Can I Pretreat My Driveway Before Pressure Washing It?

Find out whether a driveway can be pretreated before it's pressure washed, and learn which products can help make the job easier.

LESLIE: Alright. Jim in Tennessee, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you?

JIM: I have a question about cleaning a driveway. It’s probably sitting there for 20 years. House is about 20 years old. I don’t know that it’s ever been cleaned, so the dirt has just ground in. I have pressure-washed one section of it, about 12×14 section. It took me almost two hours to get it clean. My question is: is there any kind of pretreatment that I can put on that driveway that will make the pressure-washing more efficient?

TOM: Yeah, there are products that are designed specifically for cleaning concrete. For example, QUIKRETE has a product called Cleaner, Etcher & Degreaser. And it’s available in 1-gallon and 5-gallon jugs. I think it covers about 200 square feet per gallon.

And you apply that onto the concrete. You brush it in. You let it sit and it will start to really loosen up all of that deep grime. And then you could pressure-wash after that and it will, hopefully, make it a lot easier project.

JIM: Good deal, good deal. Thank you very much. That helps a bunch.

TOM: You’re very welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.