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Craig

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Posts posted by Craig

  4. Posted · Edited by Craig · Report reply

    Hey everyone, i have a driveway cleaning and sealing coming up soon. There is one spot by the front porch at first glance i thought was just scum, dirt, and just built up crude. Upon closer inspection it is hard scale i would call it. Not sure if it is old driveway sealer that has been built up and broke down too much over the years or what? I tried a test spot to see if it would come off with just heat and pressure with no effect at all. Any help on how to approach this would be great?!?!

    It looks like old peeling sealer. Are you going to strip it all down first? Just by looking at it that is a job that would take me 10 seconds to politely say "no thanks" and walk away. Here's why:

    The sealer looks old, moldy and infected. The white area that is bubbling had degraded, bubbled and peeled. What is your customer expecting from this cleaning and sealing? Just curious.. I'd like to see what it looks like after you clean it. Hopefully a lot better. But if the sealer is compromised and there is mold underneath from moisture coming up through it you'd have to do a total restoration ie, strip, clean and reseal.

    Those pavers are covered in calcite. It looks like years of accumulation and by how white they are the only thing that will touch them is straight HCL mixed 1:1 with water. And then you'll probably need to do it 10 times to get it about 95% off.

    You might luck out though... sometimes the white gets transparent enough that you only need to clean in once. Even if there is left over calcite, the sealer you use (with color enhancers) will hopefully darken and even out the tones.

    Personally, I would walk away from this one. It's a character builder. We could do it but I've done enough of them to pass on the rest.

  5. Posted · Report reply

    Muriatic acid and pressure.

    Marko

    Wondering why you would post this? Muriatic will etch the concrete, create an aggregate surface due to the amorphous paste created with the HCL reaction and lime/anyhydrous calcium silicate hydrate in the concrete. Pressure washing will ensure a permanent spot. HCL does not react with stucco to soften it, only discolor it. If you put enough HCL on the concrete you might be able to seep enough under a stucco spot to loosen the bond between it and the concrete but the amount of HCL used to do this would make a really big impact on the concrete around it.

    Martin- the only thing I've found to work OK is to mist the concrete with water, apply Jasco premium paint/epoxy remover and lightly scratch it out with a #1 steel wool.

  9. Posted · Edited by Craig · Report reply

    Just had a friend ask me, will this product work on rust stains on buildings and other surfaces?

    Concrete buildings, buildings with Stucco or Drivit surfaces?

    Vinyl siding houses?

    Just wondering.

    Thanks.

    It has worked on everything we've ever tried it on, including stucco, drivit, vinyl and even asphalt. Always do a test spot first and on EVERYTHING OTHER THAN CONCRETE mist the surface with water first. F9 is powerful stuff and misting a non-related concrete surface with water will help dilute it down. Also, use less material on those surfaces too.

    -DO NOT USE ON METALS OR GLASS!- It can etch these surfaces. ;) Another add, we've used it on stone and slate surfaces too, excellent results.

  13. Posted · Edited by Craig · Report reply

    What did you use for this? Looks great!

    Hi Ed and Sally,

    We used F9 BARC, by Front 9 Restoration. Front 9 is our manufacturing company and we have been working on several highly specialized chems for several years. I also own Eco-Friendly Power Washing, Inc. so we are in the field every day, just like everyone else and primarily working on specialized cleaning, restorations and product development.

    Take a look at this link. These are the results of most products available on the market: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.454284401263322.106534.379340482091048&type=1

    These are before and after's of BARC on cement: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.204440412958469.47077.202131603189350&type=3

    Here are before/afters on asphalt: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3357617029840.2124218.1551431206&type=1&l=eff8b39193

  15. Posted · Report reply

    Thanks for the info Craig, here there are a lot of driveways and sidewalks with rust stains from irrigation systems, fertilizer left on the sidewalks/driveways, metal furniture on the concrete, etc....Not even counting the battery acid stains from autos and golf carts.

    I hear what you are saying Craig, thanks.

