Understanding Sealers

Paving Stone and Concrete Sealers are generally made up of Polymers, Catalysts, Carry Agents sunscreens and other ingredients to finalize a formulation.

The solids portion of a sealer or paint are usually Acrylics, Urethanes, Epoxies, Pigments, etc.

Solids properties range dramatically and the best one must be chosen for it's desired end use.Some solids have great elasticity, some are rubbery soft or extremely hard and durable for high traffic areas. They can range from dull to high gloss, surface films to impregnators.

Before and AFter on a Retaining wall STONESAVER Paving Stone Sealer was applied.

Some are resistant to oils, chemicals and solvents and some only repel water. Solids quality range in cost depending on their capabilities. Once we have narrowed down what solids works best for our intended use, we must now decide how much to spend on the polymer category we desire.

STONESAVER products are premium for a reason. We have never cut corners on our products. We purchase only the latest technology and highest cost solids available. We then combine that with the highest "safe" amount of solids content for that particular type of product. Our solids content range from 10% to as high as 66%, depending on the desired premium results for their intended use. The key to solids is to use the most suited, the most resistant, the best quality and the highest safe amount!

A Catalyst is an unchangeable molecule which when added to the formula, enables two molecules to react to form one or more other molecules. This enhances a formula to achieve a certain chemical goal.

Carry Agents are fluids that transport the solids into the substrate, which in our case is concrete. Carry Agents can range from water to various types of oils and more refined solvents. STONESAVER uses water as an environmentally conscious choice whenever possible, however water technology is still not as advanced in most cases as oils or solvents. For this reason we still use oil / solvent based acrylics for our Concrete and Paving Stone Sealers.

Concrete areas that are sealed while damp will turn white within 36 hours of sealing. This is known as moisture blushing. It can be corrected by aggresively rolling with a mixture of 50% sealer and 50% toluene once the concrete is completely dry.

We have blended our Paving Stone Sealer and Concrete Sealer to achieve unparalleled accelerated drying times along with good penetration and adhesion. This is a very key point, since solvent based sealers will turn white if they get wet with dew or rain during their drying process. This is called moisture blushing and STONESAVER is the most resistant sealer to moisture blushing on the market. STONESAVER sealers can get rained on within "30 minutes" after a 70 degree application with no danger of moisture blushing.

Most of our competitors are "several hours to several days" prior to being safe from moisture blushing. This is a huge advantage especially for contractors, as they can have a much longer and safer working season with STONESAVER and a lot less call backs to reseal any failed jobs. For those who wish to protect and beautify their concrete pavement while achieving a low gloss slip resistant finish, then our Penetrating Low Gloss Sealer is the perfect product. STONESAVER has taken a very responsible approach to ensure that our products offer contractors the safest and best possible results.

Before sealing pavers look faded and efflorescence can obscure the true colors of the paving stones.	After photo where STONESAVER Cleaning & Surface Prep and Penetrating Low Gloss Sealer has restored the rich paving stone colour.

STONESAVER products are designed by licensed chemists and have been put to the test with thousands of hours of QUV testing, shelf life testing, wear testing, blush testing, freeze-thaw cycle testing and stain resistance testing. Our formulations are premium and our products are manufactured in a ISO rated and fire code compliant chemical plant. We ship from a 25,000 square foot warehouse with bonded, insured T. D. G. certified carriers only. We are fully insured and offer unparalleled technical assistance to our customers. All our product labels are CCR compliant 2004.

In short, we do it right!