Pressure Washing Concrete Driveways

[@bigbearbear5458]

The tennis ball recommendation is pure gold, I had cramps on my hand from holding the pressure washer trigger down a long time when cleaning my long driveway. Going to give this a try when I do my cleaning this year. One tip I have for those new to pressure washers, is to make sure your tips are securely locked in before you try to use it. In fact, make it a habit to point the tip somewhere safe and trigger it a couple of times to make sure it is secure. If not secured properly, it will shoot off like a air rifle pellet and if you were trying to wash your car, it will one heck of an expensive mistake. I had my green tip shot off that way and thankfully I was washing the driveway.

[@HowTowithDoc]

The famous FLYING tip. Been there.

[@nawtyshygirl6468]

Doc is awesome he explains like a college professor, scientific, simple and interesting.

[@AndrewBaker1]

I got the hose extender, wand extender and the surface cleaner attachment. All were great recommendations. The extension wand has saved my back ... such a good idea. Great channel! I enjoy watching your videos.

[@MyGuyKirby]

Great idea for the spring hose extender, takes the vibration from the unit away from the hose connection putting early stress on the supply hose. I do second the use of the hose splitter, never have to stop and remove the deck unit. Just grab the second line and wash away the grime (higher GPM with the hose normally). Nice tip with the tennis ball to relax the hand!

[@donnaber4918]

Hi Doc great info, but I hope you don’t mind me suggesting a couple things. First never run your pressure washer without water running through the pump. I know because I have replaced 2 pumps because I forgot to turn the water on. Second, quick disconnects for the hoses. I have found these to be great time savers. Keep up the great work Doc!

[@crocodile1313]

Correct. I have the Simpson model with the 190cc Honda engine and the instruction manual clearly states to never allow the engine to run "more than 2 minutes" WITHOUT the wand trigger being pulled. Personally, I've never let the engine/pump run for more than about 30 seconds without the trigger being pulled, but I guess on this model it is able to go a little longer without damaging the pump. Still, I'd rather not push it, so I think about one minute would be all I would risk.

[@artmonk5907]

Thanks for the info doc! Bought a simpson pressure washer lasy year on your recommendation. Love it! The house wash tip saved me a ton of work as well!

[@shoptalkwithbrett6572]

I added one of those spring hose extenders to the Simpson ALH3228 I bought last year and it also serves another purpose besides extending your inlet hose connection. It also keeps you from losing the inlet screen on your water inlet on the pump. I mentioned it on my Simpson walk around and first impressions vid on my channel

[@pete-of3ne]

i used 30 second cleaner on the north side of my house just over a year now.. as of today, it looks like i cleaned it last week .. great stuff..

[@RMJ3032]

Doc, Did you give up on Mold Armor EZ House Wash from one of your previous videos? I've had great results even on a painted house, just leave on a few minutes without damage to the paint.

[@mattspontiacta]

If you like paying 3x what a gallon of bleach cost go for it. Both have sodium hyper chloride which is bleach.

[@robertbonfiglio758]

Pool shock is way better and cheaper than the 30 second cleaner save your money 👍

[@mikezou9929]

Another educational vid thanks Doc

[@john300k]

Great video, I learned a lot!

[@rnas3669]

Thanks for posting. Where can one get the green hose extension with spring?

[@crocodile1313]

I watched this video 24 hours too late, as I am still nursing my cramped right hand from having to hold that damn trigger down for 2 hours while surface cleaning my pool deck. I'm running out to buy some tennis balls today, lol! Also, I guess I have a lousy surface cleaner model (it's a steel "Powerhorse" from Northern Tool) for my Simpson 190cc Honda washer, because it certainly does not clean as easily as Doc shows on this video. I have to either move my surface cleaner at a crawl, or go back and forth over the same spot numerous times, or it leaves swirls and does not clean uniformly. Does anyone know if that "Karcher" is still the best recommended model?

[@AlexKunstar]

One other tip for anyone getting swirl marks with a surface cleaner.. It's usually because you're simply moving too fast. Overlapping a bit too much is much less likely to cause swirls compared to wanting to drag it way too fast because you THINK it's done cleaning. Nice and steady, rinse and go over it again nice and slow in the opposite direction.

[@christineedwards4865]

Doc, do you have any recommendations on a decent push mower? I'm sick and tired of replacing Crapsman mowers. Thanks for the pressure washing advice by the way, you gave me an idea.

