Sealing your driveway is necessary to do every two years or so, but can also be fairly time consuming. If you’re not sure why it is so important you may want to start with this article on the importance of sealing concrete. We have sealed hundreds of driveways over the years and have found a few tools that more than pay for themself. Sealing your own driveway is a moderate task for most DIYers but these tools will help you if you do decide to tackle this task yourself.
Rotating Surface Cleaner
The most important part of sealing your driveway is making sure that it is spotless because even with a coat of sealant on it you can still see obvious stains. The most effective way clean a driveway is to use a pressure washer that has at least 3000 psi of pressure. Pressure washing is effective, but it takes a lot of time to sweep back and forth with a regular pressure washer nozzle. Luckily we’ve found a tool that cuts the time of pressure washing a driveway in half. It’s called a Rotating Surface Cleaner. They come in a few different sizes depending on how much you are willing to spend.
What this tool does is attach to the end of your pressure washer nozzle and spreads the water between two rotating nozzles that face away from each other so that when the water is shot out of the two nozzles it causes them to rotate rapidly. The Rotating Surface Cleaner has bristles around the edges so that it sweeps the loose oil away as it cleans. The reason this attachment cuts down so much time in washing the driveway is because it has a larger spray surface area which lets you spray more of the driveway in less time.
18″ Roller
Once the driveway is pressure washed and has had at least 24 hours to dry it is ready to be sealed. Rolling on a driveway is simple but takes a lot of time if you want to get a thick coat. You can roll on a driveay sealant just like you roll paint onto a wall. One tool that can cut down the time it takes to roll on driveway sealant is an 18″ roller frame along with an 18″ roller cover.
Most of the rollers that you see in use are 9″ wide. Using a 9″ long roller to seal on a driveway doesn’t cover a lot of surface area with each stride and can take awhile longer. Using an 18″ roller can seal more of the driveway with each stride and can cut down up to 50% of your labor.
18″ Roller Tray
You must also remember that when using an 18″ roller you also have to use a larger roller bin or tray for the roller to fit in. Be careful not to overfill the tray though as you don’t want to spill the sealant on the driveway.
You can learn more about how to seal a concrete driveway with this article.
Here at Textbook Painting we like to work hard, but we also like to work smart. With these time-saving tools, sealing your driveway is something you can do in a weekend. If you’d rather hit the links or go to the park and enjoy the fall foliage, give us a call for a free estimate on sealing your concrete driveway.
