Hello All,
I have a customer that is concerned about repeated pressure cleaning of his driveway and it becoming worn down.
I told him that we could spray it like a roof. Ofcourse, then he was concerned about what affect sh might have on the concrete.
Has anyone heard of sh affecting the integrity of concrete?
Thanks,Shane
Besides potentially screwing up the stain in stamped concrete with a high mixture of SH I never ran into problems with myself or now my guys spraying concrete with an SH mixture. What you have there is a nervous customer but once you do the job and he see’s how nice it came out you will have a repeat customer because you calmed his fears with excellent results.
Shouldn’t have any effect on the concrete but the plants and grass are where you need to be really careful.
I second this. We’ve run into driveways/sidewalks that were 10 years old and never been cleaned, so straight 10% SH had to be applied. We just watered the surrounding grass and sprayed the SH with a pump sprayer to help with control of chemical. Didn’t do anything to the concrete except make it clean 
We put strait SH on concrete every day, you will be fine…
You all have confirmed my thoughts. Thanks y’all
Shane
For those using straight sh on concrete, are you also using heat?
Are you also using respirators or experiencing any respiratory side effects?
This thread is three years old.
No, most people dont use heat on residential. Usually save heat for grease/gum removal on commercial.
If you are spraying straight SH, yes you should be wearing a respirator. Get the half mask kind with the pink cartridges. Even if the SH is diluted, it’s not a bad idea to wear a respirator.
On a side note, cool logo… who did it for you?
I need to get one of those. But for the life of me I can’t figure out why anyone would spray straight SH for anything. 50/50 is usually plenty. I downstream straight 12.5%, but my injector is at 15:1 so it doesn’t make much sense for me to mix it. 20-25 gallons lasts me all week, 2 jobs a day most days.
Which leads me to my next question. Are you pretreating the concrete before you wash it? I’ve always post treated with SH or F9 if it needs it, but water by itself has tackled any and everything I’ve had to clean on concrete. If pretreating makes life easier, I’d like to join the team!
I always pretreat by dowmstreaming. It makes it easier to clean. If I get concrete with those light green spots (don’t know what they are) I might hit with pump sprayer to kill it. Otherwise I’m spending too much time on the bad spots. I never post treat. I don’t see the advantage. When I’m done it’s clean and SH isn’t going to make it cleaner. I hate concrete. Can’t make as much money per hour as houses.
Yeah it’s almost exclusively an upsell at this moment, but we post treat because it dissolves the tannin stains we get pretty bad in this area. I’ve tried tackling the tannin stains before washing and it doesn’t seem to work as well as post treating and I always find new ones after washing.
I’m going to try pre-treating on the next one. Thanks!
Yeah, cleaning always exposes the worst of the worst stains.
@tireshark
True but the info is timeless. At least you know im reading before asking.
Re logo: thank you! I got it from Fiverr. The guy was really good to work with.
@squidskc
I’m doing all fast food. Weekly sidewalk cleans with just steam. Monthly and initial cleans downstreaming r202 and Blue Boost, sometimes purple Zep.
Spot cleaning with Cleaning Vinegar for rust.
If you saw what we had to do on Friday, you would definitely need down stream, lol. I’ll get some pics posted.
Anyway, Friday i mixed about a quart of 12.5 and water 1:1 and did a spot clean on one entry way. Both my helper and i had some breathing issues later that night. And he a migraine.
I think I have the best degreaser on the planet as it has never let me down, but I’m interested in learning more about the chems you just mentioned. They’re going on my trusty yellow pad. Ha!
Quickie: How does one find out what the ratio is on their injector? Ok, didn’t search this before asking…
Google. 
If it’s your stock injector it’s in your book. If it’s an aftermarket one it should have come with documentation. If none of the above… Ask Jeeves.
Blue boost is a surfactant to break surface tension and increase dwell time. It smells just like Dawn. Do I’m wondering if it essentially is
Cleaning vinegar available at Lowes. Goof Off worked pretty good for first time experiment. Applied it straight to severe rust dwell 10 min. Rinsed cold.
Is your degreaser EBC? I didn’t get great results with it but i offer it at the very beginning, so probably was user error.
I was really curious about r202, blue boost, and Purple Zep. You answered one of those questions. Lol. I keep vinegar on hand, but it mostly just sits in a bucket in the corner of the shop for tossing rusty tools in.
Nope. Zep Heavy Duty Citrus Degreaser. $8/bottle at Menards. Straight this stuff peels paint. I pour it on concrete straight, use a deck brush to scrub it in, and hit it with hot water and it’s knocked my socks off time and time again.
