Help - messy builder left sand and cement mix on my neighbour's block paving drive

feival

Can you help me. A builder who was meant to tidily patch up my boundary wall with my neighbour left sand and cement mix on my neighbours immaculate block paving drive. My neighbour had now complained and short of falling out with him I need to sort it out. Can anyone recommend a way of removing the cement from his drive short of replacing the block paving stones in the affected area?

Thanks.

Quincy_3

Steam Cleaning after an acid wash, GET BUILDER BACK TO DO IT.

Takes photos before and after he does this.

tandeh

try your self if u can remove, then try brick and patio cleane, with asteam clean, most likely tho, you will have to replace the paving where the cement damaged it. which city are you from?

feival

Quincy wrote:

Steam Cleaning after an acid wash, GET BUILDER BACK TO DO IT.

Takes photos before and after he does this.

Thanks for that. What kind of acid should I use? Can you recommend a product. Thanks

[Deleted User]

The same sort of thing happened to me but I did it myself, putting a sand cement mix where I saw gaps between the pavers. Acid did not work. Scrubbing and steam cleaning did not work. I was left with cement marks and nothing shifted them. They got a tiny bit better over time but were still noticeable 6 years later.

I am saying this so that you don`t get false hope. You need to get the builder back to replace the pavers

Dora_the_Explorer_5

I hope you haven't paid the builder yet! If I was your neighbour I would ask you to get a professional block paving cleaning company to clean my drive, I wouldn't accept any kind offer from you to do it yourself, as the whole of the paving will have to be cleaned so there isn't a tidemark. Replacing damaged pavers will also spoil the appearance as the older ones will have weathered. I would not accept the builder coming back to make good, as he caused the damage.
If you have paid the builder, perhaps you can claim the cost of the work on your household insurance.

Quincy_3

feival wrote:

Thanks for that. What kind of acid should I use? Can you recommend a product. Thanks

Scroll down to Final Cleaning

But the builder should be doing this. :beer:

feival

Thank you all for your advice.The problem is the builder in question is a friend of a friend and a Slovak here for the next year or so. Suing him will have little effect nor do I want to! I just want him to fix my neighbour's drive and expect the builder to provide his labour for free (and hopefully cover the cost of the materials too!)

Wig

I'd be making sure my house insurance includes this sort of cover if I were you. Because if I were your neighbour I would sue you. And even if after an acid wash it removed the cement there would still be a visible patch which was obviously lighter than the rest of the drive due to being cleaned. I would be patient with you and let you try to clean it, but if I felt it was not good enough or not likely to go away, I'd seriously consider sueing you or claiming on my own house insurance if it had no financial effect to me (by way of increased premiums). If it increased my premiums I'd ask the insurer if they do what motor insurers do and claim back off my neighbour, and if so would my premium remain unaffected. etc etc etc bla bla bla

feival

Well with hindsight I can say (a) thank you to all of you for your help (b) thank G-d Wig isn't my neighbour ;o) and (c) the builder came back, did the acid with wire brush and the drive looks magnificent and my neighbour thanked me for making it look better than ever. Sometime innocent mistakes have a good ending. I suspect my neighbour thinks more of me now than ever before.

Thanks again to all of you.

HugoSP

...so why were some of you assuming the worst when the builder came back and sorted it out for nowt?

IMO the fact that the guy came back and sorted the problem speaks volumes for the way the OP dealt with the problem. It really saddens me to see the way some people here want to approach this issue.