How To Clean Your Patio With A Pressure Washer

How to Clean your Patio with a Pressure Washer

 

Everybody loves to have a nice clean patio. It’s a great place to setup outdoor furniture and have a barbeque with your family, a place to make memories.

For this reason, we love to keep our patio as clean as possible – we don’t want to look back on memories of stained and deteriorating patios! There are loads of ways to maintain your patio and to keep it clean as can be, but there is a method that absolutely comes up on top – pressure washers.

Bringing out the pressure washer will bring a whole new level of cleanliness to your patio, blasting any grime and stains with intense water pressure to make your tiles look good as new.

However, patios are expensive so when considering options for cleaning your patio you may be afraid that pressure washers might cause more damage than good! Don’t worry – we anticipated this problem so we thought we would make a guide on how to clean your patio with a pressure washer!

We’ll be talking you through everything step by step, in addition to providing insight into what you should be looking for in a pressure washer and even how to clean your patio without a pressure washer.

Everything you need to know is right here, so read on to find out how to clean your patio with a pressure washer!

How to clean your patio with a pressure washer

Step 1: Clearing the Area

Firstly, you’re going to want to assess the area that you will be pressure washing for any risks. You will want to get out the brush and sweep away and debris such as leaves, dirt and pebbles. They will just make a mess and could even present hazards when using high water pressure.

Step 2: Applying Water and Detergent

Next you are going to want to soak your patio with water and apply a patio detergent! Make sure you research the detergent to ensure it’s not going to damage your patio, and always apply it evenly to get a consistent soapy layer spread across the entirety of the area you will be pressure washing.

Step 3: The Deck Scrub

Pressure cleaners can clean just about everything, but it’s important to make the job easier where you can. Now that you’ve applied a consistent later of soapy water to your patio, get a hard-wooden broom and start deck scrubbing it to get rid of any obvious dirt on the surface!

Step 4: If you have a patio cleaning attachment get that out, if not go for a rotary attachment or variable nozzle

If you are fortunate enough to own patio-cleaning attachment for your pressure washer, now is it’s time to shine! Do not worry if you do not own one though – using a rotary attachment or variable nozzle will have similar effects. You will know if it is working because your patio will be beginning to look fresh!

Step 5: Rinse off that grime!

Now that you’ve blasted the dirt into smithereens, it’s time to rinse off that grimy water and finish the job. Use whichever attachment feels most satisfying to you and watch in satisfaction as the filthy water begins to drain away leaving you with a patio that looks brand new!

Step 6: Show off your patio!

We bet that your patio looks good as a new now, and you probably want to show it off! Invite some friends over for a barbeque or your next birthday party. You won’t even need to mention it as your friends are going to be commenting on your ‘brand new’ patio left right and centre!

How to clean your patio without a pressure washer

If you don’t currently own a pressure washer, don’t worry – you have options. Obviously, pressure washers are the ultimate tool to tackle a dirty patio, mainly due to the super highwater pressure and PCI, but the job can still be tackled without.

You can refer back to our step-by-step guide and follow most of the steps. You’re going to want to clear the space from any debris, apply water and detergent and commence your deck scrub!

This will bring a lot of the dirty out into the water and thus half the job is already done. This is where the pressure washer would usually come in, blasting the surface with high water pressure to ensure that every last bit of the aging stains is removed.

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to get this level of effectiveness with a regular hose, but you can certainly use it to rinse off all of that grimy water and enjoy the fruit of your labour!

You absolutely can clean your patio without a pressure washer, but it will take a lot longer and won’t be as thorough as a pressure washer clean.

What to look for from a pressure washer if you want to clean a patio

Variable Jet Nozzle

If you’re looking to purchase your first pressure washer for cleaning your patio, it’s going to be essential to pick one that has a variable jet nozzle! This essentially means that there are various pressure settings that you can choose between depending on how intense you need the water jet to be.

Long hose

Trust us – the last thing you want is to buy a pressure washer and to be super excited to clean your patio, only to realize that the hose is too small and won’t reach! This is the stuff of nightmares – always measure the dimensions of your patio and garden area and buy an appropriately long hose!

Wheels

We love pressure washers but there’s one problem with them – they’re too big and heavy! Trying to carry it around whilst doing a job is laborious, so it might be wise to pick one with wheels! This way you can smoothly wheel your pressure washer around to take the stress out of the job.

Detergent Tank

In the steps described previously we’ve discussed applying water and detergent – wouldn’t it be great if you could do this all-in-one step?

Buy a pressure washer with a detergent tank and your detergent will automatically be diluted with water making the job a lot quicker and ensuring the detergent is spread evenly. Handy!

Final Thoughts

Overall, pressure washers a fantastic tool for cleaning patios and it is actually a pretty simple process, and we hope that we have given you a good idea as to how to do this yourself.

Although it certainly is possible to do this job without a pressure washer, it simply would not bring the efficiency and satisfaction of blasting grime with high PSI!

Make sure you remember our list of features to look out for when purchasing your first pressure washer and always think about this article when you are sitting on your dazzling patio impressing all of your neighbours!