Concrete Pavers Miami

So, what is a concrete paver?  What is a brick paver?  These two terms are used interchangeably when referring to decorative pavers, however, they actually refer to two separate products.

Concrete Pavers are made from water, sand, cement, aggregate (chewed up rocks or recycled concrete), and color dye.  The vast majority of pavers in Miami and throughout Florida are Concrete Pavers.  The reason for this is that Florida has a bountiful supply of the natural ingredients that go into making Concrete Pavers.  On the other hand, brick pavers are made from clay and since Florida has little naturally occurring clay, clay or brick pavers are not frequently produced here, but instead mostly shipped in from states like Georgia and the Carolinas.  As a result, Brick Pavers are less frequently used due to their cost.  Having to transport very heavy materials hundreds or thousands of miles is not cheap or efficient, therefore clay brick pavers can cost almost double what concrete pavers do.

Once concrete pavers are manufactured, they have to dry.  Concrete is actually always drying, even years after pouring, but generally speaking, concrete pavers will lose most of their moisture within the a month after production.  One of the biggest challenges with newly produced pavers is that since they aren’t fully cured, depending on the application, you can have some crack early on in the installation.  This happens mostly with thin, one inch pavers.  Another challenge is that if you want to seal your pavers – which you should!!! – you will want to wait at least a month, if not two depending on the weather before applying sealer.  In the wet summer months, it is best to give newly installed pavers more time to lose this moisture.  If concrete pavers are sealed before they have properly cured, the sealer will lock in the moisture that is trying to escape from the pavers and over time, the sealer will turn a cloudy white color.  This ruins the aesthetic appeal of the pavers and is a very tough issue to remedy.  So, to be safe, wait 6 to 8 weeks before sealing your new pavers as almost all pavers installed in South Florida are no more than a couple of weeks old.

We install and seal concrete pavers Miami and all of South Florida.  Please contact us today for a free estimate.