So, How to pressure wash driveways? This guide should help you eliminate mildew, mold,, and filth that may damage your driveway.
If you are looking to clean your concrete or brick driveway, you’ve come to the right place. This guide will show you how to pressure wash it. We will cover every detail to ensure you have the most desirable driveway in your neighborhood.
It will also help you restore your driveway’s original look and status at no cost. You will end up saving hundreds of dollars in paying professional cleaners and thousands of dollars you would have used to renovate/replace your driveway.
Before we dive into the procedure and the various techniques you should use to clean your concrete or brick driveway, let’s start with the tools and equipment you should have on hand to complete this task.
How to Wash Your Concrete/Brick Driveways?
Tools & Equipment
It goes without saying that you need a pressure washer to wash your brick or concrete driveway. You will also need nozzle tips to adjust the angle of the spray.
Detergent, rotary nozzles, and surface cleaning attachments are some of the optional items and tools that can help you clean your driveway. Once you have all these items, the next step is to set them up.
A crucial step in setting up a pressure washer is choosing the correct nozzle tip and adjusting the pressure to suit the pending job.
If you want to clean a concrete or brick driveway, you need a pressure washer with a performance rating of at least 2700 PSI at 2.8 GPM as the benchmark.
Related: Best Electric Pressure Washer Reviews
Any washer with higher performance ratings would also be suitable for the job. However, any pressure washer rated at 2700 PSI at 2.8 GPM is extremely powerful, and users must operate it cautiously.
Quick Tip
To prevent damage to or degradation of your concrete or brick driveway, select a nozzle tip with the widest angle.
When water is sprayed out of a wide-angle nozzle tip, it hits your concrete or brick driveway gently, getting rid of dirt while preventing damage to the surface.
If you’ve been to a car wash, you’d think pressure washing is the easiest job in the world. And it is, but before you get to a professional level, you must know how to set up your pressure washer correctly.
Otherwise, you risk shooting water in all directions, which may cause serious injury and damage to people, pets, and property in the vicinity.
Therefore, be sure to set up your pressure washer correctly before you start cleaning your brick or concrete floors.
How To Pressure Wash Your Concrete Driveway
Once you’ve set up your cleaning equipment, follow these seven steps to pressure clean your concrete driveway.
Step 1
The first step involves clearing all obstacles on your concrete driveway. Vehicles, bicycles, toys, and other obstacles should be moved to give you ample space to pressure clean.
Step 2
Now, select a 25-degree or 40-degree spray nozzle and attach it to the high-pressure hose. Turn on the washer and spray down the entire surface of your concrete driveway to remove overlying debris like twigs, leaves, grass, and rocks.
Step 3
If you are going to clean with detergent, ensure you select the most effective detergent for cleaning concrete surfaces. The detergent should also be kind to your pressure washer to avoid unnecessary damage. Now, remove the 25-degree or 40-degree nozzle you used earlier to spray down your driveway and insert a soaping nozzle.
Step 4
Turn on the machine and use the soaping nozzle to soak the driveway with detergent. Allow the concrete driveway to soak up the detergent for about 5 – 10 minutes to break down grime, mildew, stains, and other forms of filth.
Step 5
At this stage, your concrete driveway should now be ready for blasting to get rid of filth. You can use a cleaning attachment at this stage to make cleaning faster, easier, and more efficient. A cleaning attachment provides a pulsing flow of water and a large spray angle to eliminate the filth from your driveway. It also protects your concrete surface from damage due to high-pressure water hitting the surface.
Step 6
Next, use a rotary nozzle to get rid of dirt and stubborn stains. A rotary nozzle operates similarly to a surface cleaner. It uses pulse/rotation technology to dispel water, peeling grime, filth, and dirt from the concrete surface. A rotary nozzle and a cleaning attachment are gentle on your concrete driveway, making them ideal for this cleaning job.
Step 7
Once you’ve completed the steps above, your concrete driveway should be clean. Now, give it a good final rinse. You can use a 25-degree or 40-degree nozzle.
How To Pressure Wash Your Brick Driveway
Now that you’ve mastered the art of cleaning your concrete driveway, here are three steps to pressure wash your brick driveway;
Step 1
Use a wide-angle spray nozzle to soak your entire brick driveway with water. A wide-angle spray nozzle is ideal for this step because it is gentle on brick surfaces. It will get your brick driveway wet to keep it from absorbing detergent.
Step 2
Once your driveway is soaking wet, the next step is to apply detergent. Select a soaping spray nozzle and spray down your entire brick driveway with detergent, ensuring the entire surface is covered. Leave the detergent on the surface for about 5 – 10 minutes to let it eliminate dirt.
Step 3
Lastly, attach a 25-degree or 40-degree spray nozzle to rinse away all the detergent, dirt, grime, and filth to leave your driveway sparkling clean. When cleaning a brick driveway, you don’t want to destroy the mortar. Therefore, you should use less pressure and more detergent whenever you are cleaning a brick surface.
Final Words: So, how to pressure wash brick patios and walkways?
There are many reasons to clean your concrete or brick driveway. Perhaps you want to increase the value of your property, or your next-door neighbor influenced your decision to get one.
Whatever your reason for wanting to wash your concrete or brick driveway, this guide will provide you with the technical know-how to do it effectively.
We hope this guide helps you meet your cleaning goals. So what are you waiting for? Go and start washing your driveway.
