Vinegar or baking soda: These natural cleaners work well to clean cement patios with stubborn charcoal or rust spots. Mix equal parts vinegar and water, scrub the patio with the mixture, then give it a good rinse. If stains don't dissolve, try undiluted vinegar.
In fact, vinegar removes mold from concrete better than bleach. Bleach will only remove the top layer of mold, causing the mold to return.
Most stains on concrete floors can be removed quickly and easily, but a lot depends on how old the stain is and how porous the concrete surface is.
Use a detergent such as Dawn or Ajax dishwashing liquid mixed with water to brighten a concrete patio that hasn't been cleaned in a while. Just as you would regularly vacuum the floor and dust your furniture inside your house, you should keep your patio clean so it's ready at a moment's notice to entertain.
Yes, vinegar is an excellent concrete cleaner. This solution can strip surface-level messes from concrete. Due to its acidic properties, vinegar can be a powerful tool for breaking down offensive materials such as dirt, stains, and bacteria.
For most concrete floors, you can use a mixture of flour and hydrogen peroxide or water and trisodium phosphate. But for stamped concrete floors or polished concrete floors, you'll want to use a gentler solution. If your indoor concrete flooring is stamped, use a mop and mix water and a mild cleaner in a bucket.
If your concrete is dull and sprouting weeds or mold, bleach is your best option for cleaning and brightening concrete. Mix a cup of bleach into a 5-gallon bucket of warm water, then spray or pour over concrete. Rinse thoroughly with water.
Cleaning concrete with muriatic acid can be a highly effective solution if used correctly, providing ultra-bright white concrete and removal of many types of stains. In one application, you can remove rust stains, oil stains, algae, and paint splatter with a quick chemical application followed by pressure washing.
Mix a half and half solution of vinegar and warm water and pour it onto your stained patio. Leave it to get to work for around an hour, then use a stiff brush to remove the dislodged dirt from the slabs. Rinse with a garden hose or bucket of water and buff with a garden brush.
Simple Green Oxy Solve Concrete and Driveway Cleaner can be used with a power washer or for manual cleaning of concrete surfaces including driveways, sidewalks, patios, and walkways.
She specializes in cleaning, organizing, and home improvement projects. Vinegar is an all-natural solution for cleaning concrete. It kills mildew and mold, removes grime, and helps treat set-in stains. Before cleaning concrete with vinegar, it's essential to dilute it so you don't affect your sealer.
Concrete Acid Stains are the only true stains with permanent results.
Depending on the concrete sealer used, it's usually recommended to seal the concrete every couple of years to keep the color from fading. If you choose a high-quality concrete stain and sealer, you may be able to shorten the period between resealing to every 3-5 years.
A small amount of acid added to the water will pull the stain out of the concrete without etching the concrete surface. In essence, the acidic solution reverses the reaction, allowing you to pull the color back out of the concrete.
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.
Another relatively safe and environmentally friendly solution for cleaning concrete is an oxygen bleach product, such as OxiClean. Just be sure to wear rubber gloves, as bleach products can be tough on skin. Sprinkle the powerful solution over the entire patio and scrub it with an ordinary push broom.
Interior Concrete Floors:
Do Not use Dawn, Simple Green, Ammonia or harsh cleaners as they will work to damage and even strip the wax. The wax should last for several months or longer, but when it does start to dull or scuff, clean and let dry, then reapply a fresh coat of wax and let dry.
But that's not all; chlorine bleach can also be used for cleaning the concrete driveway. Of course, you should dilute it with equal parts of water or a 1:1 ratio. With the mixture ready, spray it on the driveway, allowing it to sit for 10 minutes. Then, use a stiff brush before rinsing with clean water.
As a gentler cleaner, bleach can't harm concrete's durable material. Aside from being an effective cleaner and stain remover, it also acts as a disinfectant to the concrete surface.
As a weak, dilute acid, vinegar will cause only minor damage to concrete but can take the shine off polished surfaces. It can, however, be used to remove small amounts of cement from tools. The interaction of vinegar and concrete comes down to chemistry.
Despite the signal word danger on most such labels, gardeners may instead just see vinegar and be careless. Sobering details: In concentrations over 11%, acetic acid can burn skin and cause eye damage, and concentrations of 20% and above are corrosive to tin, aluminum, iron, and concrete and can even cause blindness.