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Tinting with Perfect Paver Co.
Have your pavers lost a lot of their color leaving you considering replacement? Or maybe you’re searching for a solution to restore their color. All concrete pavers will lose their color over time. This is mostly the result of pavers weathering from exposure to rain without the protection of a good paver sealer.
The Perfect Paver Co has developed a process of tinting faded and worn pavers to achieve a newer look. Read below for more information about our process.
How do pavers lose their color?
This video shows you first hand how concrete pavers lose their color. A concrete paver is made up of aggregate (rocks), sand and cement powder. Prior to making the paver, color pigment is mixed with the cement powder and then the colored cement is mixed with the aggregate, sand and water to create the paver. All of the coloring in the paver resides inside of the cement powder. Coloring will not absorb into the aggregate or sand. Once the paver is installed and exposed to rain without being properly sealed, the acid in the rain and the effect of rain constantly hitting the surface will deteriorate the colored cement powder from the surface of the paver exposing the aggregate and sand. Since the paver is losing the cement powder which contains the color, naturally the paver’s color will be less and less vibrant over time.
Will a color enhancing paver sealer restore the color in my pavers?
Are my pavers a candidate for paver tinting (staining)?
The only type of paver that we offer paver tinting on is concrete pavers. We do not recommend tinting natural stone or clay brick. 95% of pavers in residential applications are made from concrete.
If you have concrete pavers, some good reasons why you may want to tint your pavers include adding back lost color or slightly altering the color. If your goal is to drastically change the color in your pavers, tinting is not the best option as it wont yield a natural look.
Our tinting chart below shows what different percentages of tint will look like on your pavers. In order to keep the tint looking as original and natural as possible, we only recommend between 20% and 60%. 40% will achieve the most natural appearance (by natural we mean that the paver coloring will look original and not fake). The higher the %, the more blotchy and unnatural the tint will appear. Newer pavers only in need of slight color enhancement would likely be in the 20% range.
What Colors Can I Tint My Pavers?
We strongly suggest not drastically changing the color of your pavers. Our base colors include brown, red and gray/black. Take a look at the before and after pictures below to see what we can achieve.
How much does paver tinting / staining cost?
Typically, tinting pavers will add an additional $.50 – $1.00 per square foot to our standard sealing prices below. Very large projects could be less.
What is the difference between painting pavers vs tinting/staining pavers?
First, we would like to note that as far as the paver industry is concerned, there isn’t a difference between staining and tinting pavers. Tint is just the word we choose to use. To us, the word tinting means slightly adding more color, whereas staining to us means drastically altering the color/appearance. Because it’s not possible to drastically alter the color in pavers and make it look natural, the Perfect Paver Co process is to tint pavers.
Tinting pavers is like using semi-transparent stain when staining wood. You can darken the color of wood, but you cannot lighten it. The same applies with tinting pavers.
When tinting pavers, the natural surface of the paver stays the same. Our tinting process is penetrating and soaks down deep in to the paver vs paint which is coating that coats the surface of the paver. Tinting will have a more natural, variegated appearance whereas paint will be a solid color.
The Perfect Paver Co Tinting Process
What’s unique about our tinting process on pavers is that we’re injecting the same type of color pigment back into the paver that was used in the manufacturing process of the paver. Other processes add coloring to a film forming sealer and the color lives in the sealer. As the sealer fades, so does the color. By injecting the color into the surface of the paver using a penetrating sealer, the color will not only be more natural looking, but also last longer.
Note that it is still very important to keep your pavers sealed after our tinting process.
Here’s our step-by-step process:
Step 1: We must remove any existing sealers or coatings from the paver. This is necessary to allow the tint to penetrate into the surface and also so that the new sealer will adhere to the paver.
Step 2: Thoroughly clean the paver and pores using our Steam Cleaning process. It’s important to achieve a deep level of clean in order for the tint to penetrate the pores and surface of the paver.
Step 3: Install our polymeric sand into the joints of the pavers.
Step 4: Mix a custom tint color for your pavers and apply it to the pavers.
Step 5: Seal the pavers to further enhance the color and lock in the new tint.
