Concrete stripes

Definitely leave it. Sell it as a mould treatment.

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Leave it on there. Tell them to keep themselves and pets off of till it dries well. Besides killing residual algae it’ll help brighten a little too if it doesn’t rain for a day or so.

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So @anon26752184, could you explain why 3000 psi is better than, say 3500 psi when surface cleaning? And in this specificity, could you elaborate about the brand and model of SC you employ?

Today’s driveway:

After 1 pass:

AFTER cursory 2nd pass side-to-side:

And FINALLY, after post-treat of 4% SH:

If finishing off with a post-treat is wrong, I don’t wanna be right.

Peace out! (mic drop)

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If I read this thread right your tips are too small. That surface cleaner is setup for a 4gpm machine. Someone please correct me if I am wrong

On something that dirty I find it’s faster to pre treat, clean (1 pass) then post treat. Quicker than 2 passes in my opinion. Also you’d be surprised how nice it comes out with a 50/50 pre treat and one pass

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@MrSparkleVA - I’m disappointed - you should have rinsed that drive 1/2 down at least on the first pass. Don’t let that dirty water sit on there. And what’s the deal going back and forth all the way to the street. Obviously you need to re-watch my video, lol. Going to have to rescind my mentorship you keep doing that stuff.

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I have to agree. When I first started I would clean whole driveway and sidewalks then rinse. By that time 80% of everything was dry and a complete pain to rinse. Once I started to stop and rinse between sections before it dried, life got easier and better results.

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Start going left to right and not up and down from the street. Lines are easier to see parallel to the human eye vs perpendicular. Also, when you finish, just leave a strong house wash mix on the surface and leave.

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Is a surfactant necessary for post treating or just SH?

I find it helps to have some.

But you’re not “finishing off”?

You’re not cleaning it properly, then hitting it with 4% bleach to hide the dirt.

This isn’t clean…

The only reason you post treat is to blend the “double clean” bits which are caused by overlapping. It still has to be clean though.

You’ve just bleached the dirt/mold.

Seeing as you made a drama out of it - I think your technique is bad, both with the SC and with rinsing.

Pick the mic back up.

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Could you explain where you got this from?

Oh, looks like it’s been answered below :point_down:t2:

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You can’t use anything over 3000 psi on most residential concrete here in the states, especially newer (less than 10 years old) stuff. Most use about 2500 or less. I like being right at 2800 if possible

I asked the guys at Southside if I needed bigger tips for my new Ultra Clean using a 4/4, he said the stock ones are perfect. Should I reconsider?

@MrSparkleVA Surface cleaner swivel appears to be setting too far down in the partial pic of it. If it’s a stock gp swivel, pull it up until the bottom side of the swivel is flush with or a hair above the mount/bracket bottom. That, coupled with probably walking too fast, is why if you zoom in on your pre-post treatment pic there are swirl marks everywhere. Those gp’s come from the manufacture set up too low to the ground. Couple that with a worn out skirt, and you’ll get bad striping no matter what tips you run. Been there, done that too many times. Currently in 28” big guy 4 nozzle nirvana lol

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8gpm?

Yeah. Takes a little getting use to and a bit more thought into hose management, but you can really fly once you get the hang of it. No slower pace than the 20” I was pushing.

What do you think the bleach is doing if not cleaning?

“You just bleached the dirt and mold”.
First off it’s probably not mold it’s algae. Secondly that’s like 90% of what this business is for people in the residential market?

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Technically, bleach doesn’t clean. It bleaches and kills stuffs. The surfactant and agitation is where the real cleaning power is at. Heck, bleach, chemically, can’t actually even soak into wood or other porous surfaces. The water in sh will however, which is why you cannot properly do mold remediation with just bleach. The water that does soak in can actually cause more rot and mold issues later on afterwards. That’s why mold remediation guys use enzymes instead. Do a google search on the chemical properties of sh sometime. It’s actually pretty interesting stuff, and definitely useful info to know, since we deal with the stuff almost every day.

I recently discovered that 2500psi is not enough for really bad concrete. That new pump on a 390 will just get 2500, and I spent 3hrs on a 50x60 driveway this week, and it was still striped after it dried. I discussed this possibility w the customer and told her I’d be back by the next day. I post treated it @ 4% the next day and it looks amazing now. I do agree that it wasn’t clean, and the stripes were “double clean”, now weather the bleach “cleaned” it I can’t say for sure. BUT, when I washed the house with no pressure and SH, I’ll say it was “clean” when I was done.