How To Pressure Wash Your Driveway
The benefits of regularly pressure washing your driveway can never be overemphasized, as it helps clean it, ridding it of sticky dirt like oil, mud, molds, etc. This intense cleaning makes it as good as new, improving the appeal of your home. It also helps prevent harmful growths and weeds in your driveway.
To pressure wash your driveway, you’ll need equipment like: a broom, stiff brush, pressure washer, pressure washer detergent, safety gloves, a bottle of spray degreaser, painter’s tape, long garden hose, waterproof sealer, and other equipment you feel are necessary.
If you’re planning on pressure washing your driveway anytime soon, here are the steps you should follow:
Step 1: Sweep your environment
Before power washing your driveway, the first thing to do is to use a broom to sweep away any debris and extra dirt or dust. This stops any loose material, like tiny stones, from getting in the way of the pressure washer
Step 2: Protect Exterior Walls and Doors
Next, apply painter’s tape and plastic sheeting to nearby exterior walls and doors. This will shield doors and walls from being stained by loose debris and prevent unintentional paint removal by the pressure washer.
Step 3: Read Safety Manual
Ensure you study the pressure washer’s safety manual for particular information. Each pressure washer is unique and may need specific assembly, preparation, or attachments.
Step 4: Remove greasy stains from your driveway
Spray the concrete ground with a bottle of spray degreaser, keeping a distance of 6 inches from the surface to ensure thorough cleaning. Then, use a stiff brush or a pressure-washer attachment tool to scrub the degreaser into the concrete.
Step 5: Attach Hoses
Connect the pressure washer’s hose and wand provided. Next, connect a long garden hose to the water supply of the pressure washer for it to reach a larger distance without being moved around.
Step 6: Attach Spray Wand Tip for Detergent
Choose the soap and other washing-related tips, and put them in the pressure washer. Then, snap the spray wand’s head into position.
Step 7: Get your pressure washer ready for the detergent
Directly into the detergent container, use the siphon tube for the detergent that is included with and attached to pressure washers. When you turn on the pressure washer, the tube will bring detergent into the stream of water coming from the spray wand.
Step 8: Spray Detergent
Put on safety gloves to protect your hands, then spray detergent onto concrete while maintaining a distance of about 8 to 18 inches. Smoothly and carefully move back and forth, allowing 6 to 8 inches between each stroke. Then, allow the detergent to sit on the surface for five minutes.
Step 9: Pressure-Wash Concrete
Switch the “soap” tip for the “25 degrees” tip. Then, pressure wash your concrete by holding the spray handle down while working back and forth from one side of the concrete surface to another, overlapping each stroke by 6 to 8 inches. Ensure you hold the tip about 3 to 4 inches from the concrete surface and apply with slower strokes to tougher stains, like paint, to ensure removal.
Step 10: Seal Concrete
Fill the paint pan with a waterproof sealant, cover the roller handle, and secure the extender pole. Then, beginning in the center of the area, roll the waterproof sealer out to the concrete’s edges. Before surface parking, give yourself 24 hours.
With the steps listed above, you can easily pressure wash your driveway and help boost your house’s appeal.
