Cleaning Concrete Floors

 

RON: Yes, hi. I recently volunteered for a community service project that involves restoring two racquetball courts, outdoor racquetball courts, that were abandoned many, many years ago.

 

TOM: OK.

 

RON: And I’m at the point where I need to do something with the floors. Obviously, they’re concrete floors and over the years they have darkened. They’re not black but they’re very, very dark gray. Now, I considered a bleach or a bleach-water mixture; maybe muriatic acid or maybe even just plain, old power wash. How do I – because they’re too dark to play. You lose track of the ball. I need to get this concrete back to the original white color.

 

TOM: Well, if you haven’t pressure washed it yet, that’s a great place to start because I’m sure there’s a lot of dirt and debris and dust and perhaps some mildew that’s grown in there over the years.

 

LESLIE: (overlapping voices) You will be surprised.

 

TOM: And if you do that with a good mildicide – and bleach is an option; there are other commercially-available products that will do just as good a job – I think that you’re going to find that it’s a lot brighter. And I would caution you, though, to not go too heavy with the pressure washer because it’s old concrete. You will actually cut some lines in it, so you want to use something that’s got a fairly wide fan on it. But you will find that it becomes very, very bright and it might be all you need to do.

 

LESLIE: Mm-hmm, and it will become very obvious where you did not clean with the pressure washer. (Ron chuckles)

 

TOM: Yeah. And Ron, make sure that when you apply the mildicide, that you put on a generous amount and let it sit and do its work. People tend to spray it on and spray it off and it doesn’t work as well. Let it sit; this way, it’ll kill anything that’s there.

 

RON: Great. I thank you so much for the assistance.

 

TOM: You’re welcome, Ron. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.