7 Most Common Reasons for Polymeric Sand Failures

what's happening hardscapers today we're gonna be talking about the seven most common reasons for polymeric sand failure let's get into this so on this channel we already have multiple videos around polymeric sand installation polymerics and problems and failures and reasons why but today we're going to get into the seven most common reasons for those failures and if you want to learn more at the end of this video you'll see a playlist pop up where you can watch all of the polymeric sand videos on our channel including alternatives to polymeric sand now really quickly polymeric sand is a sand with polymers and other additives in it that gets swept into the joints of a paver project in this sand is crucial to the interlocking of that system it gets watered and activated and it becomes solid but if the instructions are not followed carefully on the bag of the manufacturer then it can become a really big problem and you likely have to actually scrape or pressure wash all that sand out and try again now these problems can range from the base preparation all the way to the day of the installation so there's lots of things to consider here we're gonna break this down seven most common issues with polymeric sand starting with number one here and that's the environmental factors now there's a little bit to consider here including the day of the installation up until 24 hours or so after that installation and this depends on the manufacturer some manufacturers are safe after 15 minutes of actually activating the sand in the joints with water for a little bit of rainfall however for the most part we're looking at at least 24 hours of sun with this as well as those joints being dry you don't want water still in those joints say after a rainfall it should be completely dry from the top of the surface down to the bottom of those joints before you actually go ahead and sweep in and then you want at least that 24 hour period of no rainfall in the forecast and that's for a sunny location now if this is in a backyard and it's covered around by trees and you're getting lots of shade you may want to extend that a little bit longer as well as the slope of that actual pavement surface you may want to increase that slope to say a two percent slope or a quarter of an inch per foot as opposed to a one percent slope or a one eighth of an inch per foot that will help drainage of that area a little bit better movement of water so that that water is not sitting on the surface for a longer period of time and with no sun actually hitting the surface of that pavement and drying up that water over time you're gonna get moss growth mildew growth mold growth on the surface of those pavers and that's also not going to allow that polymeric sand to actually cure as well so a lot to consider when it comes to environmental factors with your polymeric sand number two is the joints and this needs to be considered because there's certain polymeric sands for certain widths of joints if you're installing pavers you're likely good depending on the joint width of that with a typical polymeric sand but if you're installing flagstone with joint widths up to four inches you're looking at a more specialized polymeric sand it is gonna cost a little bit more as well but joint widths definitely need to be considered because if you install a polymeric sand for a large joint application and it's not meant for that large joint application it will absolutely fail and continuing with joint widths also joint depths depth is also an important factor as well so look on the bag of the polymeric sand to understand the minimum joint depth especially if you're replacing polymeric sand you could be looking at at least an inch to an inch and a half of joint depth of polymeric sand to be able to allow that polymeric sand to cure properly number three is base preparation now aggregates is a important topic to get into and we have on this channel just look up stone dust on our channel and you'll see what i'm talking about there but if you're using stone dust or chips down to fines this will not allow the drainage of water underneath your interlock and that lack of drainage will cause that polymeric sand to fail water will stay underneath your pavers for much longer and that polymeric sand will stay wet for a longer period of time not allowing it to cure eventually there may be a rainfall which will also then destroy that polymeric sand stone dust will also wreak havoc on your pavers and on the system itself so do not install polymeric sand with your pavers especially when you're installing polymeric sand most manufacturers of polymeric sand won't even warranty their product if you use stone dust so for that reason alone you shouldn't be using stone dust in your applications number four is just the sweeping you should not sweep the polymeric sand more than 10 feet in any direction the reason for this is that there is a gentle balance of different additives and polymers and sand grains in these polymeric sandbags so when you're dumping that polymeric sand out of the bag do it over a larger area and then sweep no more than 10 feet in any direction so that you're not separating those additives in those polymers and those grains of sand from one another which will cause it to not cure properly instead of dumping it in just one large pile and sweeping it from there spread it out over a larger area and then begin to sweep from that direction number five is the consolidation and this is where once you've swept in initially you're then going to go ahead and compact that polymeric sand into the joints of the pavers the reason why we do this is that the sand will eventually choke itself out on the way down to the bottom of the pavers and in doing so it won't fill that entire joint up with sand so if we went ahead and activated that sand that hadn't met the bottom of the pavers we would actually see an erosion of that sand over time with a load traveling on top of the pavers and then that sand on top would just cave through it wouldn't cure properly as well just leads to a lot of different failures with the polymeric sand instead what we do is we compact that we use a vibrating compactor to vibrate that sand down into the bottom of the joints and then you'll actually feel the pavers really lock up with that consolidation and then we're going to continue to do that with our sand and continue to compact and sweep and compact and sweep until we get the sand to where we need it which brings me to number six which is the joints are filled too high now with polymeric sand we want to see the sand filled to an eighth of an inch below the top of the paver or below the bottom of the chamfer on the paver and the reason why we do this is we don't want friction on that polymeric sand eventually eroding it away so the traffic traveling over the surface of the pavement is not eroding or putting pressure on that polymeric sand filling joints too high will definitely cause a failure of that polymeric sand in those joints and this also needs to be taken into consideration with some pavers because some pavers will have a higher discrepancy in height from the top of the paver down to the bottom of that chamfer and then with polymeric sand being even lower than that bottom of the chamfer you may have that large discrepancy which a client or a homeowner may not like in their pavement surface those that want a flat very even surface of their pavement project may want to move away from that type of paver and then finally number seven on our list is the watering or activation of that polymeric sand and i'd say that this is a major thing to consider definitely look at the manufacturer's instructions because this is going to differ from manufacturer to manufacturer and even sometimes from sand to sand within that manufacturer's lineup so there's no point in me describing to you how you're going to water or activate that sand there are some similarities between manufacturers like using a shower setting and working your way from the bottom of that slope and moving your way up to the top of that slope so you're not prematurely activating sand as the water travels down the slope if you're going to work your way from the top of the slope down to the bottom of the slope some require just one pass of a lot of water some require two passes of a little bit of water so everything is going to vary with this installation just follow the manufacturer's instructions carefully with this and those are your seven most common issues with polymeric sand with the installation process i hope this video has helped you in some way if you want to learn more about everything that we've got going on here at how to hardscape you can check out our members only platform that's got courses on interlocking concrete pavement installation segmental retaining wall installation as well as courses on knowing your numbers budgeting estimating job costing so if you want more information with this go check out our website members.howtohardscape.com or check it out a link is in the description below if this video has helped you in some way please give it a like i would really appreciate that comment below any questions that you may have i'll get back to every one of you there as well as you should see something popping up on this screen here with a playlist for more videos on polymeric and installation that way i have here on the channel and subscribe to this youtube channel for more content like this thank you so much for watching you

Channel: I Am a Hardscaper

Views: 224,301

Keywords: hardscape, hardscapes, hardscaping, hardscaper, hardscapers, installation, paver, pavers, paving stones, paving stone, contractor, contractors

Id: xfahTMbsDq4

Length: 9min 53sec (593 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 02 2022