Around 25 years ago we had landscapers create patios at both ends of the garden. Stone, or more likely coloured concrete, slabs with mortar pointing between them.
We could have done better with weed control and patching breaks in the pointing but we're now at the point where mortar is gone and weeds grow at will.
Don't want the cost of getting a man in but having spent the last two days grubbing out mainly dandelions I want to seal the joints.
Googling tells me there are brush in self curing resin products such as Easyjoint that might do the job.
Anybody here any relevant experience?
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sat 25 Apr 26 at 10:31
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Depends how long you want things to last. Some years after moving to this place we replaced rather crude slabs with Indian stone ones of mixed (Imperial!) sizes. They were well laid and have not subsided at all. Joints are a few mm wide and filled with paving sand. This gets rinsed out a bit by heavy rain, and weeds easily get started, but are equally easily removed and re-sanded.
Mortar joints can look good when new, but there will always be some movement causing slow break-up and invasion by weeds. Those resin things also look good and last for quite a while, but I think the fundamental problem is that contraction and expansion is unavoidable, so loose sand is not such a bad idea. Easy DiY too, if a bit tedious. The really tedious job is jet-washing off the accumulated dirt - which has nothing to do with how the joints are filled.
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"tedious job is jet-washing off the accumulated dirt - which has nothing to do with how the joints are filled."
But soon empties the joints of mortar, as I found out last week!!
My 25+yo Indian slabs front now has a few cracked stones, across the entrance where they are driven over. Probably as much due to settling as cars being driven over them - there's also some other areas where the pointing is cracking a bit but mostly it's in pretty good shape for its age.
I have a landscape company coming in next week to do some tree and fence work and they are going to spend a day or whatever sorting out the pointing front and back, and will swap the broken slabs to a less obvious place (also re-do the bedding). They did say paving stones isn't "the thing" to do it with these days, and at 25+ years it's pretty much end of life.
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Similar problem with some slabs last year. They were level having been laid on a sound base, but the mortar between them was cracked,or missing reflecting ~15 years of little maintenance.
I raked out all loose mortar which left a ~12mm gap to fill which in places wat 50mm deep.
Raked dry ready mixed mortar into the joint and tamped it down firmly - with a stick apporox 1m long and a short straight edge nailed to the bottom about 10mm wide and 150mm long.
Swept any surplus cement out of the way before very lightly moistening the top of the compacted joint with water. Once the top has set a bit more water will soak through and the rest will hardeb.
A year on and I have just jetwashed the slabs. The joints are still ok - no cracks, no weeds etc.
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>>Raked dry ready mixed mortar into the joint and tamped it down firmly - with a stick apporox 1m long and a short straight edge nailed to the bottom about 10mm wide and 150mm long.
Nice one! .. I had my Indian sandstone slabs re laid last year, but I see the gaps have opened up, although the mortar is sound enough.
The chap who did the job for me lives in Hartland and I don't want to call him back to North Cornwall as he does such a good job and is always busy, so I'll have a go at that myself.
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The easy joint stuff is easy to use, albeit quite expensive for a first fill, and isnt terribly long lasting. You'll need to buy a tub every year to fill the bits that failed, but as its easy to do its no biggie.
You need lots of water from a hose, soak it all well then spread it in very wet.
Use a really strong weedkiller first
Last edited by: Zero on Sat 25 Apr 26 at 14:39
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>> Use a really strong weedkiller first
Yup, that's the plan. Stuff that both kills and prevents germination.
Any brand/type you can recommend?
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diygardening.co.uk/products/strong-weed-killer/
At the end of the day, its all about concentration.
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>> At the end of the day, its all about concentration.
Not much out there other than Glyphosate I think.
My Father had a huge drum of Paraquat for years, albeit long before it was banned.
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>> Any brand/type you can recommend?
Mrs Ted collared the man doing the pavement last year with a Transit carrying a huge tank and lances
He said one word....derv ! Nothing will grow in it. I bought a gallon and it kept the drive clear all Summer. After a few days there was no staining or smell. Due to do it again soon for this year.
Ted.
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I got fed up with buying expensive weedkiller from the well known brands, so I bought a 5 litre container of glyphosate from ebay: tinyurl.com/3jjab2u7
I dilute around 25ml/L and spray it. I find it kills anything it touches after a couple of weeks and it doesn't grow back. Do the drive and paths a couple of times a year.
That's 200L of weedkiller, should last me and I can leave the rest in my will.
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>> I got fed up with buying expensive weedkiller from the well known brands, so I
>> bought a 5 litre container of glyphosate from ebay: tinyurl.com/3jjab2u7
>>
>> I dilute around 25ml/L and spray it. I find it kills anything it touches after
>> a couple of weeks and it doesn't grow back. Do the drive and paths a
>> couple of times a year.
>>
>> That's 200L of weedkiller, should last me and I can leave the rest in my
>> will.
Sensible advice - I have found it very effective and buy in bulk to keep the costs down.
Increasing numbers of normal retail products no longer include it so check contents - a ban or control on the use of glyphosate (eg: licenced, professional only) is possible - it has apparently been linked to serious health problem and other toxicity.
Whether true or the work of anl environmental anti-something group is unclear. Reality - I suspect for the guy who sprays the drive and patio twice a year the risk is very small to effectively non-existent.
