Power washing new concrete in very cold temps

My name is John Martin and I own Waukesha Window Cleaning and Power Washing in Waukesha WI

I have been in business for 24 years and have come across a special circumstance that I am not sure how to deal with. Even though I have power washed in cold temps before ; we are currently experiencing on of the coldest winters in over 20 years and I have a customer that had new concrete put in at a new restaurant that opened last week and he wants the sidewalks and drive thru lane power washed ASAP.

I am concerned about cracking the new cement if I hit it with hot water and I don’t think cold water will help much on getting the construction debris off. Any feedback I can get would be most appreciated.

thank you

John Martin

Welcome John,

I would imagine that CCU of concrete would have more to do with surface debris and less to do with oil?

Concrete is an almost unlimited heat sink and the heat you introduce at the surface will quickly dissipate both into the concrete and the atmosphere.

If you have already addressed all of the usual issues that arise from cold weather cleaning, I can not imagine that you will have any problem using 160 degree water on frozen concrete.

Thanks Tim, I appreciate your response to my concerns. yes it is more debris and the usual construction crap and not an oil issue. I will be working in temps in the upper teens or low 20s. Is there anything I can downstream to help with freezing as I know I will be turning the place into a skating rink?

Thanks

John

Tell them to wait till March. And I’d do a “power rinse” on concrete this new. Nothing over 2500psi or the cream coat goes away.

John

Took your advice and did a power rinse on the cement just to get rid of the dirt and debris using one of my older units that goes about 2k psi. we finally had two days with highs in the 40s and the customer was happy with the end result. we go back below zero next week so I’m glad we were able to squeak in a service that the customer wanted.

Really looking forward to a warm spring and summer.

Thanks