Getting My Concrete Cleaned Up

Alright, so my driveway and patio were looking pretty grim. You know how it gets – dirt, moss in the damp spots, just years of weather making it look old and tired. I'd tried the old power washer wand on its own before, and man, it's slow work, and you end up with stripes if you're not super careful. My back wasn't a fan either. So, I decided it was time to actually get one of those concrete cleaner attachments you see around.

Prepping for the Big Clean

I got myself one of those round attachments, looks a bit like a floor polisher head, that clips onto the power washer wand. The box didn't have much in the way of instructions, pretty much just "connect and go." My power washer is just a basic electric one, nothing too heavy-duty, but it gets the job done for stuff around the house.

First thing, I had to clear the battlefield. Moved the cars, the kids' toys, a few planters. Then, I gave the whole area a good sweep. Didn't want to be just pushing leaves and grit around with the cleaner, right? Seemed like it would just make a muddy mess. For safety, or what passes for it with me, I threw on some old jeans and a t-shirt I didn't care about, plus some safety glasses. You get a surprising amount of spray and gunk flying up, even with these attachments.

Let's Get This Done: The Actual Cleaning

Connecting the attachment was a piece of cake. Snapped right onto the end of the power washer lance. Turned on the tap, then fired up the power washer. This attachment has these spinning arms with nozzles underneath, and they started going like crazy. It sort of floats a tiny bit when the pressure's on.

I started on a really mucky section of the driveway. Straight away, I could see this was way quicker than just using the narrow jet nozzle. It was like mowing a lawn, but with water. I just had to guide it back and forth. The key is to go slow and steady. If you rush it, you'll see where you've been, or rather, where you haven't cleaned properly. I found that overlapping each pass by a good few inches gave the best, most even finish.

• I made sure to work from the highest point of the driveway downwards, so all the dirty water would just flow away from the bits I'd already cleaned.
• It wasn't hard to move around, but you do have to apply a bit of gentle pressure to keep it flat on the concrete.
• For some really stubborn, old stains, I had to slow right down or even go over them a couple of times from different directions.

The amount of dirt and grime that lifted off was pretty shocking, honestly. It was like a river of mud flowing down the drive. It definitely uses a good bit of water, but that’s the price of getting things clean, I guess. Way less splashback on my legs and the house walls compared to using just the wand, which was a big bonus.

The Aftermath and My Two Cents

Took me a good couple of hours, but I got the whole driveway and a big slab of the patio done. And wow, what a change! The concrete was so much lighter, almost back to its original color. Okay, it's not magically brand new – some ancient oil stains are just there for life, I reckon – but all that surface-level crud was gone. It looked seriously a thousand percent better.

What I really appreciated was how even the clean was. No more of those annoying tiger stripes that are so easy to make with just a power washer nozzle. Because the attachment holds the jets at a set distance and they spin, it covers the area much more consistently. And like I said, less mess on me and everything around.

So, bottom line? I’m sold on this thing. It turned a job I absolutely dreaded into something much more manageable and, dare I say, almost satisfying. If you've got a power washer and a decent stretch of concrete that needs a good seeing-to, I'd say grabbing one of these attachments is a no-brainer. Saves you time, saves your back, and genuinely does a better job. Thumbs up from me.