So Greg.
As long as I got you here.
And you're the polymeric sand, resident
expert, right?
I want to talk to you about a couple of
words
that just fly around this industry.
And just come out of people's mouths,
you know, faster than this, rapid said,
saying.
And that's poly haze, right?
Those two words, you hear him all the
time?
They cause difficulties for our our
contractors.
And, you know, it's the first thing that
they tell
the client is when they see a white
residue on their paver,
when it could be a number of other things
were quick to say the words poly haze.
What?
You're the man, Greg.
What is poly haze and how can we avoid it?
That's a great question.
And there's there's kind of a there's kind
of two parts to that.
There's polymeric hays and then there's
polymeric staining.
So let's get into the difference of those.
Okay.
So polymeric hays is actually coming from
polymers.
Now PolySweep when we came into the market
15 years ago,
that was kind of our our claim to fame as
entry.
The old polymeric sands
used to have Portland cement in them,
which would stain.
So we got rid of that.
And the old polymers used to be white.
And ours are now clear in our mix.
So we got rid of that.
So PolySweep is and always has been haze
free.
When you get a polymeric haze it's truly a
haze.
It typically comes from the polymers,
often white, that are sticking to
the surface of the paper.
Was a material in the product in the sand
already?
Yes. That's being left on the top. Yes.
So but this product is not in your sand.
It's not in ours.
Well, that's not true.
The polymers are in there. They're clear
but they're clear.
That is really what initially sent poly
sweep apart and kind of changed the
industry.
We were the first haze free
and we've been haze free with the same
formula for 15 years.
So when someone says
that they have poly haze on their pavers
and that they used your sand,
you're not going to believe them, right?
I'm probably going to doubt what they're
saying.
Yes, that's so.
But there are sands on the market that do
haze.
And because they're using like the the box
store Sands to call them out,
they still use Portland cement, which is
really it's stains instantly.
It's hard to get off, you know, it's
Portland cement.
It might sweep it across and have poly
haze right now instantly.
Sure. Yeah.
It doesn't always come from leaving it on
top.
No, it's just come it just especially the
bad product.
Bad product or it's an inexpensive sand.
So you kind of yeah get what you pay for.
And I'm not using anything else box store
out here. So. Right.
Right. Exactly.
So then the polymers, especially when
they're white can tend
to stick to the surface.
That's why we use clear polymers.
So that's truly a polymer case.
There's a couple ways to get that off.
Usually I'll start with our flow off.
We'll do a cleaning of flow off.
And if it's Portland cement that usually
takes care of that
and it will take care of some polymers.
And and what if it's efflorescence?
Efflorescence will look an awful lot like,
like, polymeric haze.
There's an easy test for that.
So if I've got white rings on the surface,
if it's chalky, it's
more likely efflorescence, which would be
the manufacturer's problem.
Not necessarily.
I mean, all the, all the commercial grade
manufacturers like Unisoc and others,
they put additives in there to prevent it,
but
it's naturally occurring in cementitious
material.
It's kind of a random thing.
It's real random, like, you know, you
could get it or not get it.
And the concrete manufacturers are doing
everything
they can to build a byproduct of, precast
concrete product.
It is any concrete product. Sure.
You see it in masonry joints.
You see it in poured concrete.
You see it in basement block walls.
I mean, anything cementitious or concrete
can have efflorescence.
So I just think that's what guys confuse
it for.
Sometimes they do. There's an easy test
for that.
So if I think if there's something white
on my pavers, if I get a phone
call, I'll be like,
well, does it disappear when it gets wet
and then reappear when when it dries out?
That's most likely efflorescence.
And the airflow, Surebond airflow off will
take care of that as well.
So for my polymeric case, I usually start
with customers.
With that,
if I know what the sand is, I can kind of
point them in the right direction.
If the airflow off is in the solution, and
it's truly a polymer haze
and not a Portland cement haze, then
oftentimes a high pressure
washer coupled with a surface scrubber
will take that right off.
Polyester. Come on. Yeah, it'll take it
right off of there.
Now we have to be careful with that,
because it may also take the polymeric
sand out of the joints. Okay.
If we fully activated the joint it'll
tolerate a little bit of that.
But hot water is is hard
pressure washer is a good solution for
that.
The third option, which is kind of a
nuclear option, is our Surebond all strip.
And we can clean it off with the Surebond
all strip.
And the reason I say nuclear is because
that will definitely affect the joints.
Okay.
So we're kind of at that point we're kind
of starting over with the sand.
Yeah.
And oftentimes it's caused by not blowing
off the water.
When we're done activating the polymeric
sand.
It could be caused by a problem with the
polymeric sand, a manufactured defect,
but typically, it's it's basically the
polymer sticking to the surface
or the Portland cement sticking to the
surface.
So, Greg, how do we avoid poly haze?
The easiest way to do that is to just use
PolySweep.
We've always been haze free. 15 years.
So let's kind of circle back around and
talk about the polymeric staining.
Oh yeah. Right.
So we talked about poly haze.
Now we're talking about poly stain right.
Which is a completely different thing
okay.
So if my pavers are damp, even if I think
they're dry
and natural stone bluestone clay pavers
are notorious for this.
Even concrete pavers
you might think they're dry, but they have
some dampness in them.
What's going to happen is it's going to
grab the polymers
and that mix, and it's literally going to
stick it to the surface.
And oftentimes it will instantly turn
dark.
In other situations, you can get a stain
from,
from the sand being left on the surface.
You know, people call me and say, hey,
you know, I have a polymer case and they
send me a picture.
Well, they have polymeric sand on the
surface of the pavers.
Yeah, that's not a haze. Or they still
have.
What you said was they still have moisture
in the paver that we can't even see.
Yeah.
So draws the sand down in, you know, draws
the polymers down into a little bit.
Right.
And stains that.
Right, which is a stain as opposed to a
haze. Yep.
So not to split hairs about that.
But there's a difference. Yeah.
Even though the solutions are similar.
You know, the airflow
or bond airflow off or the high pressure
washer or the surf strip,
there's other options that we could even
choose with that
if you catch it immediately, like with
PolySweep,
if we find a wet paver, maybe we have a
leaky gutter or something
and we sweep over it in the sand instantly
sticks to it.
I can immediately address that while I'm
putting the sand in.
When I start to water, I can get that area
wet and scrub it off with a brush,
which is another benefit to the PolySweep
not being fast.
Setting with the fast setting Sands boy,
once it gets wet, you're done
and it's almost impossible to get that
off.
Yeah,
there's a couple reasons that we like to
work with SEK
Surebond, and I'm sure you heard him all
right there. Right?
The callbacks that we're talking about,
the watering problems,
the polymeric haze problems, they don't
exist with this product.
Right?
We have a lot of things to deal with when
we're out here in battle
and we're out here in a hardscape war.
We want to have things like the finishing
things set us up
for success and be foolproof and be the
best on the market.
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