[@mikehouser5430]

Honda..Toro.. most of the rest are made by MTD including Craftsman

[@dannyt9067]

FYI Honda has decided to stop making lawn mowers. No joke. I’d say toro is prob best.

[@mikehouser5430]

@@dannyt9067 get a Honda while you can

[@RMJ3032]

@@mikehouser5430 Agree with Toro. I bought a Lawn Boy in 2011 (now/bought by Toro) still going strong with the Kohler Courage XT engine. Only slight wear issue so far is the plastic wheels axle bores getting a little sloppy. Wheels available on Jacks Small Engines.

[@robertbonfiglio758]

Hello Doc I use pool shock 10-12% sodium hypochloride with a little dawnsoap

[@mattspontiacta]

Works great 👍

[@robertbonfiglio758]

It does and kills any algae 👍

[@RPH_Hydroseeding]

Hey DOC huge fan from New Mexico, i was wondering what are your thoughts on HYDROSEEDING for a new lawn project, idk if you ever jumped on that subject before. My spouse and i have a Hydroseeding business here down South vlose to the border and MANY ppl don't know or never heard of such thing 😅.

[@andrewhricovsky2633]

I prefer to use the commercial power washer. The Simpsons power washers are OK but the palms quit working about after two years and I like to use the surface cleaner. The power washer I have is 5 gallons per minute to 3000 psi and it doesn’t wonderful job on my driveway.

[@richardvoss2509]

I have seen pressure washers take off too much concrete and leave a bunch of larger stones in the concrete exposed. Do you have a tip or suggestion how I can prevent that from happening?

[@HowTowithDoc]

Make sure you use a surface cleaner and it's kind of a natural occurrence. The cement portion of the concrete moves and the stones will not.

[@adamghazal9204]

Thanks Doc

[@angelcolon4728]

to get the algie or muel of citer siding wha t can I use

[@mattspontiacta]

I always use my softwash system to apply a 3 percent SH through my blending manifold on a concrete driveway before using my 20 inch BE surface cleaner. I let it dwell for 7-8 minutes then surface clean it. It kills the organic growth on the driveway. Turns out great every time. Plus it last much longer before it needs to be cleaned again compared to using no bleach. I also clean about 100 driveways a year. Plenty of repeat customers as I have been doing this PW business over 30 yrs. 30 sec cleaner is overpriced SH.. just another marketing ploy to get your money.

[@473828]

Electric pressure washers with the same psi and GPM and gas is about 3.5x the price.

[@ledpaul713]

Safety reminder: make sure to wear proper PPE including eye protection, long pants and closed-toed shoes when pressure washing. A friend of mine recently had their handle connection fail and the whipping hose shot a high pressure stream down the full length of their leg while just wearing shorts, looked like a 3ft long severe blood blister. Thankfully they are OK but doctor said they were very close to losing their leg from possible complications from subdermal ruptures and compartment syndrome. Although PPE may not stop a direct hit from a high pressure tip, something is better than nothing. After seeing photos from their incident I cringe every time I see someone pressure washing wearing shorts and sandals.

[@redbirdsjunkie]

Thought for sure you was gonna mention putting dirt booster down on the concrete...

[@HowTowithDoc]

It grows too fast. 😄

[@SingleStacked]

The 30sec. cleaner advertises it works on concrete. Why not use that on the driveway?

[@HowTowithDoc]

Watch the video... we say use it if you want.

[@robertbonfiglio758]

Use pool shock 10-12%sodium hypo chloride add some dawn dish soap so much cheaper use in a pump sprayer works on concrete and siding Do not put bleach in a pressure washer

[@crocodile1313]

@@robertbonfiglio758 I would not recommend using any kind of pool shock for anything other than its manufactured purpose for safety reasons alone. Pool shock (chlorine) is highly concentrated bleach on steroids and (I'm not sure about Dawn specifically), some dish soaps contain small amounts of ammonia which, when mixed with chlorine, can produce lethal mustard gas-type fumes. Anyone who has ever been knocked backward by accidently inhaling while opening a bucket of pool chlorine knows what I'm talking about. And, on the practical side, normal household bleach is way less expensive than chlorine pool shock.

[@MrBillsmith60]

Dude! You have Rattlesnake

[@josephkaple8923]

Simpson’s AAA brand pumps have a terrible reputation in the pressure washing industry AR,Comet and General are MUCH better choices.