(5 min. read)
Fed up of spending your time scrubbing and cleaning as soon as you’re ready to get the best use out of your exterior space? Don’t waste away the good spring/summer weather cleaning when you should be making the most of your patio area.
Follow our quick and easy steps to help prevent your patio from falling victim to any rain, frost or ice damage. Remember, while you’re wrapped up warm during the winter and enjoying your interior space, your exterior space is bearing the brunt of the bad weather!
1. Sweep Your Patio
You may do this already but it’s important to remember to sweep your patio to prevent mould, algae, or fungus from forming, which will otherwise cause you problems when spring arrives. We stock a range of algae remover and Patio Cleaning Products which we highly recommend in order to keep your patio winter-proof!
2. Pressure Wash Your Patio
To make sure that your natural stone patio is extra clean and even the smallest pieces of debris are removed, we recommend that you pressure wash your patio.
The best practice is always to keep the nozzle of your pressure washer at least one foot away from the surface of your stone to prevent removing and sealers or causing damage to the surface of your stone.
3. Re-seal Your Stone
Once you’ve pressure washed your patio, it’s essential that you leave it to dry for at least a day and once thoroughly dried if you haven’t re-sealed your stone in the last three years, we recommend that you do!
An impregnating sealer will penetrate the stone, intensifying the colour while protecting your patio from water-based staining, general dirt and chipping or erosion from harsh weather.
Find out more about Sealing Patio Paving.
Sweeping, washing and re-sealing will help to prevent any areas where a build-up of rainwater can remain until it turns to ice such as any existing small cracks in or between the stone. And, as we all know, water expands as it freezes, which is bad news for your patios as it can lead to further cracks and damages. Not to mention the extra slip-factor!
4. Protect Your Driveway
Take into consideration how you treat a driveway or any areas where you’re likely to keep any cars, motorbikes or push bikes for long periods of time over the winter.
Oil stains are notoriously hard to remove and although there are products and methods you can use to treat oil or grease stains, the best form of attack is defence!
We off some sealers which will give your stone the natural finish that you’re looking for while offering your patio protection from water, oil and grease staining.
5. Shovel Carefully
After heavy periods of snowfall, it might be necessary to shovel excess snow off of your patio or driveway. This can cause damage to the stone beneath the snow if not done with care.
When shovelling, we recommend the use of a shovel with a rubber or plastic head as this drastically decreases the chances that a heavy blow will chip or crack the stone, and still enables you to clear a safe path.
6. Get A Grip
Be careful about reaching straight for the rock salt when you see the frost or ice start to form on your patio as some salt has a corrosive effect that could cause damage to your natural stone, and when mixed with water, can seep into cracks and refreeze, which is bad news.
Rock salt can also degrade the mortar which holds your slabs in place, allowing them to become loose and uneven. This not only looks bad and will need repairing, but causes more hazards than it prevents!
Any salts that mix with rainwater or melted snow and make their way onto your surrounding lawn or plants will cause further damage to your garden. Once it mixes with water and seeps into the soil it can damage the roots and cause browning to shrubs or trees and prevent any flowers from opening during the spring. Damage to roots will also affect your plants’ ability to withstand the cold and make them more susceptible to freezing in the winter temperatures. And that means more repair work for you during the spring!
As an alternative to salting or gritting, rubber anti-slip mats will give you the grip that you need to get from A to B safely, just remember to move them regularly to prevent any build-up of dirt or algae beneath!
7. Protect Your Patio With An Awning
Another great way to keep any rain and snow from collecting on your stone is with an all-weather awning. These can be bought in a range of sizes and will cover a large section if not all of your patio area, allowing the water to drain off to a more suitable area of your garden. These can also come in handy in the summer to keep that typical British weather off the BBQ!
8. Store Your Furniture
It’s always advisable to store your furniture somewhere indoors such as in a shed or garage, during the winter and it’s important that if you have aluminium furniture that you allow water to drain from it. This will help to prevent any damage caused by the water freezing onto the furniture which can cause problems if frozen on for long periods of time.
If you have wooden furniture, avoid covering it, as this can cause moisture to gather on the surface, which, over a period of time can start to crack your surfaces, as well as encouraging a build-up of mould.
For steel or wicker/rattan furniture, it’s essential that you store this inside as wicker expands and contracts in the cold, which can cause your furniture to crack and break, and steel furniture will rust easily.
If you notice any rust on your metal furniture before storing it, you can use a wire brush to scrub it off before storing it. You can also protect your furniture by applying wax and using a silicone sealant.
Whether you’re storing your patio furniture or not, you should clean the furniture with soap and water to remove any dirt, which will help to prevent mould from forming.
Done!
If you follow our how-to guide, your patio will stay looking it’s best throughout the winter months, save you some spring cleaning and will last well into the summer.
So, wrap up warm and take care of your patio before it falls victim to the winter!
We’d love to hear if you have any additional tips or thoughts on our winter-proofing guide. Let us know in the comments below!
If you have any questions about keeping your patio maintained during the winter, feel free to reach out to us on 01206 700 599 or via email at support@nustone.co.uk.
