Is this driveway pressure wash quote fair?

chris_dee

If you do not like the idea of using a weedkiller why not consider the household recipe of white vinegar/ bi- carbonate of soda. Mix together and either spray it on or put it on using a watering can. In addition use boiling hot water two or three days later to rinse/ clean the surface and a stiff bristle sweeping brush. Then use some patio cleaning fluid. Depending on the results you could repeat the process with the vinegar mix until the weeds have all died off.

Bookworm105

blackstar said:

Thanks
I got two quotes.

One £160 just to pressure wash drive.
2md

"It would be £60 to come and put a weedkiller down. Leave this to work and then come back and pressure wash which would be £150. Then you’ll need sand, which you could do yourself with a few bags on a dry day or it would be £50 for me to come back and do it."

We are not too keen on getting weed killer on the ground and would rather miss this bit off unless anyone can see any reason it would be really important to get this done?

so the first one is 1/3 of the job, take the money and run away 
the second one is from someone who knows how to do the job and is willing (for a price) to do it thoroughly

what is your objection to weed killer?
Pressure washing will blow out joint sand and may uproot some of the weeds, but for most it will only take the tops off,  leaving the roots to regrow within a week or two. The correct sort of weed killer will destroy the roots - your choice.

the idea that a domestic pressure washer will remove the surface of block paving leaving it rough is laughable. 160 bar is never going to cut into a paving block, yes it will remove dirt from the existing cavities exposing the original surface, but is rather the point of the exercise.

depending on what sort of "dirt" you have you will see the difference between using the "surface cleaner attachment" and a vario lance the first time you use it. With my K4 it will remove dust and as, others say, obviously does not blow stuff everywhere, but I end up going over it again with the vario lance (not the "dirt blaster" lance) anyway.  

chemicals are about whether you are looking to get rid of black spot, as water pressure alone won't shift it.

ThisIsWeird

fluffymuffy said:

Jet washing isn't worth the bother.

I'd just put some strong weedkiller down, wait a few weeks until everything is completely dead. Then, after a few dry days, I'd give it a thorough sweep with a stiff brush.

The pressure washing is largely to clean up the paves.

CliveOfIndia

ThisIsWeird said:

fluffymuffy said:

Jet washing isn't worth the bother.

I'd just put some strong weedkiller down, wait a few weeks until everything is completely dead. Then, after a few dry days, I'd give it a thorough sweep with a stiff brush.

The pressure washing is largely to clean up the paves.

Spot on.  It'll clean off a goodly portion of general muck, lichen, moss and whatnot.  The fact that it blasts out the majority of weeds is a secondary benefit.

Sure, it'll never get rid of all the weeds, and you'll often find the odd spot of muck that it won't shift, but unless you're looking for a show-home appearance then it'll do a pretty good job.

But absolutely, I'd never jet-wash purely to remove the weeds.  For that job in isolation you need weed-killer and/or one of those little gizmos for scraping out in between the bricks.

kev1744

to be fair the driveway is in pretty poor condition. whilst i think £160 is not a bad price i think i would be tempted to do a bit of weeding first, then maybe try some patio magic type cleaner? about £12 from b and q. you can just put this on then it chemically cleans the bricks no pressure washer required.
if you need to resand i usually first brush in some fine pdv animal grade salt  (£20 on amazon for a huge bag) which kills the weeds, then a bag of kiln dried sand ( you will only need 1 or 2 at most) is only about £6 a bag.
honestly a couple of hours work will have it looking better. pointless trying to make it perfect as its already in poor shape.