Preventing weeds and growth in block paving

Jul 21, 2007 5 Replies

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Dundonald 19 years ago

I have a block paved driveway to the front of the house and it's becoming very time consuming having to weed it every 2-3 weeks. The problem is with weeds and some grass growth inbetween the blocks. The driveway is on a decline toward the house.

First question is is it normal for block paving to suffer as such or does this indicate poor workmanship having laid the drive?

And second question is can anyone provide any recommendations that have helped them in how to best prevent such weed growth or indeed prolong the period that I have to go out and manually weed the driveway?

Thanks

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George 19 years ago

I'm no expert but...I'd imagine poor groundwork is the cause of this. Look at council flagging you very rarely see weeds growing on the pavements :-)

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A.Lee 19 years ago

Even if sealed from the underlying ground, birds and wind will put seeds in the tiniest of gaps, and there is enough protein and water to germinate those seeds between and under the blocks.

Sodium chlorate weedkiller kills all growth from the roots. It does not work immediately, so when applied, the weeds will still grow for another

2 or 3 weeks, then die off, and new growth will stop for at least 3 months. If it was my driveway, I'd firstly apply something like Tumbleweed, or even Weedol which will kill all green growth fairly quickly, then go over again after a few days with sodium chlorate. Re-apply sodium chlorate every 3 months to stop any new growth.It is the cheapest weedkiller available, so will only cost you £2.50 for 10 litres of solution, which should be plenty for the average driveway. Alan.

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The Medway Handyman 18 years ago

As others have said use a weed killer. There is a product called Geo Fix which is a polymer sand apparently resistant to weed growth. Not used it myself.

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Dundonald 18 years ago

Thanks Alan. Is it a simple case of diluting the sodium chlorate and brushing it over the driveway?

Then further filling in the block paving with fresh silicon sand for example?

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meow2222 18 years ago

adhesive sand, the ones that bond to the slabs as well as to the sand are much better quality.

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