Alright, let me walk you through what I did with my concrete patio the other day using the pressure washer and some cleaner. It was looking pretty rough, honestly. Had that green tinge in the damp spots and just general grime built up over who knows how long. Decided it was time to clean it up.

Prep Work First

So, first step was hauling the pressure washer out from the shed. Thing's not exactly light, but got it onto the patio. Then, connected the garden hose to the inlet, made sure that sucker was tight. Didn't want water spraying everywhere except where I aimed it. Plugged the power cord into the outdoor outlet.

Next up, the cleaner. I had a jug of concrete cleaner concentrate. Read the instructions on the back – gotta dilute this stuff. Found an old bucket, mixed the cleaner with water like it said. Then poured that mix into the detergent tank on the pressure washer itself. Some machines have you attach a siphon tube, mine has a little tank you fill up.

Getting Down to Cleaning

Okay, ready to go. Put the low-pressure soap nozzle on the wand. This is usually the black tip, sprays wide. Turned the machine on and started spraying the cleaner mix all over the concrete surface. Just went back and forth, making sure everything got a decent coat. The idea is to let the cleaner sit and do its thing, loosen up the dirt. I probably let it sit for about 10, maybe 15 minutes. Just kinda stood around, waited.

After letting it soak, switched nozzles. Took off the soap tip and put on more of a general-purpose cleaning nozzle. I think I used the green one, maybe 25 degrees? It gives you more power without being too aggressive like those zero-degree pinpoint ones, which can sometimes etch the concrete if you're not careful.

Then the real work started. Beginning at one edge, I started spraying the concrete, holding the nozzle maybe a foot or so away from the surface. Worked in steady, overlapping lines. You see the dirt just blasting away, which is pretty cool. Gotta keep moving, don't stay in one spot too long.

• Just kept going, row by row.
• Paid a little extra attention to the really dirty spots.
• Had to make sure I overlapped each pass slightly to avoid leaving zebra stripes.

It took a bit of time, definitely. Standing there holding that vibrating wand gets tiring after a while. My arms started feeling it. But you just gotta push through.

Rinsing and Finishing

Once the whole patio looked like it had been hit, I took the detergent tank off, or made sure it wasn't drawing soap anymore. Switched back to a wider nozzle, maybe the white one (40 degrees?), or just used the green one from further away. Went over the entire area again, just rinsing everything down thoroughly with plain water. Wanted to get all that loose dirt and any remaining cleaner washed away. Pushed it all towards the drain edge.

Turned off the machine, disconnected the hose, unplugged it. Stood back and took a look. Big difference. Looked way brighter, cleaner. Not brand new, of course, some old stains are just part of its character now, I guess. But yeah, a solid afternoon's work and it looks a whole lot better. Just needed to let it air dry completely then.