Spring cleaning starts below the surface

By Dani Sheehan. 

Spring offers contractors an opportunity to inspect, protect and extend the life of the hardscapes and walkways their clients love. 

Winter doesn’t just leave behind visible stains. For patios, pool decks, walkways and vertical masonry, months of moisture, freeze-thaw cycles, deicing salts and organic debris can compromise the surface long before homeowners notice something is wrong. In a recent OutdoorTalk™, Scott Higginbotham from Stain-Proof® shared practical guidance for identifying winter damage and building a smarter maintenance strategy.  

Here are three priorities every outdoor professional should have on their spring checklist. 

1 – Look past the stain and follow the moisture 

Leaves, berries, mold, rust and deicing salts may be the first things clients notice in spring, but according to Scott, those visible blemishes often point to something deeper. “Staining is probably the first thing we see because your eye looks at a substrate and says, ‘Hey, what’s that?’” he shared. The real issue though is what happens after moisture penetrates porous materials. “The capillary suction opens in the material and sucks down into the substrate, and we have a stain,” he further explained. 

That’s why contractors should look for the following during their spring inspection: 

• Organic staining from leaves, berries or standing debris 
• Mold and mildew in shaded or low-airflow areas 
• Rust transfer from furniture, fixtures or planters 
• White powdery residue that may indicate efflorescence 
• Areas where water is pooling, wicking or failing to drain 

Scott put it simply: “Water is what causes most of the damages in substrates.” If you can trace water movement early, you can more easily address cosmetic issues before they become structural ones. 

2 – Clean first. Sealing doesn’t replace maintenance 

One of the strongest misconceptions Scott addressed is the idea that a sealed surface is maintenance-free. “Everything has maintenance... from porcelain pavers to cementitious products to natural stone. There’s nothing that is non-maintenance,” he emphasized.  

Before any sealer goes down, surfaces need to be properly cleaned and evaluated. “How clean is clean? Get it until you think it’s how you want it to look,” Scott offered. Spring cleaning should include: 

• Removing organic debris before it penetrates deeper 
• Addressing mold and mildew before warm weather accelerates growth 
• Identifying embedded oil, rust or salt contamination 
• Inspecting grout joints and bedding materials 
• Avoiding aggressive cleaning methods that can damage softer substrates 

3 – Prevent small spring issues from becoming replacement projects 

More than anything, timing matters. When issues are caught early, many can be cleaned or corrected, but if they’re ignored, restoration becomes more complicated and expensive. Scott used efflorescence as a perfect example. Early on, those salts may brush away easily: “At first, they’re a powder... You can brush them away or use a yard blower. But after about 30 days, they calcify.” 

A spring protection checklist should include: 

• Efflorescence around grout joints 
• Flaking, pitting or surface spalling 
• Dark edge staining 
• Salt exposure near pools or deiced pathways 
• Surface wear in high-traffic areas 

As Scott emphasized, “Prevention is the best solution.” 

Spring maintenance is an opportunity to diagnose moisture issues, educate clients and put a long-term protection plan in place before summer heat, storms and traffic accelerate wear. Listen to the full webinar to learn more about protecting outdoor spaces in time for summer.