Last year I noticed that the grout at the northwest corner of the chess board was failing. This corner has the widest joints due to the fact that the people who poured the sidewalks did not make the corner exactly square. The polymeric sand used as grout is supposed to be able to handle joints up to 1" wide. This corner is probably pretty close to that limit.
The chess board pavers are two inches thick and mounted on a sand bedding. My concern was that the rain water would begin to undermine the sand bedding. I have some of the grouting sand that the installer used originally so today, I dug out the failed grout and installed some new, following the bag instructions as closely as possible.
I first dug out the failed grout. The joint is wide enough that I could feel the lower edge of the paver. In one area, there was indeed a void going under the paver. I used the excavated sand to fill this void.
Incrementally, I filled the joint with the polymeric sand, stopping to compact the sand with a wooden dowl. Once the joint was filled, I followed the instructions to gradually mist the joint so that it would harden. Supposedly it will cure in an hour.
Don't know if it will last, but it has got to be better than it was.
The water iris in the lower pond is blooming. The two others (different variety), in the stream between the upper and lower ponds, show no signs of blossoms yet.
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