Concrete Cleaning Services
Safe and Effective Concrete Cleaning
Concrete is a durable and versatile surface, making it a popular material for both interior and exterior flooring surfaces. Because it is stain-resistant and can be left smooth, troweled or stamped with unique designs, concrete also offers a great deal of flexibility, functionality and decorative options.
As with any bearing traffic surface however, some maintenance is required and you do need to clean concrete. Periodically cleaning concrete extends its service life and enhances its beauty. But like washing your car, it’s better to wash it by hand that visiting high pressure car washes that remove more than the grime from the surface of your car. Cutting Edge Concrete follows the same logic with concrete cleaning. Gentle cleaning, the appropriate cleaner for the surface conditions, and proper pressure washing can combine to keep a concrete surface looking great.
Concrete is porous, holds dirt well, and can be a tough surface to clean. Cutting Edge Concrete has many techniques to clean concrete depending on the type of concrete surface, the amount of soiled areas and the traffic running across the concrete surface. We offer a variety of proven cleaning methods and cleaners that are designed to remove contamination from concrete surfaces. Water alone can not always remove dirt from concrete, but proper cleaning methods and cleaning chemicals will remove specific stains.
Our Methods and Materials
Cutting Edge Flooring Services uses pressure washing, power washing and acid washing for concrete cleaning Houston. The most common power-wash services are for the removal of oil and grease from concrete parking lots, concrete pavement, and concrete floors. Hot water and an alkaline degreaser are applied to greatly increase removal rates of oil and grease from the concrete. The hot water lifts the oil from the concrete, and the degreaser emulsifies the oil, allowing it to be flushed from the surface. Some of the professional cleaning solutions we use include:
- PH-Neutral Cleaners: These cleaners are mild and primarily designed for cleaning interior sealed concrete surfaces that do not have imbedded dirt. They can also be used on exterior or interior unsealed concrete that only needs a mild cleaning.
- Acid Cleaners: These cleaners are primarily designed to remove stains, dirt, and contamination that are soluble in an acidic solution. Often a concrete surface will be acid washed to remove the initial surface layer.Acid washes are also effective for removing efflorescence on concrete. Efflorescence is an insoluble metallic salt that appears as a white powder, crystalline residue on the concrete surface and will not wash away with plain water.
- Alkaline Cleaners: are most often used to remove oil, grease, or other hydrocarbon-based stains in concrete. The high alkalinity of these cleaners emulsifies, or breaks down, the oily contamination. The other application for alkaline cleaners is to neutralize concrete surfaces after acid staining or acid cleaning. Alkaline cleaners are the best way to bring the pH of concrete from acidic to concrete’s natural alkaline state.
- Enzymatic/Bacterial Cleaners: The newest concrete cleaners use organic chemistry and active enzymes to attack, break down, and digest stains and contamination. They are also known as “oxidation cleaners”. A major benefit to using these types of cleaners is that most do not require water for activation, and there is little residue to wash away.
- Specialty Cleaners: Specialty cleaners remove specific types of contamination and may be a blend of two or more of the other cleaner types.
Regularly Scheduled Concrete Maintenance
Since concrete is porous, regular professional concrete cleaning is necessary to prevent grime, grease and dirt from building up on heavy traffic areas. Cleaning concrete periodically and keeping it sealed with the proper concrete sealer are the key components of any good concrete maintenance program. How frequently the concrete cleaning and concrete sealing must occur depends on traffic, use, and other conditions. Concrete exposed to the elements, such as extreme temperatures or sunlight may need to be cleaned more often then interior concrete. Be sure to ask your Cutting Edge Flooring Services technician to recommend cleaning and maintenance products appropriate for your routine cleaning (between professional cleanings) of your particular concrete or pavement.
Commercial clients, visit our Industrial and Specialty Coatings page to learn more about our high performance coatings.