Preparing for the appointment is about clearing the way. Move furniture and vehicles off the surface, keep pets indoors, turn irrigation off the night before so the pavers are dry, and make sure the crew can reach an outdoor spigot and any gates. The crew does the cleaning, treatment, and sealing, so a clear, dry, accessible surface is your part.
Clear the surface
The single most useful thing you can do is empty the area to be sealed. Move patio furniture, planters, grills, and decor off the pavers, and pull vehicles off a driveway that is being sealed. Anything left on the surface has to be worked around, which slows the job and leaves gaps in the finish where objects were sitting. Clearing it the day before rather than the morning of takes the rush out of it, and it lets you spot anything that needs handling, a wobbly planter, a forgotten toy, before the crew arrives. A fully cleared surface is what lets the clean and seal run start to finish without interruption.
Pets, irrigation, and a dry surface
A few home systems matter on the day. Keep pets indoors or safely away from the work area, both for their safety around the cleaning and treatment steps and to keep paws off a freshly sealed surface. Turn off automatic irrigation the night before and leave it off, because the surface needs to be genuinely dry for sealing, and a sprinkler cycle at dawn works against that. If your system runs on a controller, set it to skip so it does not surprise everyone at 6 a.m. Getting the surface dry ahead of time is one of the biggest factors in a clean result, since sealing over trapped moisture is a common way a finish goes wrong.
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A professional clean needs water, so make sure an outdoor spigot is on, reachable, and working. If your only hose bib is behind a locked utility area, unlock it or leave a way in. Just as important is access to the work area itself: unlock side gates, move anything blocking the path from the driveway to a back patio, and clear a route wide enough for equipment. If you will not be home, arrange gate and water access in advance so the crew is not stuck at a locked fence. As laid out in what happens during a professional visit, clear access matters more than your constant presence.
What the crew handles versus what helps
It is worth being clear about the division of labor, because it keeps expectations right. The crew handles the real work: protecting plants and adjacent surfaces, the deep clean, any treatment steps, re-sanding the joints, and the sealer application. What helps from your side is everything that lets that work run smoothly, a cleared surface, a dry surface, pets away, and water and gate access. You do not need to clean the pavers yourself beforehand or buy anything, and over-preparing the surface can even get in the way. Think of your job as removing obstacles, not doing the crew job for them.
Plan for cure time
The last piece is planning the household around the cure-out period after the sealer goes on. Foot traffic typically returns within hours and vehicles later, so think ahead about where cars will park, how people and pets will get in and out, and which route to the door stays open while the surface cures. If the driveway is being sealed, parking on the street or at a neighbor for the evening saves a headache. The specific timelines, and what surface-dry versus fully cured means, are covered in how soon you can walk on sealed pavers. A little planning here keeps the fresh finish protected while it sets.
A quick day-before checklist
It is easier to prepare in one calm pass the day before than in a scramble the morning of. Walk the area to be sealed and clear it completely: patio furniture, planters, grills, doormats, potted plants, kids and pet gear, and anything leaning against a wall that sits on the pavers. Pull cars off a driveway that is being sealed and park them where they will not be trapped once work starts. Coil and move hoses out of the way, but leave the outdoor spigot accessible. Check that side gates open and unlock anything the crew will need to pass through. If you have an irrigation controller, set it to skip the next cycle so it does not run before dawn. Finally, note where people and pets will enter and exit while the finish cures, so the household is not caught out on the morning of the job. A few minutes here makes the whole appointment run smoothly.
What you do not need to do
Just as useful as the prep list is knowing what to skip, because over-preparing can get in the way. You do not need to pressure wash or scrub the pavers yourself beforehand; a proper deep clean is part of the visit, and a hasty DIY wash can push water into the joints or leave residue the crew then has to deal with. You do not need to buy sand, sealer, or supplies, and you should not apply anything to the surface ahead of time. You do not need to weed the joints by hand, since re-sanding addresses them. And there is no need to wet the surface down; in fact a dry surface is exactly what the job needs. Your role is to clear the way and provide access, then let the crew handle the surface itself the right way.
Two Florida-specific prep notes make the biggest difference. First, automatic irrigation is nearly universal here, and a pre-dawn sprinkler cycle is the most common reason a surface is not dry enough on the morning of a job, so set the controller to skip. Second, plan the cure-out period around afternoon activity and the family routine, so a Tampa Bay driveway or pool deck has the time it needs to set before it is back in full use.