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I sprayed moss killer to prevent moss from growing between the cracks of my paver stone driveway. I tested a small area first to make sure it wouldn't stain the paver stones. It looked fine after about a day--no stains--so I proceeded to spray the whole driveway.

It came out fine, except that, shockingly, one portion of the driveway became stained with a rust-like color. I tried power washing it out with water only, which worked a little bit, but it's still discolored.

What cleanser can I use to clean up the stain without damaging the stone? The stones look like this:

enter image description here

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  • can't help with the stain, but FYI, lots of folks like the moss in their pavers. Fits the whole patina of pavers.
    – DA01
    Commented Jun 20, 2011 at 2:24
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    You most probably would not be able to remove the stain.. as it has bleached the dye used in making the stone.. sorry. If the cleaner you used was certified/guaranteed to work with your paving.. you will need to open a case.. otherwise.. sadly its damaged and you could try to replace those- but new ones will have another colour again; as each batch is slightly different in shade :(
    – Piotr Kula
    Commented Jul 6, 2011 at 8:19

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If the pavers are the same on the bottom as well as the top, you can pull up the affected pavers, wash them with just water and maybe some dish soap and then put them back in upside down. The newly cleaned bottom side should match the other pavers pretty well. You'll then need to put down some sand and sweep it around to refill the joints.

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  • Great idea! I didn't even think of this.
    – Rob Sobers
    Commented Aug 19, 2011 at 0:41
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I would try oxygen bleach. See stainsolver.com

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We had the same problem and nobody could help us much. My wife then sat and thought it over. She managed to remove the stain by using brown vinegar and salt. Both are very cheap at your local supermarket. In all (and we had a lot of staining) we used 4 bags of salt and 11 small bottles of vinegar. But try a small patch first!

Remember you won't find this answer anywhere else. It is own own 'mixture' as salt is an abrasive whilst vinegar is acidic.

Everyone told us it wouldn't/couldn't work. But it did!

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    If vinegar helps bring back the colour of the colour of the dye in the stone of the OP's bleached stone.. I will give you 100bucks! How can vinegar bring back colour? :)
    – Piotr Kula
    Commented Jul 6, 2011 at 8:22
  • What kind of salt did you use? Salt that you would use for a water softener?
    – Rob Sobers
    Commented Jul 8, 2011 at 1:22
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    @ppumkin, vinegar is a mild acid on it own, combined with the salt (or on it's own) it may be making the icon salt change into a salt that is easyer to remove, or does not show us much.
    – Walker
    Commented Aug 5, 2011 at 9:24
  • It seems to work for me as well using vinegar (white & sea salt). I'll see the true result once the rain stops and the stone dries out completely. Thanks to your wife for using her common sense & thank you for putting it online
    – user6369
    Commented Jun 3, 2012 at 18:45
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Dilute linseed oil with paint thinner, and this will bring back the color and will last a year.

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