Pre-treat?

I am going to attempt to clean my parents concrete slab in their shop. I should have taken a picture of it just to share to give you an idea of what I’ll be cleaning but I didn’t. I have a surface cleaner that is still in the box. The concrete is about 2 1/2 years old.

Do you guys always pre-treat? If so, what strength do you typically start at? I know the strength depends on the filth…

I am assuming let it dwell approx. 10 minutes but, how long would you let it dwell?

Do you always post-treat? If you don’t always do it then when do you know to do it or not?

I’m not a pro surface cleaner by any means, but I think most of us use the term “pre-treat” when we refer to laying down a mix that contains bleach which attacks the mildew often found on driveways, porches, and other concrete pads that are in the open elements. I’m not sure if this would be effective on a cement pad in an enclosed garage.

Post-treat when the concrete isn’t clean enough. Oftentimes surface cleaning leaves lines on the cement after running over it from where the filth didn’t clean fully. Whether that is equipment error or operator error is something you should check into, but post-treatment can help. Once again, post-treating involves bleach.

What kind of surface cleaner do you have? And what kind of rig are you hooking it up to? I don’t think any 2 folks handle flatwork the exact same way but you probably know lots of cool folks with concrete driveways that would be willing to let you practice on them for free & experiment to see what works best for you.

Make sure the nozzles are around 2500psi on the surface cleaner, I know you’re using a 4/4 machine.

Pretreating is mainly for really bad organic growth, post treating with 3% is to get rid of striping afterward.

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@dcbrock So as long as you’re answering this dude with specific numbers, why not help me out here… define 2500 psi on the SC at 4/4000. Does that mean one nozzle is running the show at 2500 & the other is tagging along at 1500? Sounds pretty cool! BTW, I know you’re an awesome dude & you don’t have to answer this nonsensical craziness. Ever. Actually, please don’t.

So far all we have is a concrete slab in a shop. What sticks out? What’s are you cleaning? What is the shop used for? SH isn’t the answer to everything.

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The shop is a combination wood working shop and outdoor kitchen. It has a lot a little marks from kids toys and bicycle tire marks. It’d be easier if I have a picture to post and once I do have one I will post it.

It’s not super dirty but something I thought I’d take a shot at.