    You nailed it, Chris. A big opportunity we have as an industry RIGHT NOW is to educate the public and get the news out that we have an answer for these kinds of stains (battery stains). In the past, battery acid stains have been thought of as rust because they look the same. And more people have battery acid stains on their concrete than rust stains. So when Mr. Homeowner goes to the store and gets a rust remover he winds up causing damage because he sees a product formulated for "rust" and the rust is not going away. Therefore, he uses more and more product causing more and more damage.

    Meanwhile, we are trying to kill two birds with one stone. We have formulated a product that doesn't depend on what the perception of your customer is. BARC's formulation includes both rust and battery acid stains so even if they or you don't diagnose the problem correctly, someone will have a cure for it! Isn't that the ultimate goal?

  16. Posted · Edited by Craig · Report reply

    That's a pretty pretentious statement. One contractors misuse of another product doesn't make yours the end all be all for rust removal.

    Hi Chaz,

    You're right, someone else's misuse of another product doesn't make mine the end all be all for rust removal. Funny thing is, the people who did this to their driveways DID NOT misuse the products they bought, they were FOLLOWING THE INSTRUCTIONS.

    Also, if you take a closer look at the pictures you will find that this is not just 1 single job, this is 10 different areas. What I didn't mention is that these "jobs" were performed by 3 homeowners who took matters into their own hands, 1 landscape company and 2 separate "pressure washing companies." The pictures I took were of just the worst damage areas. On this street with 100 homes, I'd say 40 of them had damage of some kind.

    Sorry if you feel I'm being pretentious in my mission to help other contractors. I can't change the way you feel. I'm here to let anyone who is familiar with these types of problems.. people who deal with this kind of stuff everyday, find a solution.

    The truth of the matter is that F9 BARC has been proven, over and over again, in over 3,500 jobs in one of the most heavily dominated golf course demographics in the world. Both I and other contractors in my area have tried every product we could find and have used them, side by side against the results F9 BARC can achieve. We have not found another product that can come close to it in terms of versatility and results.

    This kind of damage is world wide. Golf course communities have thousands of homes with driveways that look like this.

  17. Posted · Edited by Craig · Report reply

    Reasons NOT to use anything but F9 BARC for removing rust, fertilizer and orange battery acid stains on your concrete:

    https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.454284401263322.106534.379340482091048&type=1&notif_t=like

    These were all take on ONE STREET where I live- in only 10 minutes of walking.

    Aside from the permanent damage, there are ways for a professional to "fix" this that would look decent. If you come across this, run your surface cleaner over it a few times in at least two different directions. This will help even out the surface damage. If you have BARC, apply it and it will even out the color damage.

  18. Posted · Edited by Craig · Report reply

    It looks like a hard troweled finish. I don't know what they call it, but it's smooth and shinier than the other concrete in the before pictures. I've done acid staining, color staining, and a few other things with concrete. I know when it's that smooth (first pics) it's hard to get a finish to take. Maybe it's power troweled smooth finish. Can't think of what that's called. Ahh, maybe it's just wet...but that's positively calcium and magnesium buildup on the surface. That's what the white stuff in hard water is.

    Educate us some more.

    Calcium can be both white or black. It can even take on the colors of the landscape rocks if the rocks are watered and then flows down the side of the concrete. Most of the time it will eventually turn black from impurities.

    Magnesium staining usually looks gray- light and dark. I've had HOA's give tickets to their homeowners for magnesium stains in their concrete because they thought they were oil stains.

    The white you see in the picture is from cigarette disposal bins. I remember thinking, "why is there calcium buildup around these things.. they don't have water coming out of them.." It was very strange. The reason that rings were forming under the bins was that the alkali-silica reactions were coming up through the concrete and not forming from topical water exposure. I think the employees were baffled too. You can see where they kept moving the bin all the way around the palm tree, but the reactions were happening everywhere.

