Grrrr! Block paving and weeds/growth etc...

NeilF · 2 Sep 2008 at 09:18

So I spent 2hrs on Saturday with Groundup and a spray cannister spraying between everying brick on our drive. I made sure I used the prescribed 30ml per litre (in fact, a little more) and made sure I went over absolutely every edge/join...

Now, there's nothing particularly bad growing on the drive, just some moss and a few little new plans (tiny) coming up (nothing you can see from more than a couple of feet away), but as of this today, still NO difference! Infactm in one or two places I can see new plants coming up :mad:

I think I'm just going to jet wash all the joins out of sand/dirt, and resand it...

Anyone else face this sort of battle?

Angilion · 2 Sep 2008 at 09:23

No, I just leave it run riot and hack it down every now and then.

Ah, this is GD on OcUK, so I will conform to the local custom and advise you to KILL IT WITH FIRE!

Ben M · 2 Sep 2008 at 09:26

We have a tool for scraping between the bricks to pull the plants and grass out, you can get them from B&Q, iit's basically a handle with a blade coming off perpendicular to it. It takes a while, but probably less time than powerhosing and re-sanding.

amkan13 · 2 Sep 2008 at 09:53

Ben M said:
We have a tool for scraping between the bricks to pull the plants and grass out, you can get them from B&Q, iit's basically a handle with a blade coming off perpendicular to it. It takes a while, but probably less time than powerhosing and re-sanding.

yeah its kinda a sickle. thats the best way, but you may remove some mud/sand so as you go along replace the weeds/mud with more sand. weedkillers so are over-rated.

NeilF · 2 Sep 2008 at 09:58

Ben M said:
We have a tool for scraping between the bricks to pull the plants and grass out, you can get them from B&Q, iit's basically a handle with a blade coming off perpendicular to it. It takes a while, but probably less time than powerhosing and re-sanding.

Surely just blasting out the sand/muck between the stones with a jet wash would be easier? Then just get a bag of kiln sand and broom in?

Muffin` · 2 Sep 2008 at 10:00

Just use salt.

Admiral Huddy · 2 Sep 2008 at 10:05

Block paving was the worst decision for our drive. Looks pretty poor after just a few years.. I wish I had of had that concrete printing. Looks good and maintenance free..

NeilF · 2 Sep 2008 at 10:10

Muffin` said:
Just use salt.

Got any more info?

As for Jet Washing - http://www.pavingexpert.com/powrwash.htm

Kearney_1988 · 2 Sep 2008 at 10:13

power washer is the way to go. except you get covered in mud but other than that its much quicker than the scraping tool

TurboMonkey · 2 Sep 2008 at 10:21

Use White spirit, or old engine oil.

Muffin` · 2 Sep 2008 at 10:28

NeilFawcett said:
Got any more info?

Yeah salt stops things from gorwing, so if you wanted to, you could pour some salt over the areas, or dig it all out, fill it with salt and re-do te sand.

NeilF · 2 Sep 2008 at 10:34

I don't really want to jetwash (and re-sand a bit) with winter coming up.. Would seem spring is more the time to do it, so I'll get a couple of buckets of warm soapy water and use a good stiff broom over it. Mainly to get rid of a few small patches of moss etc.

I'll then just spot kill stuff with weed killer until next spring... Then jet wash...

I suppose a jet wash every two years is OK, with some other maintenance (eg: weedkiller/broom) inbetween...

Angilion · 2 Sep 2008 at 20:54

Joking aside, you could trying killing it with fire. Something like this:

https://www.parasene.com/vshop/details.asp?prodID=193

If you're after killing a few small patches of moss, you could use a mould and mildew killing spray, the sort of thing you'll find in the bathroom cleaning area of a shop.