Construction Clean-up Job

[jkwalz]

I was hoping to get a little advice on my first new-construction clean up job.

I have been asked by a general contractor to clean up what looks like masonry mud and stucco from about 2000 sq ft of colored concrete at a million dollar house. I have never done a job like this so I was hoping to get a few pointers about it. I plan on using a chemical sold by my local pressure washing supply house that is specifically designed for cleaning masonry.

Is there anything I need to watch out for? It looks like some of the stuff is pretty thick in a few places. Do I need to bring a scraper with me? Should I use low temperature/pressure? Surface spinner? Wand only?

Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated.

Here is a link to some pics of the surface:

http://www.walzfamily.com/gallery/sh...ry.php?cat=507

The pics are the ones called "Clean...".

Thanks!

Jason

[Scott Stone]

You will probably want to scrape as much as you can off, before you even attempt using any chemical.
The chemical is probably Muriatic or HCl acid based, You will need to be careful with it on the fresh concrete, because it is not a very smart (meaning it doesn't know how to differentiate between surfaces) chemical, it can't differentiate between the Mortar that you want off, and the Concrete in the driveway. So it will attack the driveway when you are using it.
So Scrape away. Home Depot has scrapers in the tile laying section for those of us that have had to scrape out thin set when their wife decided she did not like the tile after it was half laid.

Scott

[John Doherty]

Generally mortar "pops" off pretty easy with the PW, need to be real careful though. Since the mortar and concrete have been poured and cure at different times/rates the adhesion usually isn't so great. You can try to tap the mortar with a ball peen hammer, that seems to break the adhesion between them. Last case for me is the scraper.


Good Luck,

JD

[John Doherty]

Woops, just looked at the pics, forget the hammer!!!

JD

[Don EMS]

I would do what Scott said or else Domrest DR-60 works good for us, hit it with your hot water and 2500 psi. How old is the concrete? 1wk-4wks?