Welcome to Patio Cleaner Talk where you will find all types of wonderful, fast acting cleaners for your patio and path job. Have you ever cleaned your patio and had the chemical accidently kill all the plants growing around the it? I’ll help you with some sound advice and work with you on making your next cleaning project a big success. There is a patio cleaner that is a highly effective cleaner based on sodium percarbonate (oxygen bleach). When you mix this with water the it releases oxygen; which attaches and breaks down organic stains and dirt and it doesn’t attack plants. This oxygen bleach removes the sun faded, oxidized areas and can make your patio look like new. Most patio cleaners have ingredients that assist the cleaning solution boosting the performance of the oxygen bleach.

Pressure Washer Patio Cleaner

Pressure washing is usually enough to remove moss, those green stains you see as well as mildew stains that are usually black from brick and other patio surfaces. It’s a fact that results are better when the moss is actively growing, but you should be able to remove the stains even in cold weather. Don’t use a pressure higher than 3,000 psi or you may damage the brick. Using an good low-sudsing pressure washer patio cleaner will loosen up the dirt muck and the high pressure water will take the dirt away cleaning it deeply and helping to prevent moss and mildew from growing back.

Patio Furniture Cleaning

When it comes to patio furniture cleaning, having the right pressure cleaning equipment is vital. Don’t worry too much, because most home improvement and hardware stores now rent portable pressure cleaners and they are not difficult to use. I’ll discuss how to loosen up the dirt and grime by light spraying the furniture with good cleaner. Sometime later you will want to come back and blast that grime off with your pressure washer. However, here is where you can ruin perfectly good furniture. Make sure you use a lower pressure nozzle for your furniture so you don’t cut through fabric or plastics. And keep and eye on the runoff so it doesn’t get into your plants or lawn.

Concrete Patio Cleaner

Today, most of us are thinking CHLORINE-free. There are powerful nontoxic formulas that clean tough jobs yet are safe to use as a concrete patio cleaner. These revolutionary products won’t harm plants, people or pets and breaks down quickly into natural components after use. Over time exterior surfaces can become soiled with a variety of stains which include mold, fungus, mildew, algae, leaf tannins, dirt, grease and oil. Traditionally, products that use chlorine bleach, oxalic acid, petroleum solvents and phosphates have been used to do the cleaning and stain removal. While these products can be effective, they also can be very harmful to the environment, plants, grass, flowers and humans.

Patio Cleaning Products

Dirty decks and stained concrete patios are two different surfaces but cleaning them is not rocket science. It just requires preparation, some rental equipment, and sealant for the deck as well as the patio. You will need a high-quality pressure washer, which as I mentioned the home and garden stores rent by the hour or the day. Next you will need a quality wood or concrete cleaner. There are many chemical cleaners that can be used to clean a patio, some with extremely long names. But rather than researching chemicals you can simply purchase a premixed cleaner. Companies like Wolman, Zinsser, and Cabot all make patio cleaners and brighteners.

Oil and grease are probably some of the toughest to get up off patios but they come up with some hot water and patio cleaning products which contain alkalizers. Look at the ingredients of the product to tell whether or not it has an alkaline degreaser. Most product websites now have this listed on them. The hot water will cause the oil to come up and float (more than cold) and the degreaser will continue to cut and break down the oil. I found that some degreasers will leave a weird looking shiny wet spot on concrete, so make sure you are using a good patio cleaning product.

Rust is as bad as oil. It goes deep into concrete pores and is a toughy. Products with oxalic acid work best as they remove rust well. Use these patio cleaning products with goggles or glasses because you don’t want this caustic stuff in your eyes. You might have to repeat several times before you get that rust stain up. I had to work on mine a bit but it finally came clean. Let the solution stand for several minutes before you start brushing it out.

Mildew and dirt seem to come up best with products that have bleach in them. Again, check the label. Use rubber or latex gloves and a bucket of water. Don’t get the patio cleaning product on you as it has chemicals in it. Let the solution stand for at least 10 minutes and remove. Scrub it with the hottest water you have.

Remove rubber tire marks or other rubber with brake cleaner. I know that’s not a patio cleaning product per se, but it works wonders. Let it sit for a bit to dissolve the rubber and then wash down. Brake cleaner works on many stains around the house as well. Experiment.

Some patio cleaning products have TSP or Tri-sodium phosphate in them. This works as an agent that breaks down stains. Some products may come with hydrochloric acid in them. This will etch part of the concrete away, so use these products with caution. Make sure you follow label directions and work with gloves and eye protection. You should be able to get up all the stains and have a great looking patio as well.

Depending on how much furniture you have to clean you can make a big batch of patio furniture cleaning solution. I mix about one teaspoon of cleanser to a quart of water. Make sure your water is warm so you won’t have the solution separating. Mix it well, then find an empty spray bottle and fill it with your first batch. Before you start to use the cleaning solution, make sure your patio furniture is as clean as you can get it.

Using your newly created patio furniture cleaning solution spray down both sides of the cushions. Get a lot of the solution on so that it can soak in really well. If you really soak the cushions and the rest of the furniture now, it will be much easier to get off when you go to clean off the soap and grime later. I sprayed it on and then let it sit for about 15 to 20 minutes, about the same time I let the concentrate sit on the floor to clean that patio surface. Just makes sense to let it do its job and I tell you, it comes out a lot nicer and is easier to get clean when you do it this way.

You don’t want to pressure wash the cushions unless you use the pressure washer on a very light setting. So what I’m saying is that you can even use the garden hose to clean these off once the solution has been sitting for 15 minutes or so. It’s incredible how easily the grit comes off. And then, once you’re done with that, I set the cushions up on their side and let them just drip dry. If you can find a sunny spot, good. But if not, choose the best place that gets plenty of air circulating around. Don’t let them dry completely. I have one more trick that helps keep them clean.

To make patio furniture cleaning easier I wait until the cushions are still a tad damp and then spray them with a good fabric protector. There are several good fabric protectors on the market to keep the dampness out and the dirt from penetrating deep.

Remember to buy a good brand of patio furniture cleaning solution which can be made from high quality detergent. Then pick up some fabric protector to keep your job lasting until next spring or fall. It pays to use the right solution and protector so you won’t have to work so hard on your patio cleaning each year.