Patio cleaning… gadget or chemical?

[ambuletz]

ARHarh said:

Power washing just moves the mess around. You spend hours blasting away, it destroys any mortar, everything gets covered in mud and muck. You then end up washing everything around your drive or path. Then the algee all comes back after a month or so.

Much rather just fill a watering can with BAC50, pour it over the drive, path or whatever. Rinse the watering can out and wait a day for the green to go. It will also last till winter if you do it now.

its not getting rid of it though is it? just killing it and leaving it there.

[andburg]

Just done mine.

Patio magic, left for half a day then jet washed off with patio attachment. It was in dire need of doing



And after

[Somebody]

renmure said:

Anyhow, I've booked them to come back in a couple of weeks and do it all. They estimate a day's work for 2 blokes. I'll see about getting some pics but hopefully I'll be able to keep on top of it a bit easier when it's done.

How much are they charging if you don't mind me asking?

[ARHarh]

ambuletz said:

ARHarh said:

Power washing just moves the mess around. You spend hours blasting away, it destroys any mortar, everything gets covered in mud and muck. You then end up washing everything around your drive or path. Then the algee all comes back after a month or so.

Much rather just fill a watering can with BAC50, pour it over the drive, path or whatever. Rinse the watering can out and wait a day for the green to go. It will also last till winter if you do it now.

its not getting rid of it though is it? just killing it and leaving it there.

If you look at it like that then power washing is not going to magic it away either it's just going to move it over there a bit. Still know which method I am going to waste mine time doing, same as I have done for years.

[renmure]

Somebody said:

renmure said:

Anyhow, I've booked them to come back in a couple of weeks and do it all. They estimate a day's work for 2 blokes. I'll see about getting some pics but hopefully I'll be able to keep on top of it a bit easier when it's done.

How much are they charging if you don't mind me asking?

£780 inc Vat

That’s for the powerwash / chemical clean and includes the cost of them coming back once it has dried to brush in and re-sand the gaps.

To be honest, I thought that was pretty reasonable.

[nails1979]

DonkeyApple said:

Yup. Personally, I'd avoid chemicals and just power wash more regularly. Just bookending summer every year is suffice.

As others have said it blasts out the pointing/jointing. It also damages the the surface of the pavers making it less smooth so it goes green quicker. I've damaged mine this way in the more shaded bits that would require more jetwashing.

There's also the size, my drive is approx 90 sq m. That takes me all day with a 400 quid nilflisk ( and it's my 3rd one after burning out the more typical smaller ones you get) plus hours again to resand the joints

Then I've another 90 sq m of paving in the garden also well so that's almost 4 days of tedious work, or several hours with the bac stuff. Even quicker if you wack it down with a watering can which I did last year. This year I used a pump squirty thing as i needed to do the render on the house also.

My mixtures may have been stronger than I previously thought as it's killed everything that was growing though the blocks, weeds and grass and the moss so it's saved me another pass with the weedkiller. I'll have to be more careful when I do the garden as I don't want to kill the lawn.

[Aluminati]

nails1979 said:

DonkeyApple said:

Yup. Personally, I'd avoid chemicals and just power wash more regularly. Just bookending summer every year is suffice.

As others have said it blasts out the pointing/jointing. It also damages the the surface of the pavers making it less smooth so it goes green quicker. I've damaged mine this way in the more shaded bits that would require more jetwashing.

There's also the size, my drive is approx 90 sq m. That takes me all day with a 400 quid nilflisk ( and it's my 3rd one after burning out the more typical smaller ones you get) plus hours again to resand the joints

Then I've another 90 sq m of paving in the garden also well so that's almost 4 days of tedious work, or several hours with the bac stuff. Even quicker if you wack it down with a watering can which I did last year. This year I used a pump squirty thing as i needed to do the render on the house also.

My mixtures may have been stronger than I previously thought as it's killed everything that was growing though the blocks, weeds and grass and the moss so it's saved me another pass with the weedkiller. I'll have to be more careful when I do the garden as I don't want to kill the lawn.

It will remove sand pointing yes, my resin pointing has been fine using the attachment previously pictured.

