Pressure Washing Stains On A New Driveway

We specialize in pressure washing driveways to clean hydraulic, grease and oil, and other stains.

Most of the driveway pressure washing we’ve done has been for building material supply companies and roofing companies that have caused a hydraulic or engine oil stain on the driveway of their customer.

Oil Stains On Brand New Driveway

We recently went to a home in Highlands Ranch where a roofing company had done some work and had left a few small oil stains on the new driveway.  When they called us to pressure wash the oil stains on the driveway for them, they didn’t mention the driveway was new.  Fortunately, the crew we sent to do the job was fairly new to flatwork and we sent a manager to meet them on the job.

When our manager arrived, he realized right away there was a problem.

Sometimes new concrete has a curing agent applied to help strengthen the concrete.  This is much more common in the winter (like this job) when cold temperatures can effect the curing process. This curing agent is usually much whiter than untreated new concrete and this was the case with this driveway.

Pressure washing stains from a driveway with a curing agent on it is rarely a good idea.

As the stain is washed away, the curing agent is also washed away.  If this is done too soon after the concrete is laid, the curing agent will not have done its job.  Also, since the curing agent is much whiter than the concrete, the entire concrete pad has to be cleaned in order to give it a uniform appearance – which takes much more time and money.

In this particular situation, the homeowner wasn’t available so the decision was left to the roofing company whether or not to pressure wash. They decided to wait until they had better information before pressure washing.  Since we’re not a professional concrete company, we stopped before we could cause a potential loss to our client – or the homeowner. We’ll wait to see what the homeowner decides after talking to their concrete company.

We didn’t make any money on this pressure washing job.

But by being aware of the conditions of the surface we were going to clean, we potentially saved our customer from turning the small problem of tiny oil stains into a much bigger problem of damaged concrete.

Out clients call us for pressure washing stains because we know how to treat any stain, we can control the waste water with EPA water recovery, and we can deal with sometimes irate homeowners.

They know they can count on us to deal with each situation in their best interests – not ours.