Pressure Washing Concrete : Cleaning And Sealing

When it comes to Selling your home curb appeal is a big factor once people first see your house. One quick fix to brighten up the exterior of your home is to clean and seal your concrete. Cleaning and sealing your concrete walkway, porch and patio is fairly cheap if done by yourself.
To start off, Remove any furniture you may have into the yard, No need to worry about any landscaping the Pressure Washing wont harm any plants or trees. It is a good tip to use a old mud flap or welcome mat around mulch or anywhere it may puddle and fling mud anywhere to protect yourself wile you are cleaning the sides of a porch or that inch or so along the sides of a walkway.
Now you are ready to begin cleaning. Start off by cleaning the whole pad, walkway or porch. It is not necessary to use any stain removers or concrete brighteners in this step. Clean starting from the top of your driveway ether if its higher at the street or higher at the house, you don't want to be covering everything you just cleaned with more dirt do you ? Then when that is out of the way you can now go over any oil stains with a product and concrete brightener tho I don't recommend it, I think it just turns your concrete white and it's to easy to mess up your driveway. Once you have this out of the way move on to cleaning the other sections of your walkway or patio then let it dry for the day and come back tomorrow to start to seal, Even tho it may look dry there may be some moisture inside the concrete that will turn your nice new sealed driveway white where there was moisture.
Now its time to seal your driveway or patio, start off by reading the directions for the sealer. I recommend you use a paint tray and a paint roller just like you would use for your house. If your out to buy these you may want to buy a set of bigger ones made for sealing driveways. avoid pump spraying sealer onto the driveway it will 90% turn out like crap. When you start to seal make sure you only pay attention to puting the sealer on in a even consistent manner, Some sealers penetrate the concrete and it starts to look like its all uneven but trust me, its not! It will just take a hour for it to all even out and by not keeping track of consistency you will run the risk of applying to much in the spots you thought looked like there was to little and the whole project may turn out to look like a zebra. If you are uncomfortable taking on this project by yourself I recommend getting a few quotes and bid's from local pressure washer's. Check the yellow pages as well as the Internet and ask for pictures of similar jobs they have done. There are allot of fly by nighters out there and your house may be the 1st time they have ever done a driveway sealing job before.

Home Owner Method For Cleaning Concrete Driveways

Here is an article I've posted over on Ehow.com



Step 1 To Pressure Wash Concrete Driveways
Locate a decent pressure washer. Its recommended for cleaning concrete to use a 3,000 psi pressure washer. Your Home Depot or Lowes should have rentals if not check your yellow pages for tool rentals. Try to get a hot water unit. Hot water will clean 100X better than cold water * "Never hook a cold water unit up to hot water coming from your house it will damage your pump".

Step 2 To Pressure Wash Concrete Driveways
Prep the driveway by removing as much of the dirt or debris as you can by sweeping it away. If you know where the water flows to wile its raining or when you wash your car, place a oil soaking mat over the storm drain. Oil soaking mats absorb oil,gas and chemicals and let the water filter threw. If the best you can do is divert it to your lawn that is better than pouring it into the waterways. Also if your caught not attempting to do so. There are Hefty EPA fines up to $10,000. So at least show an effort.

Step 3 To Pressure Wash Concrete Driveways
Fill a pump sprayer up with a diluted concentrate degreaser. I recommend ZEP TnT, Its a brush less truck wash chemical that cleans anything from gutters to industrial railroad equipment. Also awesome on carpet.
Go around to any Soil marks and spray a generous amount on top of the stain.

Step 4 To Pressure Wash Concrete Driveways
Read instruction manual that came with your pressure washer. Make sure it is fully topped up with fuel. If it is a hot water pressure wash make sure the burner fuel tank is filled. Red tank is for gasoline Blue tank is for kerosene or diesel. Place pressure washer on level ground out of the way of your work area. Always wear protective eye ware wile you Pressure Wash Concrete Driveways.

Step 5 To Pressure Wash Concrete Driveways
Place the yellow tip into the wand. If you are using a hot water unit make sure there is no hose touching the grass around your driveway because it will kill it if left in one spot to long. Fire up your pressure washer. Determine the best distance from the tip of the wand to the concrete driveway that produces the best cleaning strength. Take nice even passes in front of you in sections about a ft to each side of you all the way to the end of your drive way or do it one pad at a time. Then return to the start and make your next path overlap where you just cleaned by a half ft.

