First time surface cleaning

Hey everyone. Today I used a surface cleaner to do my driveway for the first time. I noticed I had dirt building up after the water started to dry. How do I stop this from happening. I tried using the wand after words but it was very slow. Almost like repealing all the dirt I had washed up. I tried each tip and non of them were very good at it. Do I need a special nozzle or a pressure washer broom attachment. Thank you!! Ps. Areas where it slanted significantly were no issue. Just the lower spots. I’m only using a Home Depot special 3 gpm pressure washer. 2500 psi. And a power horse cleaner from northern tools. 16".

Are you rinsing after running the surface washer?

If not, that is kind of standard procedure for removing the debris that the surface cleaner loosens up on the concrete.

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I blame Northern Tool for everything. When it rains… when my dog won’t go out in the rain. Everything. Not a fan, but I’ll get off my soap box…

I ran into the same issue when I was using a smaller pressure washer. You have to do small sections at a time and keep the water moving.

Surface cleaner. Sweep with the nozzle. Surface cleaner. Sweep with the nozzle. Especially when it’s sunny and hot and the driveway is drying behind you. I keep a big push broom in the truck for when dirty water washes back into low spots to keep things moving.

Bigger surface cleaner, bigger pressure washer, and always moving downhill helps a lot. Do it enough times and you’ll start knocking out driveways in 30 minutes.

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The push broom rarely comes out anymore unless there’s a really low spot, and a really high spot washing mud back in it.

Thanks! It’s was 90+ today. I’m sure I was doing to big of an area at once. Maybe I should get another wand and disconnect and back track and keep the dirt moving.

Just unhook from your surface cleaner and pop in a nozzle. The small one, 16" just hooks into the end of a wand anyway right?

M22 thread. But maybe I can quick connect with some adapters. And leave it threaded in.

My SC tends to discharge more water from the left side, so I run a border around the area then starting at the top right go right to left. Then backwards on narrow driveways. The water is always heading downhill. Then I go from top to bottom and bottom to top turning and walking faster. I’ll then switch to the wand with white tip and rinse top to bottom, cleaning up any rings left behind. That’s my technique but not the only one.

Thanks again everyone for all the help Cant wait to give it another shot!

Ditto on rinsing after using a surface cleaner. Also go slowly. It’s easy to get Zebra stripes going. I only go 1/2 the width of the surface cleaner on each pass.