Paver stains

[mike barrett]

I had a customer call me that had their lawn maintenance company spray their pavers with a herbicide. They now have yellow stains on the pavers. The lawn company said it would fade away in a week or two, well it's been two weeks and the stains are still there.
I tried cleaning with my surface cleaner, no difference. Sodium hypochlorite no difference. Byutel/potassium hydroxide no difference,sodium hydroxide no difference, simple green no luck. Oxcillic acid no difference BARC F9 no difference.
I talked with the manufactures rep, he said to try Damn lemon scented dish washing soap. I will go back on Wednesday and try Dawn.
Has anyone ran in to stains like this and have been able to remove them?

 

[Ron Musgraves]

Craig to the Rescue

 

[Craig]

Hi Mike,

To me it looks like their herbicide had a green marker dye in it that would make the grass look greener after it was applied. They also use this so they can tell where the herbicide was applied. None of the things you tried would work because these stains can go really deep because they are so watery.

I tried to remove stains like that years back to no avail.

If I ran into the same problem today, my first go-to would be a degreaser/power wash, then BARC. Since Barc didn't work we know that those stains are from a dye. Did your customer think that they had gone away at ALL?

You've tried just about everything. What I would try next would be an acetone wash (call me) or a specific paint stripper (call me). Too much to write here.