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I'm aware of the link to cancer and I believe there's cases in USA. I'm not spraying it in large quantities and I suspect that as I'm doing it at ground level, the risk is minimal.
What's the health risks of other products?
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>> >> Use a really strong weedkiller first
>>
>> Yup, that's the plan. Stuff that both kills and prevents germination.
>>
>> Any brand/type you can recommend?
>>
I use undiluted malt vinegar or white vinegar. In my experience it works just as well as the branded weed-killer stuff you can buy in garden centres. A 500 ml bottle of vinegar will cost about 40p.
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Boiling water kills weeds. Just take the kettle out and pour it on. No worries about toxicity.
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Recently gave our patio a deep clean and repointed the joints, used dilute brick acid followed by a good scrub and wash to clean and a strong mix ( 3 to 1) of sharp sand and cement to re do the joints, splashed a bit of plasticiser in the mix as well,.
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>> Boiling water kills weeds. Just take the kettle out and pour it on. No worries about toxicity. >>
But the thermal shock may not help your mortar joints ?
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Glyphosate, sold commercially as Roundup, is available for domestic use in numerous products, shapes and guises but is effectively the same active ingredient and one of the most widely used. However it is not persistent with a long lasting weed killing effect. It works on the green parts of plants and its action is influenced by weather and growth conditions. Now is perfect - warm, sunny weather with weeds actively growing. This is critical to the plant taking up the herbicide and moving it around systemically to kill underground stems, roots etc. glyphosate does have an effect on noxious weeds such as Japanese knotgrass but full control requires appropriate growing conditions, specialist equipment and probably multiple applications.
Products that remain active in the soil with long persistence are more difficult to obtain due to their environmental effect. For domestic use something labelled as brushkiller is likely to be the best you can get.
Efficacy is a factor of dose, application conditions (a fine spray better than sloshing on with a watering can) and weather/growing conditions. It is very likely that glyphosate will be banned, at least for domestic use, in due course. Increasingly vinegar (acetic acid) based sprays are sold but they have contact rather than systemic action. This means they will kill the bits they touch, but not the tough underground roots that can regrow.
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many years ago i replaced my ski slope lawn with three tiered patios. Big block work retaining walls, faced by excavated limestone.
I then laid cheap Indian stone slab, on dot & dab. I was still working so had limited holiday in which to do it with a builder friend, and needless to say within a few years the pointing collapsed.
When I retired we took the whole lot up, small section by section, laid aggregate and used a whacker to level.
Filled the joints with 2 stage epoxy after pressure washing all the patios. Mixed, dampened flags, then poured onto and spread into joints with a large squeeze. Ever since, zero weeds, and I can pressure wash without any damage to the ‘pointing’.
Cannot remember the brand…currently overseas but I have some leftover and will check. A very time consuming job but 100% satisfied with the end result.
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>>took the whole lot up, laid aggregate and used a whacker to level.
That's exactly what 'my man' from Hartland did, even skipped the previous hardcore and laid new.
Did an excellent job. Cost though ££££.
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>> >>took the whole lot up, laid aggregate and used a whacker to level.
>>
>> That's exactly what 'my man' from Hartland did, even skipped the previous hardcore and laid
>> new.
Exactly what myself & builder friend did, which from memory took us 3 weeks. Stacked the Indian stone up against the retaining wall so they were relaid exactly as previous.
Scraped up all the aggregate and dot & dab mortar which filled a skip, and I bought all materials from local builders merchant where i have a monthly account.
to quote “the price is forgotten but the quality remains”.
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>>Exactly what myself & builder friend did, which from memory took us 3 weeks
'my man' did it mainly on his tod, apart from a chap who made the muck up in a cement mixer.
It took 'im one week to complete the job, starting at 8am every morning and working hard all day.
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For the last two years, I have only seen Roundup with the note "does not contain glyphosate"
Difficult to find G in Supermarkets and garden centres.
I think its only available for professionals.
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>> For the last two years, I have only seen Roundup with the note "does not
>> contain glyphosate"
There has certainly been some pressure for Glyphosate to be restricted to professionals but the garden centre on the A5 north of Towcester had several G based formulations in stock yesterday.
There seemed however to be few options other than G or Acetic Acid. Bought the latter and it's impressively quick in getting die back but may not kill roots.
There's a large bottle of G based Roundup with a spray attachment in my garage which I bought in 2024 with the intention of clearing all growth from a neglected bit of our land but which is outside the wall of the back garden. Intention was to cover it with a membrane and then slate chips so as to improve its appearance.
There may well be multiple formulations of Roundup.
I'm sure you used to be able to get stuff for paths/driveways that claimed to prevent germination for 12 months but nothing like that now, at least not retail.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Mon 27 Apr 26 at 11:07
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Dogs seem particularly sensitive to glyphosate poisoning. If you have one keep it well away from any treated surfaces especially when still wet.
Personally I haven’t used any weed or pest killer in my garden for over 40 years and although I say it myself it still looks pretty good.
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>> >> Use a really strong weedkiller first
>>
>> Yup, that's the plan. Stuff that both kills and prevents germination.
>>
>> Any brand/type you can recommend?
>>
I have also had success using 'Mr Muscle'. You know, the stuff you pour down kitchen sink holes to disolve stuff. Not conventional, but still works.
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Patio Issues - Andrew-T
