New Construction Clean Up

I had a friend who told a local builder about me starting my pressure washing company. I went out and bid a job for him today, he wants the 3 car garage cleaned and driveway just rinsed off. He is fine with me using high pressure in the garage because they are going to put epoxy on it. They just need it smooth. Right now it is caked with stuff from the building process. Do you guys think the surface cleaner should do the trick? Or should I apply chem of some sort to get all the caked on stuff off? I also just bought a spray guard to protect the baseboards in the garage while spraying up next to them. I really need to do good, because he said if I do good they will be keeping me busy. I looked on search but only found a few posts about residential garage and new construction cleanup.

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Is it new concrete? If so it’s super soft, hasn’t cured yet, I wouldn’t get too close with a tip or use a SC, the thing is to remove cement or plaster drips is to hunch over and with the wand pop them off like as if you’re using a spatula.
I would bring a chisel and hammer if its too caked up :confused:
Where is the water going? Into black asphalt? Beware because a lot of white powder and maybe sand will be washed off

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Just go flush it with your low pressure tip. Do a quick push broom scrub with diluted degreaser in the garage to break surface tension of anything funky and push it out with your low pressure tip. Bring a big floor squeegee if the garage doors will be shut before it can air out. That’s a quick in and out job.

Like @DoubleH said. No high pressure on new concrete. That’s bad news.

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Really diluted degreaser. Like 15:1. You don’t want to rinse suds forever. Legitimately a super quick wash should get it knocked out in an hour and a half, 2 hours if it’s an average sized driveway.

I take back anything I said about pressure washing the garage if there’s drywall in there. Just scrub it with the broom, degreaser, and the hose.

Let me give a little more details. This is new concrete, and I know the rules about using high pressure, however, he said they usually rent a pressure washer to do this, but would rather just have a company do it. I voiced my concerns about using the high pressure inside, and he said they don’t care if I take off the top layer or cream because they are going to seal it and put an epoxy on it. He said they just want it clean and smooth.

So going by what ya’ll are saying I should mix a degreaser (I have EBC) in a pump up sprayer, and then just take a broom and scrub, then take a low pressure rinsing tip and rinse it out? Will take get it to the level of clean and smooth they are wanting? For the driveway, I really think just a low pressure tip will remove the dirt. It’s not clay or anything. I saw in other posts though, that for new concrete some people used muriatic acid to clean a section at a time. I was going to pick some up just incase I needed it.

People jump to muriatic acid way too quick on this forum sometimes. So be wary of it. It can be super dangerous.

You don’t need to waste EBC. Cheap degreaser will be just fine. I wouldn’t even pump sprayer it on. Just fill a 5 gallon bucket with your mix and pour some out in a couple area and push it around with the broom.

I’ll post a pic of a scraper that you can thread on a pole for breaking up the big dirt in the garage. Or you can just flip the broom over and break up the chunks with the hard plastic that holds the bristles.

Thanks for the tips! I really appreciate it! It sounds like this job is actually going to be even easier than I thought originally. I would love to see that scraper you are talking about

Here it is. Paint section of Home Depot. It has a metal end in it for hitting with a hammer. You can unthread it and put an extension pole in it. I take all the corners off on a bench grinder so I can use it for knocking wasp nest stems and other junk down without scratching anything.

I try and stay away from anything bleach doesn’t clean…but Muratic has its place , especially with cleaning up spilled grout and other post construction mishaps.

You shouldn’t need muratic though from your description (hopefully not). Get a very caustic degreaser and you should be fine.

Best of Luck!

Thank you! I would ideally like to keep the same mentality of staying away from anything bleach doesn’t clean. However, with this large account, it would be a good steady income, so I won’t complain!

Im thinking if you get anything on the walls that the painter has to come back out for would be the worst situation…id plan on mostly joint compound from the drywall crew being in there(20 mins soaking and it comes right off)…and paint from spraying the doors in the garage. And lots of dirt…i would plan for low pressure, floor scraper, squegee and concrete brush. Chems you can work with on the fly. Make it clear that the epoxy crew is responsible for etching the concrete and that youre not prepping for them because if the homeowners warranty on epoxy peeling comes up you dont need the builder coming back on you ( based on your description they just want a general cleaning so you should be ok).

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Thanks for all of the advice! When I did the walk-through he told me he had already planned on paint crews coming back to touch up the garage after pressure washing. Would be nice to save him that trouble and get on his good side!

This guy seems to be doing the same thing…might give you some ideas

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Just remember low pressure on fresh concrete dust. OSHA is cracking down on the Silica dust exposure standard. Here is a fact sheet for some bedtime reading! If you would like to know more just let me know.