Hey im new here, but I’ve looked all over the internet and can’t find an explanation. For fathers day I decided to fix my dads pressure washer and wash our porch and driveway. I finished the porch and it looks so much better, just have to get some oil stains out (in case you’re wondering I used chomp brand, on my second application right now). My problem is that while pressure washing my driveway and along the edge of the house there are perfect rings that were left by the surface cleaner. They arent swirls from going to fast but they are actual circles that are etched into the concrete. I didn’t use any soap (I plan on using some when i go back out) but can someone help me so i don’t damage the rest of the driveway? The driveway isn’t very old, maybe a year and a half at most.
My guess is the rings were already there. When you cleaned you exposed them. Pressure washing a concrete driveway with water is not gong to cause that.
That little surface cleaner is a pretty cool tool for what it is. I have used it at 3400 PSI without issues. My guess is you’ve got some defective concrete. Maybe too much water in the mix or not cured properly. You can probably blend it in with a turbo nozzle and hide the damage. Hiring a pro is definitely going to be your best bet.
In my opinion, it appears to be “crop circles” from where you started the surface cleaner while leaving it flat on the concrete. Sometimes that initial burst of pressure will leave a circle, I tilt mine to the side before squeezing the trigger to minimize the effects.
The circles here are where i stopped the surface cleaner. I was pushing it perpendicular to the wall the when i would get to the wall i would have to change direction and it can sometimes be difficult to go side to side. Thank you though
Basically what i want to know is what would a professional do in this situation? and what can I do to prevent this from happening to the rest of the driveway?
You kinda came to a forum where guys make a living doing this. At least most do. Asking a tradesman to tell how to do something so you don’t have to figure it out or pay them is a little on the ungentlemanly side. Pay a professional to do the job correctly or live with what you have by saving money. Nothing wrong with saving money if you can live with the finished product.
Too much pressure and you’re leaving the surface cleaner running in one spot too long. Check the orifice size on the surface cleaner nozzles. Make sure they are correct for the machine and that they give the desired pressure for the type of concrete to be cleaned. A year and half old concrete should not even need a surface cleaner. Water, Clorox, a stiff brush and rinse with a garden hose. You are doing permanent damage.
Regardless of the gentleman’s pursuit to make a living pressure washing this is a good post for this forum. I am in my first season pressure washing for a profit and am using equipment similar to the one mentioned. I’d like to understand the reason for this as well so I don’t make the same mistake and can learn from others. So far this circular pattern hasn’t occurred to me but I’m sure it will if my technique is wrong. By the way, I decided to pursue this vocation under very similar circumstances. Cleaned my father’s house, and mine, and was so pleased with the results that I thought others would want the same satisfaction with a clean driveway and exterior.
I had the same EZ clean apparatus when I first started before thankfully upgrading to a bigger surface cleaner.
My kid brother was using it on a job with my, ran it over the edge of a step and twisted the sprayer arms to straight up and down. I swapped it out before he went back to work because they looked like they were lower than the ez clean.
They’re supposed to be at a 30 degree angle or so. If yours are perpendicular to the surface you’re cleaning they could be digging out the concrete especially if the concrete is young and still a bit ‘soft’.
I’m assuming this means there’s trash talking about people new to the industry at an organizational level and yeah that is a sure route to bury any organization.
“Join the PW RESOURCE ASSOCIATION! We’re here to help!” Collects $99
In the shadows: “Effin’ noobs. Let’s watch it burn and talk sh** about those who came here for the help we sold them for $99.”
I’m not a member of any org, much less this one. I’ve met Tim once and talked on the phone with him twice in 10 years. No one that i know off talks in the background about anyone. It is just discouraging to be a professional, try to actually help some contractors that you think might be trying and see them represent themselves as professionals with a trailer full of home depot crap. Do what you have to do to feed your family but you are putting a black eye on the face of those that do this as a profession.
@Innocentbystander You’ve been incredibly helpful and answered a lot of my questions… in fact, you even praised the “tinkering” I did on the soap gun and I was pumped because I do respect the heck out of you.
But I think we’ve had this particular disagreement before.
What you call a “black eye”, I call tinkering. Sometimes doers want to try stuff and if they don’t know what they don’t know they start with what they do. I’m sure your path wasn’t a linear one in this business.
Maybe it was. I don’t know.
It doesn’t take long to realize that the Home Depot stuff won’t get you very far and I’ve since upgraded to what my business can handle. If statistics hold true, 90% of these folks won’t be in business in a couple of years anyway.
Many of those because they are in debt up to their eyeballs because someone told them they could only start a business with the best and when a slow year happens they haven’t put anything away and can’t cover their debt service.
If anything, us new guys should make you established guys look better.
