Tue. Nov 5th, 2024
pressure wash driveway

How to properly pressure wash your driveway

We have all been there, years of accumulated dirt, dark stains

or moss on our driveways.

We typically are unaware of how dirty they actually are, until we see how clean it can be.

I can assure you, once you have seen the result, you will be enthusiastic for the next clean.

Pressure washing can be very simple once you have the basics down. A typical residential home requires approximately 1500 psi from a gas/disel, for an electric-

Requirements:

  • Pressure washer
  • Water hose
  • Pressure washer hose
  • Pressure washer gun
  • Gun extension(optional)
  • Rotary disk attachment(highly recommended)
  • Watered down soap (include ratio)
  • Chemical(optional)
  • Bottle sprayer 
  • Safety glasses

Preparing your pressure washer:

  • Place your pressure washer where it will provide the most reach of your driveway
  • Connect the water hose to the pressure washer, make sure its tightened to the point no water leaks. If you believe you have it tight enough, but water still leaks, then disconnect the hose and check the seal. Typically, orange or black colored rubber circles. If there are any visible tears, you will need to replace it. If it looks fine, just give it a quick poke to ensure its properly positioned on the circular increment.
  • Make sure the pressure washer has enough fuel (include gas consumption in terms of time then convert to sqft)

Turn on your pressure washer:

  • Check the seal of pressure washer hose on both ends, same procedure as before, visually inspect and ensure proper placement
  • Put on your glasses

There are two variations to this step, it depends if you have a switch/key to start or a pull to start.

For a pull to start:

  • Turn on the water without connecting the gun, the pressure washer must have pass through water flow in order to start. Plus its easier than holding the trigger and pulling simultaneously.
  • Turn on the pressure washer, raise it to about 15% of its maximum psi and let it run for a minimum of 2 minutes
  • While you let it warm up, pre-soak the area you will be cleaning and apply your chemical of choice, again simple water with soap works great as well.
  • Lower the psi all the way down, and connect the gun to the hose
  • Connect the wide tip attachment to the gun

For a switch/key to start:

    • Connect the gun to the hose and turn on the water
    • Press the gun’s trigger for 7-15 seconds to let out all the air
    • Turn on the pressure washer, raise it to about 15% of its maximum psi and let it run for a minimum of two minutes
    • While you let it warm up, pre-soak the area you will be cleaning 
    • Turn off the pressure washer
    • Apply your chemical of choice, or water with soap works great as well.
    • Connect the wide tip attachment to the gun
    • Turn on the pressure washer while pressing the trigger
 

Prepping the driveway:

  • Raise the psi pressure about half way, you will go over all the cracks between the cement segments, note if you have serious damage, for example, cracks on your cement with loose pieces, lower the psi to 10-15% when going over those areas
 

Where to start:

  • By now you should see some parts of the driveway starting to dry, which is perfect, you want to let the water with the chemical sit for a bit to ensure maximum penetration. If you have a few segments cracks you might need to hold off a minute or two before proceeding
  • For the next part, we will be using the rotary attachment. Also connect your gun extension if you have one, this is much more comfortable, completely optional. If you are not using this attachment, you can skip down below to the section “ Using a generic tip”
  • Unlike car washing, which you do from top to bottom. Here, you will be starting at the lowest point, left or right corner, your choice. When you go from the bottom to the top, it actually leaves less dirt behind, than top to bottom.
  • You will be working by layers, cover the whole bottom going to the opposite direction you started from, then go up by about 90% of the size of the rotary attachment. You do not go full size up to ensure no dirty lines stay in between each layer.

Step 5:

  • Switch to your wide tip to wash off the dirty water left over, make sure you do not get to close to the driveway with your gun or you will leave streak marks.
  • For the wash off, you will begin from the top to the bottom. Doing two layers at a time, and on each 3rd pass go back to 75% of the two layers. In other words, start half way of the second layer for your 3rd pass
  • Note, if you have a big driveway or area your cleaning do not wait until you go over everything with the rotary attachment. Go by sections,  because you do not want the dirt water to dry back, since everything else will be clean, that stain will be noticeable even though its relatively clean to how it was before.

Using a generic tip:

  • For this method you will be using, the wide tip that typically comes with the pressure washer.
  • The PSI depends on whether your interested on doing a quick pass or a deep clean. For a deep clean its best to use a lower psi (about x) and take slower strides. For a quick pass, you will be using a higher psi (about x) and going by pretty quick but twice, back and forth.
  • You will be starting at the most top/highest position of your driveway, left or right side, completely your choice.
  • The key here will be on the angle pointing down. In order to ensure you do not leave streak marks and or uneven cleaness
  • You will have to point down your gun 90 degrees and do your best to keep it at this angle, just straight down
  • The height distance from the floor will vary on how wide your tip open ups. If you are doing a deep clean, then position your gun height until the tip sprays open about 3.5 inches. For the quick pass, you want the spray to open up about 6 inches
  • Try to keep your clean line as straight as possible, you will be going towards the opposite direction you started from. Left to right or right to left. For a deep clean, each layer will be considered 3.5, for the quick pass each layer will be 6 inches.
  • Do one line(layer) all the way across, then go up 90% of a layer and start a new line(layer)
  • The 10% overlap will help cover human error and ensure you leave no dirty lines in between.
  • Note, if you have left a streak or an area uneven. There is no need to redo everything or even the line for that fact. Simply, focus on the area, while placing the gun 50% further than before with quick strides back and forth, 2-3 times should do the trick.

How often should you clean your driveway? Well, it depends. 

What is the primary cause for it getting dirty to begin with? Oil leaks from your vehicles? Repetitive grass cutting? Business that requires constant hauling back and forth? Or simply normal wear?

In reality, all the reasons above are pure cosmetics, and are not really required. What you need to watch out for are the following: Grass, Weeds, and Moss

            

Not only are they not visually appealing, but they also deteriorate your driveway over time. 

A pressure wash will eliminate them on the surface, but you will still need to deal with them under your driveway, to prevent further damage, and from them coming back again.

If your worried about how to handle a pressure washer, check out one of our other articles, where we talk about the do’s and don’t of a pressure washer. Like this one: https://machinesmadesimple.com/pressure-washer-maintenance