WILL A DOMESTIC PRESSURE WASHER CLEAN A PATIO IN FIFE

WILL A DOMESTIC PRESSURE WASHER CLEAN A PATIO

A domestic pressure washer isn’t really built to penetrate dirty paving, like a commercial petrol or diesel driven one is.  At the time of writing, a Karcher K4 is on offer at around £180 and allows a flow rate of 420 litres per hour-these machines are usually measured at litre per hour and I can’t help but think this is to make the numbers seem bigger. All commercial machines are measured generally at LPM (litres per minute). The PSI (Pound-Force Per Square Inch) of this Karcher machine is 1800. These electric machines cost not far from what a professional will charge to do the job properly, and I always feel sorry for customers when I see them cleaning a driveway with an electric washer. It is a great investment of time needed on their part, and I don’t feel its cost effective at all.

My Honda Gx390  (as shown here in the backdrop of one of the images) in comparison offers 21 LPM (1260 Litre per Hour) and over 3000psi of force, and even yet this doesn’t always remove all mould spores on the driveway or patio. See our other blog on Chemical use for more information, and below we explain some of the issues and remedies for treating driveway and patios in Fife, with a commercial pressure washer.

WHAT IS LICHEN

Lichen is a composite organism that results from the combination of algae and fungi. They live in a symbiotic relationship and come in many shapes, colours and sizes. It is estimated that 6% of the earth’s surface is covered in lichen and they are everywhere! If you ever go hill walking and see stones with an orange crusty coating, this is Caloplaca marina, another type of lichen. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichen for more information.

WHAT ARE THE WAYS WE CAN TREAT LICHEN

As we mentioned, lichen is a living organism and this is what makes it extremely difficult to remove. It grows into surfaces over time rather than just wiping off. There are many chemicals that treat these stubborn marks but the process we usually find best is to pressure wash the surface, apply sodium hypochlorite as per our other blog post and finally pressure wash the remains off again.

WHAT EQUIPMENT CLEANS A PATIO

On our Driveway cleaning page, there is information of what we can offer, and the main tool that we always require for block paving surfaces is a turbo nozzle, we have a duel tipped turbo nozzle to tackle twice the area at once (as shown here in the image). This is a tip that we fit onto our pressure washer and is ceramic in makeup. The water is forced out in a swirling motion and creates a very powerful spray indeed. As professionals, we know that this has to be used right and below are some of the ways we use it

• Aim at a right angle to paving
• Follow the lines of the joints with it, to flush out all debris
• Always make at least two passes over the ground, to avoid “turbo trails” (marks from the nozzle)
• Spend more time on areas of mould
• Pay attention to the water drainage, we always have a clear plan of where to push the excess water
• Sweep up all excess water as we go, we don’t want the joints to be filled back up with dirt

Please visit https://fifewindowcleaningservices.co.uk for a list of all services

Our Gutter specific site is https://www.fifeguttercleaningservices.co.uk

Blog post written by Chris Fotheringham