Usually, hosing them down once a month is sufficient. Use soap and water, if the pavers are still dirty after sweeping and water hosing, make a solution of soap and water. You can use dish soap, laundry detergent, or any type of general-purpose cleaner. Never use bleach on your pavers, as it can damage the surface.
A solution of household bleach diluted 10:1 with water (10 parts water) can be used to remove many types of stains. Some of these include beverage stains, leaf, wood rot, and tobacco stains. Always test a small section of your patio before covering a large area.
To clean paver slabs, you can use a detergent, such as Dawn, or a vinegar-water solution that is gentle enough to effectively clean without causing damage to your concrete pavers.
White vinegar is good for cleaning pavers, though it's also acidic enough to erode the stones' surface. Diluted vinegar can be used safely to clean paving stones, though it should be used sparingly and infrequently to protect your paving from damage.
Use a specialist cleaner
Try a specialist cleaner like Wet & Forget, at Walmart, which you spray onto the surface of the paving and leave. It can also be used on steps, fountains, patio umbrellas and other smaller outdoor areas. It's bleach-free and non-acidic but will remove mold, moss and grime without any scrubbing.
Baking soda is an amazing household cleaner, and it can work really well on your pavers too.
Use Vinegar or Bleach
If you are going to try this approach to remove mold or algae, first try a mixture of white vinegar and water to spray down the area and kill the mold.
Simple Green is one of the best cleaning products for dirty pavers. It doesn't have any harmful chemicals that could possibly warp your precious driveway. Less chemicals mean there's a less likely chance your paver stones will change to a weird-looking color.
OxiClean is a powerful concrete cleaner that works well on various materials, including pavement and grout. This concentrated solution provides excellent cleaning without leaving residue.
The pressure washer in combination with a dirt cutter is an excellent option. This removes not only weeds and moss from the surface, but also from indentations. Keeping up with this type of cleaning means that there is less time for weeds to grow. It also helps to maintain the beauty of the paving stones' surface.
It is common to mix bleach with water; however, you can also add other ingredients to make it more effective. Avoid an intense concentration of bleach, as it can damage the pavers.
Try Concrete Stain
The simplest path to reviving tired pavers is to apply an acrylic-based semitransparent concrete stain, such as Behr Premium Semi-transparent Concrete Stain ($27/gal.; Home Depot) or Valspar Semi-transparent Concrete Stain ($28/gal.; Lowe's).
Whether your patio is sealed concrete or cement, or even sealed concrete pavers, a bleach and water solution makes it easy to clean away built up soil, stains from leaves and pollen, mold, mildew and algae.
Apply the Simple Green solution. Allow the product to soak for a minute or so on heavy soils and greasy spills. Scrub, if necessary. Scrubbing with a soft bristle brush or non-abrasive scrubbing pad provides agitation that will help to loosen soils and will ensure a thoroughly clean, residue free surface.
By removing the dirt and debris, your pavers will retain their luster longer. If you sweep your paver patio and driveway, and you want it to look even better feel free to wash the pavers with clean water. You can use some soapy water, but be sure to rinse thoroughly your pavers. A simple garden hose will do the trick.
Can you power wash pavers? Power washing (also known as pressure washing) is also a very effective method by which you can remove dust deposits and various stains from your pavers. Just make sure that the water jet is not directed directly at the joints between the paving stones.
Apply solution. Leave on heavy soils for 1-2 minutes. Scrub if needed. Rinse or damp-wipe with clean water.
Restrictions on Use: Do not use on non-rinsable surfaces. This product is not classified as hazardous under 2012 OSHA Hazard Communication Standards (29 CFR 1910.1200). Inhalation: Not expected to cause respiratory irritation. If adverse effect occurs, move to fresh air.
If vinegar does not work on your hardscape, you can use bleach. To create a powerful mold-killing mixture, you can add one cup of bleach to a gallon of water. However, you should exercise meticulous care and caution since bleach can discolor your brick pavers and thus ruin your precious hardscape.
You can also choose to scrub your patio with oxygen bleach like OxiClean. Add two scoops of oxygen bleach to a gallon of water. Cover the bricks. Allow it to sit for 10 minutes.
You can't cover your patio with copper sheets, but you can spray on a liquid solution of copper that will soak into the top surface of the concrete pavers. This copper will stop the growth of the pesky green and black organisms in their tracks. The easiest way to apply the copper is to buy copper sulfate crystals.
Although bleach is great at the whitening effect, you can use peroxide to achieve this. Hydrogen peroxide is an oxygenated bleach. It is safe for plants, so when you rinse this solution, it won't harm anything. It works together with the dish soap and baking soda to remove dirt and whiten dirty concrete.