Cleaning Pavers - Hydrochloric Acid

kmmr

Hi,

I have had a problem with my pavers (laid 6 months ago), and have been told the best option is to clean them with hydrochloric acid.

Just wondering if anyone know of a high-street product that has this in it. I went to homebase, and while their Patio cleaner seems to have some kind of acid in it, it didn't tell me which one.

Any advice welcome! I did find it online, but delivery is very expensive due to the product type. Happy to pay if needed, but just wondered if anyone here had any ideas of where to source it.

Thanks

KMMR

mchale

I think if you go to a builders merchant & get "brick acid" that will do.

https://www.macbuildingproducts.com/product_info.php?products_id=48

http://www.pavingexpert.com/stonpv01.htm

just found this.

aboard_epsilon

years ago concrete paver's were made with the pigment shading going all the way through ..meaning the different colours were all the way through.

now most have one solid colour all the through..with the shading on the surface.

washing them with acid ..can wash the shading pigment out ..and leave the paver's one colour..for example the brindle ones will all end up pink in colour

the acid can also expose the white aggregate chips contained within .

from this



to this



so be careful..some are still made the old way..i dont know what ones ..but my plaspave ones now look like the bottom pick because of the acid and the weather.

if you have clay fired paver's ..dont worry about the acid

all the best.markj

27col

The stuff you are talking about is called Disclean, or it used to be. It is intended to be used to clean off bits of mortar from the faces of bricks. It reacts with the cement in the mortar. It was probably never intended to be used to clean dirty bricks.

Ebe_Scrooge

Hydrochloric acid is designed, as 27Col says, for getting rid of cement splashes. Good at what it does, but will leech colour our of dyed concrete slabs. If this really is what you want, I know B&Q sell it as I bought some last autumn. Probably most DIY or Builders supply stores will sell it. There are lots of branded "patio cleaners" around, the stuff I bought was B&Q own-brand, simple "hydrochloric acid brick cleaner" - a fraction of the price of the other products on the shelves.

If you just need moss / lichen / general dirt removing, then a good scrub with a stiff brush and Jeyes Fluid should do the trick. A pressure washer will also work well, just be aware that this *can* sometimes damage some cast concrete slabs, as it can flake off the top surface and lead to colour leeching. Depends on exactly what your paving is made of. Having said that, I use the pressure washer on all of my paving and it's never caused a problem.

kmmr

Thanks for the replies,

Actually it is for cleaning off Cement splashes/dust. Pavers went down during a renovation, and after that lots of plaster etc was still done (and mixed on the pavers) so they have a consistent greyish coating on them now. It's been confirmed that it isn't efflourescence, but just cement dust/staining, so needs the acid I believe.

I follow up the links. Thanks again!

kmmr

Do you know if these are 'dyed concrete slabs', or clay fired pavers that Markj refers to?

Although, perhaps the name is a giveaway. They are called 'firedstone'.

http://www.marshalls.co.uk/transform/Products/Garden/garden-paving/range/firedstone-paving/