Step 6 To Pressure Wash Concrete Driveways
Once you get to a location that is covered in a oil stain take a few passes over it until you cannot see it leaving wand marks. It will still look darker than the surrounding concrete but will dry to an almost even match. Using heavy duty concrete cleaners on these spots often burns the concrete and you end up with chalk white marks all over the place. Darker marks pressure washing with a degreaser come out hidden better once a concrete sealer is applied.

Step 7 To Pressure Wash Concrete Driveways
Give the whole driveway a rinse down with the low pressure tip "black tip". Don't forget to clean off things that got splashed like house siding and your garage door.
Let it dry for a couple hours on a nice day and double check your work before returning your rental or sealing your driveway

Water reclamation and the EPA

Water reclamation has become a big issue these days concerning what we let into out waterways. For us as pressure washers, this brings on a new level of added frustration and confusion concerning what is deemed a threat to our waterways, what is allowed to flow into the sewers and what needs contained, neutralized and controlled or disposed of from a proper waste management facility. Although most of use choose to ignore these laws there getting enforced more and its only a matter of time until the EPA shows up at your job site with a hefty list of fines with your name on it.

Federal and state regulations and also local town's are forcing laws that not only forbid anything other than “precipitation” water from entering into storm drains, and will provide heavy penalties to those found violating
these rules. Pressure washer operators are likely to be the object of intense municipal scrutiny as these new regulations become enforced. Municipal Regulations Local laws identify “Storm Water Conveyance Systems,” by which it is meant any means of storm water flow into lakes, rivers, or the sea. It has become unlawful to discharge waste water into. This means that 90% of what we pressure wash we will need to contain and transport any runoff water used and dispose of it . If your waste water is deemed hazardous. You may be required to fill out a form to notify your state agency of the types of waste you create, then they will issue you a EPA ID number and you must take the hazardous waste to an RCRA treatment/ disposal center. That will require transportation of the hazardous waste to the center via a licensed hazardous waste transporter and also you will need to have a hazardous waste manifest that shows tracking of the hazardous waste. Types of wastewater that maybe deemed hazardous under the Clean Water Act are runoff from cleaning concrete if any cleaner you use contains a strong acid or solvent, oil residue or any toxin that will make its way into a storm drain. This also applies to runoff from pressure washing truck fleets, most detergents used are deemed hazardous and all runoff needs to be contained and collected and not sent down the storm drain. Paint chips from pressure washing to prep for paint also need to be collected and evaluated for lead, mercury, cadmium, or chromium all of which are classified as hazardous waste. The EPA has a list of over 500 chemical's and compounds deemed as hazardous waste in four basic category's. In this list are items we use such as chlorine bleach, cleaning agents capable of corroding metal, ammonia, paint strippers and many solvents.

The use of water reclamation/filtration systems will soon become standard in the Pressure Washing field to cut down the need and expense in transportation/disposal of wastewater and the amount of water needed to complete jobs. These systems are expensive but effective in reducing the amount of chemicals in your water with filtration and oil water separators leaving you with clean water that may enter storm drains or water without chemicals listed as hazardous letting you discharge into publicly owned wastewater treatment works. Over time the savings from using water reclamation and filtration systems would pay for themselves from prices of waste disposal and transportation, let alone one visit to your job site from your local EPA agency or water authority and getting penalized. Under section 309, EPA can issue administrative orders against violators, and seek civil or criminal penalties when necessary. For a first offense of criminal negligence, the minimum fine is $2,500, with a maximum of $25,000 fine per day of violation. A violator may also receive up to a year in jail. On a second offense, a maximum fine of $50,000 per day may be issued. For a knowing endangerment violation, i.e. placing another person in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury, a fine may be issued up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment up to 15 years for an individual, or up to $1,000,000 for an organization. So effectively getting caught once can get your business shut down or closed. Also the business where you are doing the pressure washing for can and probably will receive fines from this happening on there property and they are included as a responsible party themselves. That alone makes the purchase of reclamation/filtration systems for pressure washing worth it.

