Alright, so the other weekend, I finally decided to tackle the mess on my driveway. It was looking pretty bad, green stuff growing everywhere, dirt, you name it. I remembered I had that high pressure water cleaner sitting in the garage, barely used.

Getting Set Up

First thing, I had to actually find the darn thing. Dug it out from behind some old boxes. It wasn't too heavy, thankfully. I dragged it out onto the driveway. Needed the garden hose next. Found that, untangled it – always a fun job, right? – and screwed one end onto the tap outside.

Then, I connected the other end of the hose to the inlet on the pressure washer itself. Made sure it was tight, didn't want water spraying everywhere before I even started. Next up was the power cord. Unwound that and plugged it into the outdoor socket.

Last part of setup was the spray gun thingy. Clipped the high-pressure hose onto the machine, then clicked the gun onto the other end of that hose. It came with a few different nozzles. I just picked the one that looked like a general-purpose fan spray to start with. Didn't want anything too aggressive right away.

Doing the Cleaning

Okay, time for action. I turned on the garden tap first. Let the water run through the machine for a second, squeezed the trigger on the gun to get the air out. Then, I flipped the power switch on the washer. It hummed to life, bit noisy but not crazy loud.

Pointed the nozzle down at a dirty corner of the driveway, stood back a bit, and squeezed the trigger. Whoosh! Man, the difference was instant. A clean streak appeared right where the water hit. It was actually pretty satisfying seeing all that grime just blast away.

I started working in sections, sweeping the spray back and forth. Found a rhythm. Some spots were tougher than others, especially where that green algae stuff had really taken hold.

• Had to hold the nozzle a bit closer for those stubborn bits.
• Experimented with changing the angle of the spray.
• Made sure to overlap my sweeps so I didn't leave weird lines.

Took me a good hour or so to do the whole driveway. Got a bit wet from the spray bouncing back, but totally worth it. The difference was like night and day. It looked almost new again.

Packing It All Away

Once I was done admiring my work, time to clean up. Turned off the power switch on the washer first. Then turned off the water tap. Squeezed the trigger on the gun again to release any pressure left in the hose – important step, that.

Disconnected the garden hose, then the high-pressure hose. Coiled them up as best I could. Wiped down the machine a bit with an old rag. Rolled it back into the garage, found its spot behind the boxes again. Job done. Felt pretty good, actually. Much better than scrubbing by hand, that's for sure.