  19. Posted · Edited by Craig · Report reply

    HERE IS YOUR ANSWER:

    This is a job in a food court area of a strip mall. The entire 13,500' of concrete had calcium, calcium carbonate, efflorescence and mineral stains. At first, just like Ron had posted, the concrete looks like salted concrete. It actually looked like a pretty poor salted concrete job and the concrete had been over watered for years. What we had to do was strip the calcium off to expose the concrete and create a surface that was profiled and porous to accept a polyurethane top coating.

    The concrete had over 60 above-ground planters, many palm trees and bushes on both sides that all got water every day. After we spent 3 nights (from 7PM to 7AM) stripping the concrete, we put in a moisture barrier in the concrete and then applied a very strong colored polyurethane. Within a week of our application, the coating failed... and failed miserably. It was popping and flaking everywhere. Then the investigation began...They got experts, we got experts... They had attorneys, we had attorneys...

    HERE IS WHAT WE ALL NEED TO BE AWARE OF, especially if we are applying coatings or sealing concrete. What appeared to be salted concrete were actually "pop-outs" from small little aggregates that weren't screened for and filtered out at the quarry. When moisture contacts these little rocks, the rocks breakdown and release what is known as "silica gel." Silica gel can rise up through the concrete and "pop" the concrete out resulting in small holes.

    These holes are only small if there is not a coating or something on the top layer of concrete that prevents them from coming up. When a coating is applied in areas with alkali-aggregates and moisture is present, disaster happens. The more solid and adhered the coating is, the more violent and destructive the pop-outs are. Silica-gel reactions can have pressures coming up through the concrete with 1000's of pounds of pressure behind them. After this job and after I had gained my reputation back as more of a concrete "expert" I got more and more phone calls to help people out in similar situations. I have personally seen alkali-silica reactions create pop-outs that are the size of small paper plates.

    Did you notice that the "hard water staining" is stained evenly? This is an indication something is wrong. Hard water staining is rarely stained that evenly because the water mainly stays in low areas. The concrete was stained evenly because the alkali silica rising up through the capillaries in the concrete were all close enough together that it turned the concrete black very evenly. Then look at the little holes (alkali-aggregate pop outs). Around most of them (if you ever have this in person) you can feel a very slippery fluid. This is the silica gel. It feels oily and slippery. So in a sense, this concrete had hard water stains on top and hard water stains under the surface of the concrete too.

    So, after a year of meetings, conference calls and research on my part, this job turned into a 33 Billion dollar a year company tearing out and replacing all of the concrete. We evaluated over half a dozen core samples, ph tests, hydrostatic testing and more. We had essentially "won" our case and learned a BIG lesson in concrete.

    They call this "Concrete Cancer."

  20. Posted · Edited by Craig · Report reply

    Salt finish guys, Craig driving by you tues night.

    Incorrect. Not a salted finish- thank you for your guess and that was the answer I was looking for. I'll explain below and that is the reason I posted this picture is because concrete exists like this and we all need to keep it in the back of our minds and it is something everyone should be aware of.

    What time are you coming by? I live right off the 10 and Washington- about a half mile down the road. You should stop by and I'll give you some product to try...and dinner somewhere?

    - - - Updated - - -

  25. Posted · Report reply

    Here's a job we did today:

    Customer had spent the last 5 years washing off his golf cart on his patio. These are battery acid stains, commonly known as "rust" but are not and are actually VERY deeply embedded into the concrete. This is why rust removers are ineffective at removing this kind of stain. Rust removers only handle to topical stain. The stuff we use works on both types of stains- acid burn and rust.

    At a minimum, we can get 85-90% of the worst staining out of concrete. Normally we are around 95-100%. This job we got 90% of the worst, 100% of the other stuff. Notice that the white stains are still there. White staining came from concentrated sulfuric battery acid and we have seen it eat through an entire 4" slab of concrete. Not much you can do for the white damage, unfortunately.

    484051_3333422544993_779246030_n.jpg527912_3333428385139_1882423862_n.jpg

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