Before cleaning, we recommend decluttering and sweeping your patio so it is clear of any debris or dirt. Once your patio is clear, pour the vinegar solution over the areas that need cleaning and leave for 20 minutes. Once the time is up, give it a good scrub with a gardening brush and rinse it away.
Pour your vinegar and water solution over your patio (you may need several buckets) and leave the vinegar to work its way into the paving slabs for 30 minutes to an hour. Once the time is up, follow the soapy water method from step 4 onwards.
White vinegar is often recommended as an eco-friendly cleaning product, and it is certainly effective at removing stains. However, many landscaping firms advise against using vinegar to clean paving, as the acid can damage the surface of the stones, particularly limestone or concrete pavers.
Leave the white vinegar for 1 hour or so to let the vinegar work its way into the paver slabs. Spray the surface with soap and water, then scrub off. Rinse with warm water, then let dry. You may repeat the process if there are stains left.
The acetic acid in vinegar is a little stronger than acid rain, so exposing your pavers to this substance can lead to bleaching, corrosion and the loss of protective sealant.
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.
Do not let vinegar sit on unfinished concrete for longer than ten to 15 minutes, or it will cause damage. If you're working with unfinished concrete, you can let the vinegar sit on the concrete for a bit longer so it works better on deeper stains.
“Also, vinegar needs to sit on a surface for up to 30 minutes in order to reduce bacteria. You can't just spray it and wipe.”
White vinegar will not damage your concrete. However, leaving this solution for an extended period will damage the cement that binds the concrete together. Hence, you should be careful when using vinegar on your concrete, especially if you will use this solution on polished concrete.
Experts say they can do the trick for the patio as well. 'You can remove black spots easily from patios in an eco-friendly, low-cost way, with white vinegar,' says Laura Harnett, Founder, Seep. 'It has antifungal and antibacterial properties and will also stop the mould or lichen growing back.
Clear your patio and brush down thoroughly so you are starting with a semi-clean surface, then wet the paving slabs with water before treating them with the mixture. Pour one cup of baking soda into a plastic bowl and slowly add two cups of distilled white vinegar.
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.
To clean smaller surfaces areas, pH-neutral soap, a little water, and a brush are suitable. If you want to clean larger areas of natural stone efficiently, you can reach for the electric patio cleaner or work with the pressure washer and a surface cleaner.
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.
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.
We found several “recipes” for cleaning solutions that can be used on unsealed cement garage floors. Here are three of the most common: Recipe #1 – Mix 2 tsp. dish soap, 1 cup white vinegar and 1 gallon warm water in a bucket.
Rinsing is not necessary! If you're simply using a vinegar and water solution to wipe and disinfect, you won't need to rinse. However, if there's also plenty of dirt and grime you're wiping away, you may also want to rinse with some extra water.
Do you need to rinse after washing with vinegar? If you have used vinegar in your washing machine to clean or to do laundry, then you do not need to run a rinse cycle afterward as a standard laundry cycle runs a plain water cycle towards the end anyway to remove any residue left behind.
Air dry. There's no need to rinse your vinegar-mopping solution from your floors. Keep in mind that your floors should be drying very quickly if you've wrung out your mop sufficiently.
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.
Natural Stone Countertops. Granite, marble and concrete are porous. Spraying these surfaces with vinegar can cause etching and loss of shine.
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.