Patio cleaning… gadget or chemical?

[JQ]

bennno said:

blueg33 said:

Are any of the chemicals safe for pets? I note many of you leave chemicals on overnight. For us that means it could affect hedgehogs and deer as well as our cat.

Sodium hypochlorite takes an hour or so. Then you wash it off.

Apologies for what is I suspect a very stupid question - but I presume, no matter how long you wait, Sodium hypochlorite washed into a flowerbed or onto a lawn will kill the bushes / flowers / grass?

[KTMsm]

Am I missing something ?

Sodium hypochlorate is just bleach - why aren't people using household stuff ?

[98elise]

KTMsm said:

Am I missing something ?

Sodium hypochlorate is just bleach - why aren't people using household stuff ?

Household stuff is weaker. Buy the 15% stuff from Amazon or farm shops.

Household stuff didn't touch the white lichen spots on my drive. 15% stuff killed it. It takes a few months for it to go but it was completely cleared.

[eps]

I picked up some Karcher patio cleaner possibly cheap/deal maybe even from their clearance site, plus then basically used the lance on hard and just 'swept' the patio from one side to the other. It was long and slow but made a massive difference. Although I'm hoping to not have to do it every year!!!

Basically all/most of it can be blasted off. A bit of a soak + cleaner to get it started and then blast... Of course it goes 'everywhere'!!!

[geeks]

I have used Wet and Forget in the past quite successfully

[paulmac]

When using BAC50 diluted to say 40:1, do you just pour on with a watering can & leave it to dry? Or do you need to brush it in & wash off?

[ambuletz]

Anyone have any progress on this? would be interested in hearing the results, costs etc... (vs buying and using a pressure washer)

[beedj]

paulmac said:

When using BAC50 diluted to say 40:1, do you just pour on with a watering can & leave it to dry? Or do you need to brush it in & wash off?

I use a 7L hozelock garden sprayer instead of watering can - far more controllable and I found I use a lot less liquid for same result. Also means I don’t need to worry about forgetting to rinse the watering can out and inadvertently killing the next thing I use it for. I never rinse it off.

I have a lot of paving/block paving, 150-200sqm,, c.100m long gravel driveway which is a weed magnet, and a lot of grass - I invested in three Hozelock 7L sprayers a few years ago, I keep one permanently with BAC50 (at 40:1), one for Normal weed killer (glyphosphate/ Gallup at 50:1 from memory, 5L for c.£50?) and one with lawn weed killer (weedol) and replenish each one when empty. Sounds over the top but I’m sure it saves me loads of time having it all 'on tap' and able to spot treat where necessary. Also far more cost effective doing it in bulk

ps. Each sprayer clearly marked to avoid accidentally killing the grass!

[beedj]

ambuletz said:

Anyone have any progress on this? would be interested in hearing the results, costs etc... (vs buying and using a pressure washer)

I use BAC50 as above and I’d say my patios end up 80% clean by doing nothing more than spraying and leaving it (and 100% clear of green algae type marks); once a year I use Nilfisk patio attachment which is brilliant and clears the remaining 20%

[darreni]

I have white litchen spots/ marks, will bac 50 sort this?

[bennno]

darreni said:

I have white litchen spots/ marks, will bac 50 sort this?

Sodium hypochlorite followed with pressure washer does

[Ice_blue_tvr]

I pressure washed part of my patio, and used patio magic in the other parts.

Pressure washed obviously looked clean straight away.

Patio magic took a few days/weeks to reach it's optimum level of cleanliness and looked cleaner.

The perception was the patio magic part stayed cleaner for longer.

I tend to use a combo of both though. Some gallup xl for the weeds now and again too.

[sospan]

I use a combination of Karcher rotary cleaner, normal nozzle ( adjust pressure to suit, Hypochlorite.
Karcher rotary is ok for light clean but nozzle gets more off. Rotary creates less “overspray” of muck. Hypo bought in bulk 25l drum and used no less than 50% strength, applied with watering can and light brush removes stubborn stuff.
Only used on the block paved areas though. The porcelain patio just needs a wash/ stiff brush with a hose/brush combo that fits onto a hose.

[dickymint]

My second Karcher blew up a couple of years ago! Needed to clean the patio for an upcoming BBQ so thought I'd give Patio Magic a try. Didn't think it would be any good TBH .........................

Before...............



Few days later............



Dead easy with the battery nozzle

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01BWW1RV0/ref...

And still got loads of the concentrated stuff left

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001VEJCMQ/ref...

Edit: since then I've blown up a Nilfisk washer too

[98elise]

darreni said:

I have white litchen spots/ marks, will bac 50 sort this?

15% sodium hypochlorite will

This was mine



It's now completely clear. It took a while for it to go, but I didn't jet wash it after. I just left it to work.

Edited by 98elise on Sunday 2nd July 14:16

[darreni]

Cheers for that, mine looks exactly the same. I’ll give it a go.

[98elise]

darreni said:

Cheers for that, mine looks exactly the same. I’ll give it a go.

Wear old clothes and be careful where it washes off to. It's strong bleach.

Nothing else I tried would touch the white spots. It took a couple of months for the spots to go, but they all disappeared, and didn't come back for a few years.

Recently I treated the drive again as a few had reappeared, and now it's clear again. This time I watered it down a little though, and it still worked fine. I roller it onto the drive to keep it under control.

This was from the last treatment you can see how it reacts

Edited by 98elise on Sunday 2nd July 14:34

[bodhi]

We've got a Bosch pressure washer with their patio cleaning attachment to clean the sizeable patio we have out the back - unfortunately, due to our furred up mains supply pipe the tap can't produce enough flow to make it work properly (water feeds through but there is no pressure in the jets) so it just ends up getting the patio very wet.

We ended up using patio magic first, let it clear what it could then hosed down with the normal pressure washer.

The attachment looks really useful, however if you have water flow/pressure issues, then don't bother, just use a normal pressure washer.

[dickymint]

bodhi said:

We've got a Bosch pressure washer with their patio cleaning attachment to clean the sizeable patio we have out the back - unfortunately, due to our furred up mains supply pipe the tap can't produce enough flow to make it work properly (water feeds through but there is no pressure in the jets) so it just ends up getting the patio very wet.

We ended up using patio magic first, let it clear what it could then hosed down with the normal pressure washer.

The attachment looks really useful, however if you have water flow/pressure issues, then don't bother, just use a normal pressure washer.

Karcers’ come with two sizes of nozzle maybe you have the wrong size?

[bodhi]

dickymint said:

bodhi said:

We've got a Bosch pressure washer with their patio cleaning attachment to clean the sizeable patio we have out the back - unfortunately, due to our furred up mains supply pipe the tap can't produce enough flow to make it work properly (water feeds through but there is no pressure in the jets) so it just ends up getting the patio very wet.

We ended up using patio magic first, let it clear what it could then hosed down with the normal pressure washer.

The attachment looks really useful, however if you have water flow/pressure issues, then don't bother, just use a normal pressure washer.

Karcers’ come with two sizes of nozzle maybe you have the wrong size?

I double checked it was the right attachment for the pressure washer we have.

Let's just say in our house we have to anounce when we are going for a shower, as flushing the toilet or turning a tap on results in the shower going very cold then switching off until the cistern has finished filling.....