Destroyed New Drive

Well after most of us suggesting to @ocpw who posted about the muriatic stain on a drive he was looking at last night get a call from a gentleman this morning who said he’d messed up his drive and could I come look at it. Since it was close, went by and what a mess. Older guy, spry early 70’s, he and his wife’s dream retirement home in a new patio home subdivision. Only been there 5 months in their new home.

Trying to remove some just plain old tire marks on his fresh new drive, that pretty much any degreaser would have taken care of, he went and got him some muriatic and says he followed directions. He had some tire marks in different locations and he scrubbed it after he put it on. And he tried it in a few other places too. I’ll let the pics speak for themselves.

I took my own advice and told him I probably couldn’t help him, but would seek out which direction might be his best course of action. He’s a good guy whose wife is pissed as hell at him and he’s really distraught. So @gbattle or anyone else, open to ideas. I will say that the area he reapplied and scrubbed some more in the top left of the drive looks the best of what’s done. But absolutely no cream left on the treated parts.

I’d reach out to Craig Harrison at F-9 and let him have a look.

Looking thru my f9 cookbook as we speak. In all honesty though, I don’t believe Craig himself could revive this one.

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I think there’s a technique in the cookbook that uses a floor buffer if I remember right. If it were my house I’d call a company that does decorative concrete and see about having an overlay done.

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That’s one of the options we discussed. He had his garage epoxied and that company did a nice job and had decorative put on front porch that looks nice. Problem is bylaws, drives have to stay in natural state.

There are guys on the interwebs that resurface concrete, with concrete.
I have been following it for a while because I think it’s interesting and possibly something I might want to add.
Only problem is no one talks about longevity or how well it stands up in drive way situations. I would like to talk to someone who does this and ask a million questions.

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Sometimes I need to etch concrete prior to painting if the surface is really smooth, I use 10 parts water 1 part hydrochloric applied with plastic watering can and stuff bristled broom, it might blend the stained areas enough or maybe a stronger mix will be required.
Not many other options.

You can add tint to sealer . A light grey or tan tint will help a lot to even out the look. Obviously not permanent buy you would be surprised how close to a natural look. This is probably the cheapest and most effective way of getting that driveway to look decent again

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I have used MEK to get rid of muratic acid stains. Just depends on how bad it is.