That viral comment about pressure washing driveways with just water blew my mind

I saw a post last week where someone claimed you can clean any concrete with just a garden hose and a stiff brush, and the comments were mostly agreeing with them. I tried it on a customer's driveway in St. Louis that had 3 years of grime built up, and it barely made a dent compared to using my 4 GPM machine with surface cleaner. Has anyone else found that those 'simple tricks' comments are written by people who never actually do the work?

3 comments

3 Comments

blakem371mo ago

Nah, Lisa, my garden hose with a scrub brush handled a year of grime on my patio just fine.

wright.lisa1mo ago

...and those same people probably think you can clean a charcoal grill with just a paper towel and some elbow grease. I tried that garden hose thing on my own sidewalk once, and all I got was a wet sidewalk and a sore back. The dirt just laughed at me and stayed put. It's like those life hacks are written by people who've never actually had to deal with real grime, just a little dust on a brand new driveway. I'm convinced half of those comments come from bots or people who think wiping a counter counts as "deep cleaning.

ryan_gibson841mo ago

The only thing that actually works on my concrete is a pressure washer with a surface cleaner attachment, which runs about 200 bucks at the hardware store. Garden hose pressure is basically useless, you need that forced water plus the spinning head to lift the dirt. Bleach or a concrete cleaner sprayed on first and let sit for 10 minutes makes the difference between a wet sidewalk and a clean one.