I recently did a building site clean where the builder needed to clean the sidewalk in front of the site and driveway crossover due to mud buildup from the building works etc.
The issue I had was there were some areas along the sidewalk that had cracked/sunken pieces of concrete which were near the edges next to lawn and dirt. When I rinsed, the concrete would be clean, but dirty water from the grass and dirt next to the concrete would run down into the clean sidewalk and pool into those areas that were sunken/cracked.
How do you deal with dirty water runoff from lawn/dirt areas off to the side?
In this case, it wasn’t a huge deal - builder just needed the areas free from dirt buildup and wasn’t after a super fine clean, but it was bothering me to no end. If it was a homeowner’s clean it wouldn’t have been a good look - also, if I had needed to seal it, not sure how that would work with the dirty runoff ruining the rinsed concrete. How do you deal with runoff from lawns or dirt edges?
I just wait till water recededs an lightly rinse again. Ill do that until im ready to pack it up. Whatevers left is staying there. Im not there to repair drainage or regrade thier concrete
You do the best you can. If its small, sometimes ill have luck blasting that puddle deep into the grass enough where it doesnt all run back. you could also suck it out with a sludge sucker and direct it elsewhere. Just mention it to the homeowner they have a low spot and there is no way you can get rid of the pooling water, they can wait till it dries and sweep/blow the dirt off. Its good to start your cleaning in the low spot so you can clean it before it gets covered by water and you cant tell if its clean.
@SWFLWasher Thanks for the insight - I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing anything during the rinse down. Definitely agree about not being there to repair their issues. I feel much better about how i finished the job now with those two mud puddles in the sunken bits of concrete - I couldn’t have done anything more at the time - although if I were sealing it, I would probably sponge it up or something similar to not seal in the mud - or maybe a floor squeegee.
@Bounsoul I noticed the water receded after about 5 mins and that pool of muddy water just sat there. Thanks, I think next time I’ll try a light fan rinse with tap water pressure to move it off the concrete without flooding the lawn edges (hopefully).
