Pressure Washing|Power Washing

Power washing blog for new business owners and season veterans

Sunday, April 26, 2009

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

27 comments:

  1. driveway cleaning , patio cleaning expert

    You invested a lot of money in your driveway and/or patio. Don't let it deteriorate and become unsafe and unsightly. Cleaning will restore your surface as new, give your property a great first impression, make your property more saleable, make your surface safer by removing slippery grime or mould and give you pleasure in your drive or patios appearance again.

    Will the process damage my driveway?

    no. by useing high pressure cleaners there shall no damage to the surface itself. by removing all the dirt and grime, in most cases just with water, but we are able to control the pressure with a regulator.

    How long will it take you to clean my driveway?

    Naturally, this all depends on the area of the driveway or patio. For the average size driveway (parking 2/3 cars) you can complete cleaning in one day. surface must be dry before you can re-sand your driveway

    Will the cleaning damage my plants around the patio?

    The flat surface cleaners are able to contain most of the water, so there is minimal splashback. which shall not put your plants at risk. i rarely use chemicals and so any run off is mostly water anyway, and of course that horrible mould and grime!

    Will I get a striping effect on my patio?

    No. The revolutionary rotary surface cleaner we use eliminates "zebra striping".

    How soon will it be before I can use the surface again?

    Just as soon as you have finished cleaning!

    sealing service for block paving?

    If you require sealing . i would advise you that while sealing block paving obviously has benefits, it tends to leave a gloss finish initially. Sometimes you may feel that after cleaning & re-sanding you are more than happy with the natural effect again.

    Can you remove oil?

    Oil stains can often be completely removed. This does depend on idividual stains as the porosity of the surface and age have an effect. you can remove mould, algae, grime, dirt and nearly anything from your surface.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey thanks man!! you are so good. I think this the perfect method of concrete cleaning. Hope to visit again.

    ReplyDelete
  3. My cousin recommended this blog and she was totally right keep up the fantastic work!
    High Pressure Cleaning

    ReplyDelete
  4. It might not be a bad idea to look into renting a surface cleaner if you have a large area to be cleaned. Good article though.

    Pressure Washing Maple Grove, MN

    ReplyDelete
  5. I was looking for. Thanks for sharing this great article! That is very interesting Smile I love reading and I am always searching for informative information like this! You are bookmarked!


    vancouver gutter cleaning

    ReplyDelete
  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I like the way you write. I have been reading your blog for last couple of days to make this blog - http://concretecoloursystems2.blogspot.com/. You have got some excellent post, your detailed writing really help me a lot. concrete driveways

    ReplyDelete
  8. Business cleaners usually deliver good value to the place of work environment, while not having to worry about staffing a compliment of cleaners. Carpet Cleaners Johannesburg

    ReplyDelete
  9. Cool article, i really need to get my driveway cleaned a.s.a.p

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks for sharing such useful methods of concrete cleaning.. My concrete floors are not if good shape and looking to hire Brisbane bond Cleaners for cleaning.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hey thanks man!! you are so good. I think this the perfect method of concrete cleaning. Hope to visit again. Mobile pressure cleaning toronto

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hey firstly i would like to thanks to share such a great info for cleaning driveways toowoomba is really admirable.I am excited to implement the ideas of cleaning.

    ReplyDelete
  13. fantastic blog and power for wishing machine information .i would like to your blog. and very thanks .we are sharing my topic
    Cleaning Equipment High Pressure Water

    ReplyDelete
  14. I didn't think that it was such a big deal to pressure wash a concrete driveway until I got my first house. My neighbors wash their driveways on a regular basis, so they talked me into doing the same when they noticed that I never pressure wash my own driveway. One of my next door neighbors is helping me out in a couple of days because I've never pressure washed concrete before. I don't want to look like an idiot in front of my neighbor, so I'm looking up materials on pressure washing so that I can have a basic understanding of what he's talking about.
    http://www.sheldonandsons.com/services/

    ReplyDelete
  15. Pressure washing home does generate awesome cleaning outcomes..Even I hire cleaning services on regular basis.
    happy tradie bond cleaning brisbane

    ReplyDelete
  16. Not heard about such methods of cleaning concrete. If effective I would love to try them out.
    Bond Cleaning Gold Coast

    ReplyDelete
  17. cleaning a driveway using pressure washer?
    pressure wash

    ReplyDelete
  18. The blog article very surprised to me! Your writing is good. In this I learned a lot! Thank you!
    concrete curbs

    ReplyDelete
  19. Thank you for the helpful post. I found your blog with Google and I will start following. Hope to see new blogs soon.
    Building burn demo

    ReplyDelete
  20. Thanks for the step-by-step guide! Very easy to follow
    Water Blaster

    ReplyDelete
  21. Thank you for sharing the insight! Your article is very helpful and informative. I would like to read more updates from you.

    Water Blaster

    ReplyDelete
  22. Thanks for the step-by-step guide!
    Would follow this once weekend arrives and I could put my Water Blaster to use

    ReplyDelete
  23. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Such a nice writing. The style you have narrated is simple beautiful and well authored. The quality of writing can be seen from the beginning until the end.
    Pressure washing 77065

    ReplyDelete
  25. There are surely lot of these facilities coming up in the market and having these facilities in undoubtedly very much important. To get the best services for cleaning and other important tasks you need ensure the right Roof Cleaning Pittsburgh service provider is hired.

    ReplyDelete
  26. With time there are professional and useful cleaning services available in the market. By banking on the best cleaning solutions one needs to hire the facilities of professional cleaners. There are lots of instances and things one needs to consider when you are hiring these Gutter Cleaning Pittsburgh professionals.

    ReplyDelete