Driveway and Concrete Cleaning

A Tuscaloosa driveway gets three kinds of dirty. Red clay washes across it from the lawn edge after a hard rain and stains the concrete orange. Mildew and algae turn the shaded end under the carport or the trees a dull grey-green. And oil, rust from a sprinkler head or a dropped tool, and tire marks sit on top of all of it. Driveway cleaning here means getting all three off with a surface cleaner and the right pretreatment, and leaving the concrete one even color instead of a patchwork of wand stripes.

We clean every kind of flatwork: driveways, sidewalks, front walks, patios, pool decks, garage floors, carport slabs and the concrete pads under an HVAC unit or a grill. Concrete, pavers, stamped concrete, exposed aggregate and flagstone each get handled on their own terms.

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Round surface cleaner running across a mildew-grey concrete sidewalk and leaving a bright clean strip, red clay stain at the lawn edge

Red clay, oil and mildew on concrete

Red clay is iron oxide, and it bonds to concrete in a way that plain pressure will not touch. It gets a pretreatment that breaks the bond, then the surface cleaner lifts it. Oil spots get a degreaser and dwell time; old ones fade more than they vanish, and we tell you that up front. Mildew and algae on the shaded end die with the same low-pressure solution we use on a house wall, then rinse clean.

Pollen in spring and leaf tannin in the fall leave their own stains, and the shaded corners of a sidewalk in the campus neighborhoods, under old oaks, grow slick enough to slip on. That green film is the one that puts people in the ER after a rain, and it is the easiest of the lot to remove.

A surface cleaner, not a wand

A surface cleaner is the round attachment with spinning nozzles under a hood. It cleans a wide path at an even height, so the whole driveway comes out the same shade. A wand held by hand leaves the stripes and tiger marks you see on a driveway somebody did themselves on a Saturday, because the distance and angle change with every stroke. We use the wand for edges, steps and the strip against the garage door, and the surface cleaner for the field.

Pressure is right for concrete, where it would be wrong for siding. Even so, a worn or soft slab can be etched by too much pressure, so we test a corner on older concrete and pull the pressure down if the aggregate starts to show.

Pavers, stamped concrete and pool decks

Pavers hold sand in the joints and that sand comes out under pressure, so we clean them at a lower setting and re-sand the joints after if you want them done. Stamped and colored concrete has a sealer and a color release on top that strong pressure strips, so it gets a light touch and a soft-wash pretreatment that does most of the work. Pool decks, usually Kool Deck or brushed concrete around a pool in a Highway 69 South subdivision, get a mildew treatment and a thorough rinse so nothing ends up in the water.

Flagstone and natural stone get soft washed and lightly rinsed. Pressure takes the face off soft stone. If a patio is beside a wood deck we can do the deck boards beside it in the same visit.

Sealing after the wash

Clean concrete can be sealed once it has dried for a day or two, and a sealer makes the next clay stain rinse off with a hose instead of a pretreatment. We seal pavers after re-sanding, and plain concrete on request. A sealer is not a cure for mildew in the shade; that comes back wherever the slab stays damp, sealed or not. It does make it easier to remove.

One of the questions people ask most is whether pavers should be sealed after a wash. On a patio or a paver driveway in a newer subdivision, yes, once the joints are re-sanded and the surface has had two dry days. The sealer locks the sand in, deepens the color and keeps the next season of pollen and clay from soaking into the face of the paver. On old brick pavers that have never been sealed, we talk about it first, because some sealers change the look more than the owner wants.

Related

Green algae streaks on the shaded north wall of a tan vinyl house with half the wall already clean and bright

House Washing

Low-pressure soft wash that lifts algae, mildew and pollen film and keeps water out of the wall.

Weathered grey wood deck with one half cleaned back to warm tan, lake water and a boathouse visible past the railing

Deck and Fence Cleaning

Grey wood back to tan, ready for stain.

Worker washing the concrete walkway in front of a small brick strip shopping center at dawn with wet clean concrete reflecting the sky

Commercial Pressure Washing

After-hours work and recurring plans.

Brick ranch house under tall pines in Cottondale with a green-tinged concrete walkway and a hose coiled by the carport

Pressure Washing in Cottondale

Shade mildew and green concrete, priced from a photo.

All Tuscaloosa pressure washing services

Questions we get

Will you get the oil spot out?

Fresh ones, usually. Old ones that have soaked into the concrete fade a good deal but rarely vanish completely. We say so before we start.

How much pressure is safe on my driveway?

A sound slab takes full pressure from a surface cleaner without trouble. Older or soft concrete gets tested on a corner first and run lower if the surface starts to open up.

Do you clean garage floors?

Yes. Move the cars and anything on the floor, and expect the water to run out the door. Oil and tire marks get a degreaser.

How soon can I park on it?

As soon as it is dry, usually within a few hours. If it is sealed, wait the time we give you for that sealer, generally a day.

Can you power wash flagstone?

Flagstone gets a soft wash and a gentle rinse, not full pressure. The face of soft stone flakes off under a surface cleaner, and the joints between the stones wash out. It comes clean, it just takes the slower method.

What driveway cleaning costs

A standard two-car driveway and front walk is the common job. A long rural drive, a big patio or a pool deck adds square footage, and heavy clay or oil adds pretreatment. Every job is priced in writing before we start, by the surface and its size, from a photo or a quick walk-around. A photo from the street and one of the worst spot is usually all we need. The wash water from a driveway is mostly water and dead algae, but detergent and degreaser runoff into a storm drain is regulated, and the federal stormwater rules that apply to commercial washes are the same ones we work under on a residential drive. We keep it on the property and out of the street inlet. On a business lot that gets more involved; see what we do for parking lots and dumpster pads.