How To Clean Outdoor Painted Concrete

For some of the state, patio flavor is winding downward. For other parts of the state, specifically here in Texas, patio season is finally but getting started! Temperatures have gone from 110 (for real, ya'll) to the seventy's and I. Am. Loving. It! We are spending more time on our patio, but there'south been one picayune outcome…the concrete is gross. At that place are a ton of ways out there to make clean concrete, but I like to apply what I accept on-hand and do things the easy way, so after a little trial and error I figured it out! Here'south how to clean concrete (the easy mode!).

before and after of a concrete patio when cleaned

How to make clean concrete patio

During my research, I learned that people go to extremes to attempt and go their concrete patio make clean…including using acrid to wash the surface. That's a little hardcore for me, especially as a mama with a baby around and someone who wants to keep their grass live.

So, I turned to what I had on hand, which was Tide Oxi. It's a laundry production that removes stains from vesture, so I idea information technology might work on concrete besides. It seemed weird, but why not? I decided to give it a shot—and it actually worked! No acid needed. 🙂

Supplies Needed

Push broom
Powdered stain remover – we used Tide Oxisince that's what we had already, merely I recall a stain remover like Oxi Cleanwould work just also
Scrubbing brush
Large bucket
Water hose

Offset of all, you'll need to clear off your porch. Alarm—you all are going to be grossed out when you meet what was hiding underneath all of it. Look how nasty our porch was once the piece of furniture was gone!

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Adjacent, y'all'll need to utilise a push button broom to sweep off all the dirt, leaves and debris from the porch. You desire the surface to exist as clean every bit possible before you brainstorm.

Now it's fourth dimension to make your cleaner. I used a full scoop of the cleaner since our porch was and then dirty. I've gotten to work with a lot of cleaning agents and products over the years, and I hope you guys—this was the best-smelling one! Both Scott and I were joking that our porch was going to odour similar fresh laundry, which is never a bad thing!

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Once you take your solution mixed, you will want to work in modest areas at a time. Pour some of the mix on the porch and then use these scrubbing brushes to scrub the stains and dirt off. This method does take a flake of elbow grease, but it's bang-up!

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Check out this brush—yikes!

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The directions on the box conspicuously say to keep away from plants, then be very careful to not allow any runoff into the garden. We would continually utilize the broom to push all the water down the stairs rather than permit it drip into the garden.

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It took the states virtually 30 minutes to scrub downward the entire porch, but yours will have more or less depending on the size and how dirty it is.

One time y'all are done scrubbing, rinse thoroughly.

Cheque out how much better things were looking already!

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Hither's a before/after shot so you don't take to ringlet support to compare. 🙂

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How do you get stains out of physical?

Every bit you lot tin can see in a higher place, there were still a few stained areas on the porch. Stains tin be extremely difficult to get out of concrete since it'due south a porous cloth. Thus, yous take to depict them out. To get stains out, brand a thick paste using your cleaner—it should be the consistency of peanut butter. Spread the paste mixture onto the stain and let information technology sit for a few hours, then scrape it away and rinse. Repeat as necessary.

See? So much ameliorate! 🙂

before and after of a concrete patio when cleaned and stains removed

How to make clean concrete without a force per unit area washer

I've heard pressure washers are a great way to clean concrete (and everything else, besides!) but I don't have i and didn't want to become buy one only for this. I did figure out how to make clean concrete without a pressure washer though!

I recommend following the procedure above of scrubbing the concrete with a cleaner, then rinsing. To create a more pressurized rinse using a hose, you can either use the jet setting on your hose'due south nozzle (this hose and nozzle works actually well). If you don't accept a nozzle, just utilise your thumb to directly the spray forcefully.

How to clean concrete steps

Cleaning concrete steps is easy! Get-go, sweep and rinse them down to remove all debris. Then create a paste using a mix of Tide Oxi or Oxi Clean—you can ignore the ratios on the box and instead put a scoop into the bucket and add together h2o slowly until the mixture resembles the thickness of peanut butter. Employ a hand brush and scrub the steps, and then rinse with a hose.

So, now that you lot know how to clean physical, what do you practice with your concrete once it's clean? You can do what I did and paint your concrete with this like shooting fish in a barrel DIY concrete painted rug! It's super easy…and super cute! Enjoy!

girl painting rug onto concrete patio