Use a mild grease-cutting detergent such as Dawn or Ajax dishwashing liquid mixed with water and a natural or synthetic bristle scrub brush to help brighten the patio surface. NOTE: Never use a wire brush as it can leave rust stains and scratch the concrete surface.
Interior Concrete Floors:
Clean with water. Use a mild detergent as needed. Such as Dove or Ivory dish soap. Do Not use Dawn, Simple Green, Ammonia or harsh cleaners as they will work to damage and even strip the wax.
Use Dish Soap and Water
Ordinary household dish soap as a degreaser is extremely useful for cleaning up oily, grimy concrete stains while avoiding the use of harmful chemicals. Start with two gallons of warm water and a mere two teaspoons of dish soap in a standard bucket.
Sweep off or vacuum up any loose dirt, dust, and debris from the concrete surface. Using a garden hose, wet the concrete. Then, apply a mixture of trisodium phosphate and water, scrubbing the solution onto the surface using a stiff-bristled broom. You can also use a pressure washer for this step.
Bronner's castile soap is our favorite non-specialized product for surface cleaning indoor concrete floors. Dr. Bronner's is a nearly pH-neutral cleaner that comes in a variety of natural scents. Because the soap is concentrated, a few drops in a gallon of water is plenty.
Scrub the concrete with a nylon-bristled brush and then rinse thoroughly with the garden hose. For extremely heavy stains, a power washer provides a much stronger stream of water to blast away the grime. Use a hose to rinse greenery after the patio is clean.
Vinegar and Baking Soda
Simply fill a spray bottle with equal parts water and vinegar (or water and baking soda), and add a little bit of liquid dish detergent. Spray the mixture on your concrete surface and let it sit for about 30 minutes. Then scrub and rinse your concrete.
Opt for the Most Basic Route: Soap and Water
Cleaning a concrete driveway does not have to be fancy. The easiest is the trusty soap and water mixture. Use dish soap and add it to a large bucket full of water. Then, get your stiff scrub brush, making sure it is not made of metal.
Vinegar Solution
Spraying a vinegar solution (1 cup of vinegar per gallon of water) onto the surface, saturating it fully, should kill most strains of mold. Vinegar spray can be followed by power washing or manual hand scrubbing to remove the dead mold.
Choose a highly concentrated, oil busting dish soap, such as Dawn. Squirt it over the stain and spread it around to cover the entire affected area. Let it sit for about an hour, then mop up the dish soap and oil with a paper towel.
Dawn Dish Detergent
All you need to do is pour a generous amount of dawn over the oil and use a large bristle brush to scrub the stain until you can see that it is pulling away from the ground. Rinse and repeat until the oil disappears. This might just be the cheapest solution you'll find!
Floor Mopping
Mild dish soap is a surprisingly good floor cleaner. All you need is 1 to 2 tablespoons of dish soap mixed in with a bucket of water. Floors will be clean and shiny in no time. Dish soap is very effective on resilient floorings, such as linoleum and vinyl, and also works well on ceramic tile.
Keep fertilizers away from concrete
Fertilizers often contain ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulfate which are harmful chemicals that can disintegrate concrete. Avoid using these on our near your concrete during its first year.
If your area is more prone to algae and mold, then you may want to wash your concrete more often. You should pressure wash your concrete at least once a year to protect your concrete and the value of your home. Using a concrete sealer can also prevent damage to your concrete after it has been washed.
Alkaline cleaners like baking soda (pH 8 to 9) and castile soap (pH 8.9) break down oil, grease, and other hydrocarbon-based grime. Higher alkaline cleaners like borax (pH 10) and washing soda (pH 11 to 12) tackle deeper, harder-to-remove concrete stains.
Use a Detergent
Concrete detergent is incredibly effective. I tried pressure washing without it, and the result didn't come close. It helps remove stubborn oil, paint and dirt stains. I used Zep Driveway & Concrete Pressure Wash detergent, but many great options are available.
Will Vinegar Damage Concrete? Cleaning concrete with vinegar will not damage it! However, saturating concrete for an extended period will damage the cement that binds concrete together. Over time, vinegar erodes the concrete itself, so be careful.
First, you'll add a little Dawn soap to the stain. Then, add some hot water on top of it. Insert your wire cup brush into your drill and place the brush on the stain. Press the trigger to power on your drill and continue moving your brush around until the stain is gone.
Use a mild grease-cutting detergent such as Dawn or Ajax dishwashing liquid mixed with water and a natural or synthetic bristle scrub brush to help brighten the patio surface.
Recipe #3 – Mix 1/3 cup Tide to 1 gallon of warm water. Any of these should work well for cleaning unsealed cement garage floors. SCRUB THE FLOOR – Pour your warm water solution onto a section of the garage floor and start scrubbing. Begin at the back of the garage and move outward.