How to Clean your Patio
March 16, 2020
Backyard Patios are the ideal space to entertain guests, spend quality time with the family, or simply relax and enjoy the outdoors. Maintaining your patio clean is relatively easy. Routine maintenance will ensure your patio will last for years to come. The proper steps needed to clean your patio depends on the material that your patio is made out of.
Poured Concrete:
Concrete is a very porous material, meaning that concrete is susceptible to stains and discoloration. For that reason, properly maintaining your concrete patio is important to maintain the aesthetic of the patio and your investment.
If you make sure that you routinely practice proper maintenance, which includes sweeping away debris and hosing the patio down with water, that should be all that is required.
If you happen to have not kept up on the maintenance using a mixture of soap and water, along with a little elbow grease and a synthetic bristle brush should do the trick. Keep in mind that you should not use a wire brush because those have a tendency of scratching the concrete.
If you happen to have tougher stains to remove, we’ve included a few more tricks you can use to get rid of even the toughest of stains.
Spraying oven cleaner on stains directly and letting it sit for 4 hours, then rinsing it off with a hose should help lift the stain.
Sprinkling a mix of Laundry detergent and a bit of water on the stain and then scrubbing it with a brush until the stain begins to fade, then rinsing off the mixture with water should help lift the stain.
If you happen to have oil stains, cat litter does wonders to remove oil stains. Grind the cat litter into the stain with a block of wood or something similar, allow the cat litter to set for a few minutes to absorb the oil and then sweep up the cat litter and hose down the area.
Stamped Concrete:
Stamped Concrete is much easier to clean than poured concrete because stamped concrete is protected by a sealer, making it waterproof and stain-resistant meaning stamped concrete requires minimal upkeep.
Just like poured concrete you want to start out by sweeping away all the dirt and debris, the reason why this is important is because if debris such as decaying leaves or wood is left on your patio for too long it can stain your concrete.
We recommend using a simple solution of dish soap and warm water and a nylon brush to scrub the stains away. And then simply hose it off with your garden hose. The ratio for the soup/water solution should be 1 cup of soup for every half gallon of water.
Another great alternative is using a pressure washer to remove the stains and debris.
Your stamped concrete patio should be resealed every 2-3 years to protect it and keep it looking new.
Natural Stone:
Natural stone is a very good option. Natural stone is stain-resistant and maintenance is also very fairly simple.
A good way to clean natural stone is to scrub the stain with a strong brush and use a solution of 1 part bleach and 1 part water and then rinse it off with your garden hose. Be careful rinsing the solution off though because the bleach/water solution has a tendency to kill grass and plants. If you’d like a more plant-friendly solution to replace the bleach with white vinegar.
Another good option is to pressure wash your natural stone patio.
If you’d like an extra level of protection natural stone can be given a sealant which would protect it against stains, making it even easier to clean.
Paver Stones:
If you are looking for the most low-maintenance option paver stones are your best bet. Paver stones don’t require a lot of maintenance work to keep them looking fresh and clean and chemicals are usually unnecessary.
To clean paver stones we recommend simply scrubbing the stain with a deck brush and a simple solution of regular dish soap and water. Keep in mind that the binding agent used to keep the pavers in place is sand so be careful when rinsing off the stone because you do not want the sand to wash away which is why we do not recommend using a pressure washer on paver stones.
An awesome plus of paver stones is if your patio is fine except for a couple of paver stones that are cracked or badly stained you can easily replace those couple of paver stones and your patio back to being good as new.
If you found that your patio or driveway needs more than cleaning reach out to us and you’d like to remodel your patio. Fill out our contact form for more information and a free estimate.
