Cleaning and sealing a concrete sidewalk?
Hello, We have a three-year old concrete sidewalk that has mud stains on it (thanks to a careless contractor). Countless rains and normal household cleaners have not worked. Should I use some type of acid solution? Will the runoff hurt nearby plants? Also, should I seal/paint the sidewalk to prevent this in the future? Thank you! Use a pressure washer...not a cheap home depot type..3000+ psi... Before you do that get a 2 five gallon buckets and 1 gallon Muratic acid and a gallon of ammonia. (you may need more depending upon the size of the area you want to do) In one 5 gallon bucket fill 1/2 with water and add 1/2 gallon muratic acid. Fill the bucket the rest of the way with water. Do the same in a seperate bucket for the ammonia. 1)Wet down concrete with hose 2)pour out (careful not to get any on your skin) the muratic acid on the desired area. Let stand for a few minutes. Till the bubbles die down. (another saftey note stay upwind cause the mists are kinda nasty and bad for your lungs) 3) use push broom to scrub area and to push the liquid around nice and even. 4) Pour the ammonia bucket over the same area. 5) Use push broom to push around the liquid nice and even. 6) Use the pressure washer over the enire area. 7) Done Dont worry about plants and grass etc. The ammonia and the water will neutralize the acid. I clean concrete everyday as a prep for concrete overlays. If its just mud stains and this does not clean it i dont know what will. After you do all this cleaning would be a good time to seal the concrete. What kind of seal? Well..that would be a whole other thread. Just look for something NON- waterbased. Those do the best job. Good Luck Wow, thanks for the detailed recipe and instructions. I've used muretic acid before on tile, so I'll be careful. Sounds like a good job after this summer heat wears off!
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