Ryan Cash and The Importance of a Process: Concrete Cleaning

RyanCash

Member
One lesson I learned the hard way window cleaning (a story for another time) was the importance of having a set process. Whenever you show up to do a job, you should have a routine and steps that you follow. Know your process. This is the best way to get consistent results.

Here's my recommended process for cleaning a driveway. I'll take different steps out of this process if they're not needed but here's the steps I take when thinking about cleaning residential concrete

1) Soak Drive With Water (Water is the universal solvent!) Also soak surrounding grass/plants

2) Pretreat driveway with a bleach-stable degreaser/surfactant and 1-3% SH. Let it dwell for 10 minutes or so.

3) Pressure wash driveway with a combination of fan tips, turbo nozzle and mostly a surface cleaner.
-Start with your spray wand and hit all corners, edges, hard to reach spots, then surface clean. Making sure to go slow and not having huge overlaps on your lines. Most residential concrete can handle about 2500 PSI. No real need to go over that as you can damage/etch the concrete.

4) Switch back to your wand and rinse everything off (follow local/state guidelines for waste water)

5) Spot treat any remaining oil spots and stains with a heavy degreaser or specialty chems (Oil, paint, rust removers, etc.). Let them dwell 10-15 minutes, pressure wash over them again/rinse

6) Post treat driveway with 2-3% SH with no soap/surfactant.

7) Rinse off Post Treatment if Applicable/Treat with Bleach Neutralizer if needed

8) Post soak surrounding Grass and vegetation.


Are you taking all or some of these steps? Is there anything else you'd add to this list? What sets you apart from your competition? Are you just showing up and blasting concrete with pressure and calling it good or are you digging in and leading the industry?

Create your process, know your chems, and be the expert cleaner!


For pretreatment use Rooftec's DirtTec to help lift away dirts, clays, and oils.
For spot treating heavily soiled areas, use Rooftec's ConTec to easily lift out deep stains in concrete
 
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