Bloom or Salt Removal from Imprinted Concrete, Block Paving, Natural and Indian Stone, Brick, Slate, and Granite

Bloom or Salt Removal from Imprinted Concrete, Block Paving, Natural and Indian Stone, Brick, Slate, and Granite

By Phil Egan – Swiss Seal

Bloom or Salt Removal from Imprinted Concrete, Block Paving, Natural and Indian Stone, Brick, Slate, and Granite

Swiss-Seal has been involved in this area of business for twenty years and has manufactured products for all kinds of substrates for cleaning and sealing purposes on driveways and patios. We come across a lot of issues that could have been prevented with the right product or products and quality advice or information that would leave a garden or patio looking wonderful for years to come.

Here we tackle the issues of Blooming or Salt integration of a newly laid sealer coat to any substrate which includes (Imprinted/Pressed Concrete, Natural Stone. Indian Stone, Block Paving, Man-Made paving, Slate and Granite, Brick, and Stone). The issues we come across more than any are the lack of quality information to the user of how and why we apply the sealers. These sealers being predominantly acrylic-based sealers have a number of factors that we are guided by to get the best, long-lasting results. A collection of retail outlets have these sat on the shelf and the staff are not aware of the guidelines of these products and the labels give very little application details and thus the wrong product is put on the wrong substrate at the wrong time thus problems. At Swiss-seal we have applied an application document to all our products that tell you when and how to apply our products safely and correctly.

 Firstly, we approach why we have the product Bloom Remover available at any time to be applied.

  1. Salt Ingress in Sealer Coat or Film–This is a common occurrence when sealer is applied to soon to new or reconstructed driveways and patios. The problem is that when we look at sealing Imprinted/Pressed Concrete, Natural Stone. Indian Stone, Block Paving, Man-Made paving, Slate and Granite, Brick and Stone there is a time needed for the natural products to escape the substrates and wash away naturally. This can be 10 – 14 days on Imprinted/Pressed Concrete and 6 – 8 weeks on Natural Stone. Indian Stone, Block Paving, Man-Made paving, Slate and Granite, Brick and Stone. These dates are not cast in stone but without knowing for example if the product has been stored externally and also whether it has been plastic wrapped we have to air on the safe side and stick to these rules.
  2. Blooming/Whitening of Sealer Coat/Film–This is a much wider problem and it can occur on all the substrates – Imprinted/Pressed Concrete, Natural Stone. Indian Stone, Block Paving, Man-Made paving, Slate and Granite, Brick and Stone. This can happen on the first sealer coat/film that is applied or at any time when any of these substrates are resealed. We go back to the rules of how and when these products need to be applied. The solvent content of these products which gives it its longevity has an instant reaction to moisture /water before the curing period of 10 – 14 hours. This means that during that period if it rains or the temperature drops moisture can settle on the sealer coat/film and give it a ghosting effect or whitening effect, sometimes on darker substrates you may not see it as a ghosting effect but as a colour diminishes for example Black coloured products can look grey. With our Bloom Remover we will explain how easy it is to get rid of the problem.

THE PROCESS OF REMOVING MOISTURE INGRESS AND SALT ISSUES IN SEALER COATINGS SOLUTIONS

1. THIS IS AN ISSUE IF THE SUBSTRATE HAS BEEN SEALED BEFORE 6 – 8 WEEKS OF ANY NEWLY LAID SURFACE(SALT/EFFLORESCENCE) OR IT HAS RAINED OR MOISTURE IN THE SURFACE BEFORE THE CURING PROCESS

2. WHEN COMPLETELY DRY APPLY THE BLOOM REMOVER TO THE WHITENED AREAS OR ALL THE AREA IF NECESSARY, WITH A ROLLER BACK AND FORTH QUITE VIGOROUSLY

3. THEN LEAVE FOR AT LEAST 4 HOURS WHILE THE BLOOM REMOVER WETS OUT THE EXISTING SEALER ON THE SURFACE AND ALLOWS THE TRAPPED MOISTURE TO ESCAPE OF THE SALTS TO BECOME TRANSLUCENT

4. YOU SHOULD NOT NEED TO RE-SEAL ANY SUBSTRATE BECAUSE IT SHOULD REFORM ON THE SURFACE AS A SEALER COATING AGAIN ONCE DRY. ON BLOCK PAVING OR IMPRINTED CONCRETE ANOTHER SURFACE COATING WILL NOT CAUSE ANY ISSUES.

5. MAKE SURE THAT THE DAY IS DRY AND IT REMAINS THAT WAY FOR 8 – 10 HOURS AFTERWARDS ALSO BE AWARE OF COOLING MOISTURE ISSUES.

6. LEAVE FOR 4 HOURS TO WALK ON AND 24 HOURS TO DRIVE ON

You can find the details/documents on our website www.swiss-seal.co.uk the link to this document is Bloom. and.Salt Removal.Process

Once this process is done and cleaned then the next job is to protect the cleaned surface from the problems mentioned above. I will be adding several blogs bespoke to individual substrates to understand and apply the relevant sealer that substrate (Natural Stone. Indian Stone. Block Paving, Man-Made paving, Slate and Granite. Brick and Stone) needed to be used.

They are available on our website www.swiss-seal.co.uk.

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