Driveway cleaned the right way but with stripes?

I’m guessing he used 50-100ft

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  1. Check your nozzels to make sure one or more aren’t clogged. I pull em off, stick an B or E string through the hole and rinse.
  2. When I surface clean, I can usually tell if I am leaving lines. If so, slow down.
  3. If slowing down does not help, then I will go perpendicular to my original direction as well (twice cleaning).
  4. If any lines or marks still exist, I will use the circular motion like your are buffing a car while cleaning.
  5. Tire marks - use EBC or other high quality degreaser in a pump up to pre-treat. Heat always helps. If no heat, then a deck brush scrubbing will do the trick.
  6. Replace nozzles. Something not said enough on this forum, nozzles of all types do wear out and increase in size at the orifice over time.
  7. Check bar spinning - flip SC over, hit the gun and watch the bar spin. Does it spin evenly in a consistent manner?
  8. Try adding some MTC oil to your morning coffee.

Good Luck!

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I don’t think it’s etched. When I saw it today it crossed my mind but I didn’t see anything coming up that looked like cream when I was cleaning it. Dirt was coming up but no concrete.

I used 50ft but would 100-150 extra psi really make a difference in etching it?

And what tips should I use? (And why did PT tell me 2502s when I told them my set-up so as to make sure this didn’t happen. :weary:)

Thanks for all the help so far!

A couple of things come to mind. Get some 2503 tips. Was your SH any good? If you really used that strong, didn’t even need to pressure wash, could have hosed it off.

Most of us just use hw mix for pre-treat, that way by the time you dilute with all the water you generate from surface cleaning, then can use a stronger post mix 3-4% plenty, w/o worrying too much about killing grass along the sides of the drive.

How often did you rinse, did you let dirty water dry on the drive? As previously stated. you defintely went the wrong direction. Watch my speed I’m walking in the video and that’s using a lot bigger machine. It’s probably a combination of things. Most surface cleaners leave some stripes, it’s the nature of the beast, it’s what you do to mitigate or minimize that’s important. And sometimes on a really dirty drive you have to go over twice. You can tell while you’re doing, so if it’s not looking right when wet, change what you’re doing.

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How did you apply your SH? If a pump up, you probably didn’t get enough down. You need to wait until the drive at least partially dry and then saturate pretty good. Light mist with a pump up not going to do much.

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@Racer Pretty sure my SH was good. I used the same batch earlier in the day for washing a house.

The driveway was 90% shaded when I did it so nothing really dried while I was working but it

I used a pump sprayer to apply. The pre-treat was a lighter spray but the post-treat was heavier. Would an x-jet be a better way to apply than a pump sprayer?

Is this for the post-treat or pre-treat?

And @Racer would you recommend installing 2503s and then redo it going the right direction and starting from scratch (pre-treat, clean, post-treat)?

Thanks for your help!!!

If it’s brand new the swivel will spin slowly for 30 minutes or so and the bristles will be stiff and not want to glide.

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MAN, what a bunch of great advice. Just last week I cleaned a house with some old SH that I had forgotten about just to get rid of it. That crap worked me to death. In his post, Racer was referring to the post treat, which you’ll want to perform after a rinse and standing water has drained, and ABSOLUTELY use your Xjet, without proportioner to get a strong mix and good volume.
Finally,I think that your problem revolves around the post treat. I just think you didn’t get enough SH on the concrete to bleach out the remaining organics.

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My channel is [Aspen Power Washing] Aspen Power Washing - YouTube

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Bam. There ya go @qons. Mr. Battle here is the substrate guru. Check his channel out.

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That fountain clean up you did was awesome.

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Thanks for watching and I appreciate the compliment.:+1:

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I went back today and re-did it.

Pre-treated.

Went the right way (width-wise).

Pics below of it wet and dry. Looks much better.

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just subscribed and gonna check it out tonight

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Glad to see it worked out :+1:

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Looks good!!!

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Man, it almost looks like you know what you’re doing! Good job.

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Good to see that you owned the problem and did the right thing, Don’t take the Craft out of Craftsmanship, we will all be better off for taking pride in what we do.

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Washing a 3 car wide driveway that size would have taken me about 1 to 1.5 hours when I had a 4gpm pump. So I think you went too fast. As others stated some great advice here…2503s…wash perpendicular to line of site…if needed after you wash a section go back over in circles like buffing a car…xjet for a strong post treat of 3-4%. You only need 6% for tannin stains from leaves.

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Nice work @qons

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