[Sheepshanks]

nails1979 said:

.... It also damages the the surface of the pavers making it less smooth so it goes green quicker. I've damaged mine this way in the more shaded bits that would require more jetwashing.
.

This definitely happened on our old patio - the flags were some kind of re-constituted stone. They came up brilliantly with the Karcher rotary attachment, but didn't stay clean for long and by the time we ripped them up you could see the suraace was eroding.

Got porcelain now, and it basically just needs mopping.

[xerawh]

Where are people ordering BAC50 please? I've seen one picture of chemiphase and site direct is approx £65 for 10l.

I saw an earlier post asking what happens if patio is flush with grass.. will washing it off into the garden kill the grass?

[renmure]

Amazon for me. Was £69 for 10L.

[Semmelweiss]

This is where I've got mine from, in the past.

https://liquipak-shoponline.co.uk/products/bac-50?...

[ARHarh]

I win

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/293790636441

£30

[TCruise]

Anyone use BAC50 on sandstone?

Also after spraying BAC50 on, how long are you leaving it before rinsing off?

Thanks

[ARHarh]

TCruise said:

Anyone use BAC50 on sandstone?

Also after spraying BAC50 on, how long are you leaving it before rinsing off?

Thanks

I never spray it on, I just mix in a watering can pour it over whatever I want sorted and leave it. By the next day the green has gone. I have never scrubbed or rinsed it off.

Just about to my paths now as it seems to not be raining here today

[Semmelweiss]

TCruise said:

Anyone use BAC50 on sandstone?

Also after spraying BAC50 on, how long are you leaving it before rinsing off?

Thanks

Yes. Indian Mint Riven.

It never gets washed off. You apply it when it's not going to rain for 24-48 hours and once it dries, the biocide starts to work when next rain comes, and it will continue to work.

[Harpoon]

I got some sodium hyprochlorite off Amazon last month. Probably could have got it a little cheaper from a local agriculture place but I wasn't going near one so went for the lazy option.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07ND25RHF

First batch I mixed up at roughly 2 litres of SH to 5 litres of water (P for Plenty right?!). Block paving was pretty manky and very slippy. This was at 18:00.



Next morning after overnight rain. I think I'd rinsed it with a couple of buckets of water and given it a brush when I took this picture:



Second batch I went with 1 litre of SH to 6 litres of water and that worked just as well. First picture is 17:30 before I started:



This picture is 8.20 the next morning, having done nothing else to it (no rinse or brush)



I've tried to be careful when spraying which takes longer rather than just sloshing it on but I don't seem to have killed anything yet!

Will try the next mix at 0.5 litre to 6.5 litres water.

Once I've finished the block paving (there's more out of sight), I've got a load of sandstone to do (after a test in a discrete area!).

[dickymint]

ARHarh said:

TCruise said:

Anyone use BAC50 on sandstone?

Also after spraying BAC50 on, how long are you leaving it before rinsing off?

Thanks

I never spray it on, I just mix in a watering can pour it over whatever I want sorted and leave it. By the next day the green has gone. I have never scrubbed or rinsed it off.

Just about to my paths now as it seems to not be raining here today

Before and after shots please

[JQ]

Apologies, I have been following this thread (honest), but which is better for block paving - sodium sodium hypochlorite or BAC50 (Benzalkonium Chloride)?

I was literally just about to buy some BAC50 when the above post popped up about sodium hypochlorite, which looks fantastic.

[borrowdale]

If trying to avoid getting it near your plants, add some washing up liquid to the mix and you'll be able to see where all the soap suds are going

[98elise]

ARHarh said:

ambuletz said:

ARHarh said:

Power washing just moves the mess around. You spend hours blasting away, it destroys any mortar, everything gets covered in mud and muck. You then end up washing everything around your drive or path. Then the algee all comes back after a month or so.

Much rather just fill a watering can with BAC50, pour it over the drive, path or whatever. Rinse the watering can out and wait a day for the green to go. It will also last till winter if you do it now.

its not getting rid of it though is it? just killing it and leaving it there.

If you look at it like that then power washing is not going to magic it away either it's just going to move it over there a bit. Still know which method I am going to waste mine time doing, same as I have done for years.

It does, because its washed off the drive/patio onto the garden.

The alge doesn't come back after a month either.