cleaner
and we’ll include the cleaner with your order. Picked, packed and shipped the same business day / next day for orders which miss our cut-off time.
Ideal if you’re a DIY enthusiast planning an Easter weekend project.
Ideal for professional applicators who are going to be busy when this wet weather is finally over. (BOM have predicted the end of La Nina around mid-April)
So now you know how to keep your outdoor stone areas looking great, what’s stopping you? Get everything you need for the job right now from Elite Coatings!
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