Cleaning and Sealing a Brick or Stone Patio

Brick, stone or other types of masonry patios need to be cleaned and sealed every 2-5 years. Watch this video to find out more.

Further Information

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Tricia Craven Worley: I’m admiring the old brick in this area of the patio that we recently redid. It was damaged by a storm, and as you can see it’s all mortared in concrete.

Now concrete, which is certainly used for a lot of patios, and in this instance for the mortar, it needs to be sealed. But before you seal it you want to let it cure for about 30 days.

Now the rest of the patio here is done in a flagstone, and this has been down for about 70 years. But doesn’t it look new? That’s because it was just recently cleaned.

Now, we cleaned it with a muriatic acid, which is highly corrosive, so you want to be really, really careful when you use it and follow the instructions. But after that it is important to seal the patio, and we’re going to do that with a clear sealer.

Regardless of what kind of product you use, it’s generally a porous product—whether it’s some kind of stone, concrete, or brick—so you’ll always want to make sure that you’ve sealed it properly.

And this is something that I choose to do about every two to five years on my patio to keep it looking the best it possibly can.

6 COMMENTS

  1. Why use something so corrosive outdoors, it could be very nasty for the garden particularly if your patio is close to any produce or plantlife. Could a hot pressure washer not provide an effective cleaning of the patio before sealing?

    cheers,

    Carl

  2. Two yrs ago used old red brick collected over many years to make a brick walkway. It looks stunning. Polymeric sand was hand rubbed into every crack. This year I am seeing more of this sand needs replacing. My question is….after I do the sanding should I use a water based sealant all over? Many thanks for your thoughts.

  3. After sealing old bricks on my patio will it make it shiny in appearance and also would it help with the mortor / cement from breaking loose? I live in Baton Rouge La and the hot/cold breaks up the mortor. I’m actual not sure what they were layed in.
    Thanks

    • Hi, Jewel,
      Here’s “Today’s Homeowner” host Danny Lipford’s answer to your question:

      “It is always good to seal a brick patio with a masonry sealer.
      You can use a low-luster finish to keep it from being shiny or a high-gloss if you want it to shine.
      And either type will help keep your mortar from deteriorating.”

      Thanks for your question.

  4. What’s a good name brand that will make it shine? We just laid a walkway using very old red brick. It is so pretty we want to make sure we keep it that way.
    Thanks,
    Donna

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