Few things are as frustrating as having to go out and pick grass or weeds from between your otherwise beautiful brick or paver patio.
Unfortunately for most homeowners the reality of the situation is they’ll end up spending more time maintaining their patio than entertaining on it!
And that’s a shame.
Luckily, though, with this quick guide you’ll be able to eliminate all of those issues once and for all.
Never again will you have to worry about grass and weeds ruining your backyard patio spaces, and you certainly won’t have to worry about breaking your back to get rid of these annoying little pieces of greenery, either.
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Get to Digging!
Obviously the easiest way to get rid of grass and weeds growing between your pavers is to simply get your hands on this vegetation and start tearing it out, piece by piece, section by section.
This is definitely the “slow road” to successfully cleaning out your paver spaces – but it’s also 100% proven effective (at least in the short term, anyway).
The work can be a little backbreaking, though.
You’re going to have to work your fingers into every nook and cranny and physically pull these plants out, all while knowing that you’re just going to have to rinse and repeat the process again and again.
Thankfully, though, there are better options available than this!
Narrow Designed Weeding Tools Help
A number of quality landscaping tool manufacturers now make very narrow weeding tools specifically designed to squeeze between the cracks and spaces in a paver patio to get rid of this vegetation effectively.
These tools not only help you save your back (because you don’t have to bend down quite as much to get rid of grass and weeds), but they also prevent a lot of future growth, too.
This is done by actually removing the taproot of the grass in the weeds that would have otherwise been left behind.
Cape Cod style weed tools, V notch weed tools, and even soil knives or kitchen knives that are particularly narrow can be used to tackle this project.
Boiling Water is a Quick Fix for Weed and Grass Removal
A lot of homeowners are surprised to learn just how effective tossing a bucket of boiling hot water onto their pavers (aiming specifically for the grass and weeds between) can be at destroying these plants.
That hot water is going to absolutely scorch these plants, frying them from top to bottom all the way right down into their root system.
The plants themselves will die off almost immediately, though it may take a day or two for them to turn completely brown – and just a little bit longer for them to wither and rot away.
If you’re in a pinch and want to get rid of this problem ASAP boil up a bucket of water and pitch it across your patio. You’ll love the results.
Salt Works Wonders, Too
Salt will also work wonders to destroy grass and weeds growing up between the cracks and seams in your patio.
Regular old table salt does the job just as well as specialty options, but you do need to be a little bit careful about how you go using it.
For one thing, salting your earth is going to guarantee that nothing grows back for a long (LONG) time.
You really need to think about where your runoff goes as well. The last thing you want to do is salt your pavers to kill all of the plant life there only to have a stiff rain wash that salt into the rest of your lawn (or garden) and kill everything along the way, too.
Secondly, too much salt can actually begin to damage and destroy the pavers themselves.
Make sure that you are being really deliberate in how you use salt. Work it into every crack and crevice and then let time handle the rest of the heavy lifting for you.
Baking Soda Can Kill and Prevent Weeds From Coming Back
Another great solution that is a little bit easier on your patio but works passively the same way that salt does is baking soda.
Baking soda isn’t going to eat up your pavers the way that salt would, but it is going to destroy all of the grass and all of the weeds that are growing indiscriminately in the seams between the pavers.
Just know that baking soda is just as potent and just as powerful a plant killer as salt is – maybe even more so.
You need to be careful with how you spread the stuff around but you also need to think about runoff, too.
Make sure that you are targeted with your sprinkling to kill only the plants you want to kill – maybe going back a time or two every couple of weeks just to make sure that you’ve finished the job without jumping overboard.
A Little Bit of a Vinegar Goes a Long Way
Vinegar is another homemade option for destroying grass and plant life permanently between your pavers, but like salt it is particularly corrosive on the pavers themselves.
The acetic acid inside of vinegar actually pulls moisture from the plants, wringing them out and killing them from the inside out. It’s not at all uncommon for the grass and plants you’ve sprayed vinegar on to die almost right away, becoming brown and withered within 24 hours.
Because it is so potent, though, you don’t want to use “raw” vinegar – and you need to be very deliberate in how you spray it, too.
A gallon of white vinegar can be cut with 2 cups of table salt and a tablespoon of dish soap to produce the kind of results you are looking for.
You might not ever have to worry about these plants growing back between the seams, either. That’s how powerful this stuff is.
Polymeric Sand Practically Guarantees Grass Won’t Ever Grow Back
After you get rid of the grass and weeds you’re trying to destroy between your pavers it’s a good idea to spread and brush polymeric sand into every crack and crevice, permanently cementing these results in place.
Polymeric sand works as a binding agent when it gets wet thanks to the silica inside of it.
This not only seals your pavers effectively and protecting them from wear and tear but also blocks grass and weeds from growing at all.
Say goodbye to doing this maintenance ever again if you go down this road!