2009 Buyer's Guide

Pressure Washers
Aamerican Powerwash Equipment and Supplies LLC
Albuquerque, NM
Phone: 505.821.6947
Toll Free: 888.821.6947
mike@apowerwash.us

Offshore Cleaning Systems 9525 US Hwy. 167
Abbeville, LA 70510
Phone: 337-898-2104
Fax: 337-898-1024
info@offshorecleaning.com


Parts & Accessories
Aamerican Powerwash Equipment and Supplies LLC
Albuquerque, NM
Phone: 505.821.6947
Toll Free: 888.821.6947
mike@apowerwash.us

Offshore Cleaning Systems 9525 US Hwy. 167
Abbeville, LA 70510
Phone: 337-898-2104
Fax: 337-898-1024
info@offshorecleaning.com

Cleaning Chemicals
Aamerican Powerwash Equipment and Supplies LLC
Albuquerque, NM
Phone: 505.821.6947
Toll Free: 888.821.6947
mike@apowerwash.us

Offshore Cleaning Systems 9525 US Hwy. 167
Abbeville, LA 70510
Phone: 337-898-2104
Fax: 337-898-1024
info@offshorecleaning.com

Boat Glaze Boat protection and polish
boatglazeinfo@aol.com


Waste Oil Heater’s
Aamerican Powerwash Equipment and Supplies LLC
Albuquerque, NM
Phone: 505.821.6947
Toll Free: 888.821.6947
mike@apowerwash.us

Used Equipment
Offshore Cleaning Systems 9525 US Hwy. 167
Abbeville, LA 70510
Phone: 337-898-2104
Fax: 337-898-1024
info@offshorecleaning.com

Calling All Companys

Hello everyone. As I create and edit my list of articles for this blog. I am currently seeking Company's dealing in the pressure washing field to ad a link to this blog from your website.
You can place the link anywhere you wish on your website. My first priority for this link is search page results and second is of course traffic from your site checking out here for articles and tips on how to pressure wash. In exchange for placing the link on your website I am offering lifetime advertising in my yearly buyers guide and chances to get your company's name out there to our readers by hosting interviews I will conduct via email to random company's listed in the buyers guide. These interviews will talk about your business or products you sell or are promoting.
Business listings are on a first reply best spot system in the listings of what you are selling so the faster you reply the higher your spot in the buyers guide.

Thanks to all whom reply,

Nick Lantz
http://howtopressurewashing.blogspot.com/




Update: If you are viewing this site from an email you have received from me. There is an error in the second link. It contains the wrong information and should read
<*a href=http://howtopressurewashing.blogspot.com">Pressure Washing<*/a>

Please make sure your link is to here and remove the * in the <*a and <*/a> parts of the link

HOW TO PRESSURE WASH DECKS OR PATIO'S

Pressure washing a deck or can be time consuming but it is simple. You can use just about any type of pressure washer. You can even usually do it chemical free without the need of buying deck cleaner's. If you have a stained or painted deck you may need to purchase some type of paint stripper or deck cleaner. However, before you start to go out and buy paint strippers give it a good once over with your pressure washer. The trick to Power washing deck's is to use the right amount of pressure applied to the deck boards and how you go about pressure washing it. You can use a cheap $150 weekend warrior power washer picked up from your local home depot or walmart but it will take you more time and effort than a $500 gas powered power washer would so if you are doing this for yourself every now and then go ahead and get the cheep $100 version. In fact there is a less chance that you will damage the deck by useing a lower powered pressure washer than using a hi power pressure washer. I often use a lower GPM version wile doing cleaning to the interior of fire damaged housing or interior brick work because of the lower amount of water flow. But if you are planning to go at pressure washing decks as a means of income, Then it is best for you to ether rent one from somewhere and do a couple decks within a weekend to get the funds to buy one or just go out and buy one.
The second trick to pressure washing decks is the rate of speed you are moving across the boards at . Try to keep at a speed of about half foot per second with your are power washing.
Another big tip is to NEVER use a 0deg red tip or turbo nozzle on wood EVER! Doing so will damage the deck and you will end up with a deck full of scars and splinters and end up sanding the whole thing down to create a even Finnish. Use a yellow or green tip. Last trick is to ALWAYS power wash with the grain of the deck going the whole length of the board's. Failing to do so will end up with splinters and pit the boards where the pressure busted out the grain.
When you are done cleaning your own personal deck or patio, I recommend you check out
Patio Ideas For some good information on patio furniture layout and tips on how to care for your patio!

Welcome to How To Pressure Wash

Hello everyone,
Ive decided to start this forum How To Pressure wash Because of the lack of information available to the do it yourself people out there. In the following months I will continue to Release new Tip's, strategies, How to and information for you to better prepare yourself wile learning how to pressure wash. Starting a pressure washing business ? Don't buy those ebook's or expensive learning tools. If what your looking for is not already answer, Post a reply or send a mail to me at
howtopressurewash@live.com And i look forward to telling you how to pressure wash anything.