At 58, I Finally Worked Out Why My Weeds Kept Coming Back

I pulled weeds out of the same patio joints every other Saturday for six years. Then I stopped asking how to kill them and started asking why they were there.

Dave R. Posted May 4, 2026 · 6 min read

This is what mine looked like every May for six years straight.

I take care of my place. I mow in lines. I edge. I power wash the patio every spring before we start using it.

And for six years, part of that was pulling weeds out of the joints between the pavers.

I never really thought of it as a problem. It was just something you did. Coffee on the step, knees on the pavers, Saturday morning gone.

I tried everything and nothing stuck

Boiling water was first. It works, to be fair — they were dead by that afternoon. Three weeks later they were back.

Vinegar next, because it's cheap. Same result. Gone for a while, then back again.

After that I ordered a propane torch and burned out every joint on the patio, which was honestly quite satisfying. They were back by the end of the month.

Then I gave in and bought proper weed killer from the hardware store, not the cheap stuff. That one held the longest — five weeks, maybe six.

So everything I tried killed the weed in front of me. Nothing stopped the next one coming.

Nothing really lasted.

Then I noticed something

They kept coming back in the same spots. The same three joints by the grill, the same corner by the step, every time.

I didn't think much of it at first. But it stuck with me, because up to that point I'd only ever been asking one question — how do I kill these?

And I had plenty of answers to that. That was never the problem.

So I got down and looked

Put my face right down next to the joint and actually looked into it, which in six years I had never once done.

There was no sand in there. Hadn't been for years.

It was dirt. Dark packed dirt, a bit damp, with seeds sitting in it.

Every joint on my patio had soil sitting in it, and that's a perfect home for a weed. Somewhere to root, a bit of water, nobody bothering it.

No sand left. Just soil, sitting there ready to grow something.

I never had a weed problem

I had a dirt problem that looked like a weed problem.

Killing a weed clears the joint for a couple of weeks. It doesn't do anything about the soil that's still sitting in there.

That's why it was always the same joints. They were the ones where the sand had washed out deepest, so they were holding the most dirt.

Six years of spraying, and I'd been treating the thing that grew instead of the thing it grew in.

If the dirt is the problem, fill the gap

Once I saw it that way the answer was obvious.

Take the dirt out, fill the joint properly, and there is nowhere for anything to root.

Regular sand was out. That's what got me here in the first place, it washes out and the dirt moves in behind it. Cement was out too, it cracks the first winter the ground shifts.

So I went looking for something that pours in like sand but sets hard like cement. That's a thing, it turns out. It's called polymeric sand.

You pour it in dry, brush it level, then soak it with a garden hose. The water sets off a polymer inside the sand and the whole joint hardens into one solid piece. It stays slightly flexible, so it moves with the ground in winter instead of cracking.

Cleared the joints, poured it in, brushed it level, hosed it down.

It took me one afternoon

Bag, broom, garden hose. That was the whole tool list.

Cleaned the old dirt out of the joints with a screwdriver, poured the sand over the surface, swept it into every gap, then wet the whole thing down.

Three hours later it was solid.

And I fully expected to be back out there pulling weeds by July. That's the honest truth. Six years of nothing working does that to you.

Two years later

July, nothing came up.

September, nothing.

The next May, the month I'd normally be back on my knees with the sprayer, I walked out there out of habit and checked the three joints by the grill.

Nothing.

I power washed the patio that spring like I always do and the joints didn't move. Two years on and I still haven't pulled a single weed out of it.

Same patio. No spray, no pulling, nothing done to it since.

The one I used

There's a few brands of this stuff. I went with Permomix because it was the only one backing it for ten years.

What I'd tell you

I'm not going to tell you how to look after your patio. You've probably got your own way of doing it and it probably works.

I'll just tell you the question I wish I'd asked six years earlier.

Not how do I kill them. Why are they there.

Once you've had a proper look in that joint, you'll work out the rest the same way I did.

About Dave R. I've owned the same house in Ohio since 2014 and I write up the jobs I do around it, mostly so I remember what worked. No trade background. Everything here is stuff I did myself on a weekend.

14 Comments

Greg M.May 6, 2026 Never thought about it like that but you're right, mine come up in the exact same two joints every year and I've never wondered why. Going out to look at it now.

Karen T.May 7, 2026 Did you have to take all the old sand out first or just pour over the top? Ours is pretty well washed out in places.

Mike H.May 7, 2026 Not the author but I did mine last year. I scraped the joints out with a screwdriver first, took maybe 40 minutes for the whole patio. If there's still clean sand down there you can pour straight over it.

Rob D.May 11, 2026 Did mine last weekend after reading this. Job took me about three hours including the cleanout. Will report back next spring.